Firstly, I own a 2001 black on black 740i Sport and think there is no finer car anywhere on the planet. I firmly believe I will own this car for possibly the rest of my life (which says alot as I have only been around for 32 years). Destined to be a classic. Anyway, I had the opportunity to visit my father while on business and he was contemplating the purchase of the E65. The dealer had given him the car as a loaner until his Porsche 911 was in for body repairs (first red flag: for a new car that supposedly has a "waiting list", what is the dealer doing giving E65s as loaners?). My first impression on sight as he swung around the airport arrival lane is it definitely looks better in real life than in pics. He had some dark blue color with I suppose a sport package as the wheels and rims were the 19 inchers. I disliked the rim design and even though the tires looks good, thought they looked funny on this car. The interior design was awesome for a luxury car. First thing I did was start playing with the iDrive and marvel at all the functions, voices, etc.

The test drive:
No more comfortable than a standard 740i/L without the sport package. I disliked the steering column shifter and the wheel buttons were worthless as they only downshift (stupid mistake on BMW's part).

Speed/response:
Very uneventfull. I floored it from 0-80. My father, myself and a business associate that was with me all agreed that my 740i sport was much more responsive and seemed quicker even though the 745i touts 50 more horses. I don't care what 0-60 time figures BMW posts, this car was sluggish to me.

Aesthics:
As I mentioned, it does look better than pics but overall, it does not have BMW beauty I know and love. Of course the read end is monstrous. Maybe if BMW had decided give it a different nomenclature (9-series?) than maybe I could accept it as a separate entity in the BMW world. Overall I would not buy one even if something ever did happen to my 740i, unless they did some major modifications to bring the sportiness back to it. But, for the casual luxury car driver, it may be a good choice.

Back to the dealer; according to the sales guy, they had a waiting list with 15 persons on it yet here was my old man (being number 11 on this list) driving the car around for four days... hmmm...could be perhaps that the 10 persons before him opted-out once they had their "experience"???

Today's a great day to wax my 7 now.