I mean, to be frank, this is just awful marketing. BMW's marketing in general has been pretty bad lately. As a millennial in his late twenties, I polled several of my millennial friends who *don't* particularly care about cars, or marketing (and so wouldn't have a dog in the fight) and they all thought this was a stupid video. The company I'd have expected this from---especially as it tries to remake itself into a tech company---is GM, but even GM's people apparently know better than to crap all over a Buick Electra 225 or Sedan de Ville while peddling one of their upcoming fifty'leven EVs.
I do wonder if BMW strategically chose the E65, and a pre-LCI one at that, because it would offend the lowest number of enthusiasts who might watch the video. It's the BMW everyone loves to hate. To be sure, the pre-2006 ones were pretty awful, and looked like something you'd see featured on the show "River Monsters." And so, it made the perfect sacrificial lamb for this video. The E38 and anything prior would be sacred, while the F01 is still too new (having been sold as recently as MY2015) and looks too close to the G11 they're currently peddling. And one of the smaller cars wouldn't have illustrated the point.
That BMW plans to discontinue its current N74 V12 (which is used in the M760i as well as all the Rolls-Royce models) in 2023 with no replacement makes the E65 760Li a fitting "Boomer" actor. Mercedes-Benz already *did* discontinue their V12, and I imagine it's only a matter of time before VW Group dumps the W12 used in the Bentley products. It truly is the end of the "irreverent" luxury sedan. Tomorrow's Uber Executive and Exotic Cars will feature some form of hybrid propulsion or be purely electric (perhaps Lexus was ahead of the curve with the old LS 600hL, then), in lieu of large cylinder counts.
As for the E65 itself, I have some love for it, primarily because the interior truly was magnificent. It was one of the only times---the other being the original E23 generation---that the 7 Series had a special, unique interior within the lineup. Other generations' interiors could really be confused for those of the contemporary 5 Series by anyone who didn't know better.
But...any variant of the E65 is absolutely gorgeous, compared to the iX featured in the video, which just looks godawful. Lord knows I'm not against EVs or crossovers, but did they really have to style it so poorly? It has none of the quirky-but-cool charm of the departed i3, and seems content to discard every traditional BMW styling cue there is, other than the exaggerated full-height kidney grille. If it was made by Mitsubishi, it wouldn't look any different. Also, the name is stupid. What happens when BMW makes *another* crossover that's EV-only, as they most assuredly will? They'll probably start resorting to tacking on more letters. iXa, iXb, iXn...
Anyway, thanks for reading my long diatribe.
