2027 BMW X7 Review | The BEST Luxury 3-Row SUV?

[music] What's up you guys? Welcome back to another one. If you are new to the channel, I am Gold Pony. I do new car, truck, SUV reviews on YouTube. And today we are in the brand new 2027 BMW X7 courtesy of BMW of York in York, PA. For more information on their inventory, please feel free to check out the link in the description box below. So, we are this one today because there is new standard safety for 2027. Also, rear wheel steering is now standard as well. Didn't used to be. Brilliant interior quality. I can tell you that right off the bat. We got authentic carbon fiber on the inside. We got crystal everything. I'll show you guys that a little bit later, including the headlights, actually. But this essentially is BMW's three row SUV. This is BMW's largest SUV. So, ultimately in this video, we will be testing out and going over everything about this one from acceleration to braking, steering fill, ride quality, sound system, exhaust clip, all that fun stuff. So, having said all of that, what do you guys say? Let's just go ahead and jump right into it. And as always, let's start with pricing. And so, there's essentially two different configurations for the 2027 X7. You got the X drive 40i. That one starts at $87,500, which by the way is an $800 bump for the 2027 model year. Then you got the M60i being the one we are in today. This one starts at $115,000, and that is an $1,100 bump from last year. But as you can imagine with those two different trim levels, there are two different power plants available for the X7. First power plant is going to belong to the X drive 40i and that one is powered by a 3 L twin power turbocharged inline six-cylinder. Splits out 375 horsepower at 5200 RPM, 398 pound- feet of torque coming in at 1,800 RPM. That power being sent to all four wheels through an 8-speed automatic with paddle shifters and launch control. The 0 to 60 time for that one is going to come in at approximately 5.6 seconds with MPG numbers coming in at 20 in the city, 24 on the highway, taking premium unled fuel. But then there is the M60i powered by a more powerful 4.4 L twin power turbocharged V8. This puts out 523 horsepower at 5,500 RPM. 553 lb feet of torque coming in at 1,800 RPM. Power being sent to all four wheels through an 8-speed automatic with paddle shifters and launch control. Yet again, 0 to 60 time for this particular configuration. 4.5 seconds with MPG numbers coming in at 16 in the city, 20 on the highway taking premium unled fuel. So, before we do any kind of fun paddle shifter acceleration test here in the X7, I did want to mention to you guys the drive modes. And so, drive modes are in the form of buttons located just kind of to the back leftand corner of the shifter there. Drive modes will include eco pro, comfort, and sport. Adjusting things like the shift points, the throttle response, and the steering sensitivity. So, now having got all of that out of the way, what do you guys say? Let's go ahead and find a straightaway. Let's put the paddle shifters here to the test first, and let's see how quickly these paddle shifters are going to react for us here. All right, says it's in full manual shift mode. Let's see if it actually holds to that. But we got carbon fiber paddle shifters, by the way. That's pretty cool. Here we go. [music] Oh, >> okay. So, apparently there's a break-in period for this thing. I don't even know if I'm going to be allowed to do an acceleration test. My goodness, it won't even let me use the paddle shifters. I'm sure they're fine, but uh yeah, I the car is not even going to let me try them. But it's pretty cool that there's carbon fiber paddle shifters. I do like that. So, kudos to BMW for doing that. I think that's the first time I may have seen that. Typically high-end paddle shifters are like magnesium or aluminum, but uh I don't think I've ever seen them carbon fiber before actually. So, that's exciting and I'm sure they're fine. But anyways, unfortunately, I don't think we're going to be able to do the acceleration test either because there's this gray area just above 4,000 RPM. And apparently, there's another 310 mi for our break-in period on this particular X7. So, just pretend like I did it. I'm sure it's plenty quick. It's a turbocharged uh V8, so just uh just use your imagination. But anyways, do go along with our acceleration test that we did not do. Braking is equally important. So, four-wheel ventilated disc brakes do come standard. As far as the 60 stopiness goes, it comes in at a very respectable 105 ft as far as braking feel goes. Oh my gosh, this is such a super firm braking feel. Let me get out of sport driving mode, by the way. But these brakes immediately bite. Like this is one of the firmst braking feels, if not the firmst braking feel I've ever felt on an SUV before. Like 100% absolutely amazing. I love this braking feel. It's probably the firmst braking feel without a doubt I've ever uh felt on an SUV. So it's pretty darn good. But then touching on suspension and handling because this is where the lot of the fun happens with the X7. So double wishbone type front suspension in the back. lightweight multi-link integral rear suspension, but you also get a two axle self-leveling air suspension. And uh that can either be adjusted automatically depending upon the drive mid that you put it in, or there is a manual adjustment that you can actually do. It's like an aluminum kind of button located just behind the circular dial. So, if you know you're going off-roading, you can raise up the suspension to kind of prevent it from uh skidding on any rocks or whatever the case, wherever you're going. So, that's pretty cool that there's a manual adjustment there. There's also rear axle steering. Like I said at the beginning of the video, that's newly standard for uh 2027, and it was actually only on the M60 last year. So now the X drive 40i gets that rear axle steering as well, which essentially means the rear wheels are going to steer at up to 3° um when you're going at speeds under 37 mph. That's going to make for doing things like U-turns a lot simpler, a lot more efficient. So that's pretty cool that that comes standard. Now, there's also an M Sport differential for the M60i that we have with us here today, which essentially sends torque to the rear wheel with the most traction, and that's going to assist with handling as well as acceleration, things like that. So, I like that, too. But overall, as far as ride quality goes, that's the very first thing I noticed because this is a two axle self-leveling air suspension. It's insane. Like, this is the smoothest SUV I think I've ever tested. I purposefully hit some of the biggest bumps on my drive out here and this thing just absorbs them like they don't even exist. Like this is the smoothest ride. It's absolutely wonderful. This self-leveling air suspension is amazing. As far as steering feel goes, now that does adjust dependent upon the uh drive mode that you put it in. So if you wanted a heavier weight to the steering, that's what you got that sport driving mode for. If you wanted a more traditional feel, looser feel to the steering, uh you got comfort for and eco pro. So, it really is up to you what kind of steering feel you want on this thing. Then, touching on cabin noise, this thing is insanely serene because you have an acoustic laminated front windshield. I know acoustic laminated front door glass as well. Not sure about the rear door glass, but I definitely know the windshield and the front doors are laminated because this is an insanely serene cabin. So, that is 100% on point as well. That touching our rear visibility, looking out my rear view mirror. Um, when the third row headrests are up in that third row there, it does impede visibility slightly. And, uh, I would imagine if you didn't have the third row in use, it would be 100% perfectly fine. Kind of like a two row SUV then. So, for that reason, visibility is what it should be, honestly. As far as forward visibility goes, rain sensing windshield wipers do come standard. So, whenever this thing detects any kind of mist or rainfall, it's going to automatically turn on those windshield wipers for you. So, just one less thing you got to worry about there. And lastly, touching on forward visibility at least, there is a head-up display. It comes standard on the M60i. It's optional on the X drive 40i with the premium package. And this is the best head-up display in existence. And the reason I say that is because when you change the drive mode, if I were to put it in sport driving mode, it completely changes the look of the head-up display, which is super bright. I can even see them perfectly fine through my James Oro Wraith frames that I have on right now. By the way, there'll be a popup somewhere on the screen if you wanted to support the channel by picking up a pair of those. But yeah, head-up display changes based on the drive mode that you put it in. If I put it in eco pro, it looks like an Ethereum logo up there. So, I absolutely love the head-up display. BMW does that better than Mercedes-Benz and everybody else out there. So, well done BMW for that. But that pretty much rounds out the performance segment of this review, you guys. Let's now go ahead and take a look at the exterior now of our brand new 2027 BMW X7. All right, so here she is, you guys. It's the new 2027 BMW X7 finished in Marina Bay blue metallic, which is a pretty darn cool name for an exterior color and it looks pretty darn good in person as well. But anyway, so much going on in the exterior of this thing. Let's go ahead and start though with where it is made. Taking a look at the VIN. First character is the number five, indicating that the X7 is built in assembled here in the US. But starting up front, BMW active kidney front grill, meaning those grill shutters are going to open and close dependent upon the engine cooling that is needed at any given time. Right now, they are shut, but you do have that M logo found in the front grill then as well, which is pretty cool. By the way, front grill is going to be finished with the perimeter in either a satin chrome or a black dependent upon the configuration that you go with. So, for the M60, it's going to be finished in black because a lot of black finishes with the M60. But the X drive 40i is going to be finished in a satin chrome, unless you go with like an M Sport package and then it's going to be black. But anyways, body colored or satin chrome finishes for the front fascia as well. Again, same theory there. M60i is going to be gloss black. The X drive 40i is going to be satin chrome. Got some front air curtains to the bottom corners there helping direct air around the wheel and tire combination. Then to the sides. This is one of my favorite parts specifically for the spec that we have with us here today. But full LED headlights with LED daytime running lights. You get the automatic feature with those. You also get automatic high beams, meaning if you have your high beams on at night, in the senses the vehicle coming in the opposite direction, it's going to automatically dim them back to low beams. And when that vehicle is gone, it's going to automatically bounce it back up to high beams for there. But let me get up a little bit closer for this next part. I did want to mention this to you guys. Crystal headlights. They go for $2,100. And I got to show these to you guys because these are so dang cool looking and they kind of do look like crystal headlights. It's such a cool look, especially in the sun. I can imagine how cool these things are going to look at night. Um, but yeah, they definitely look like little crystals within the headlights. I think it looks so dang cool. But anyways, $2,100 for that option. But that pretty much rounds out the front end of the X7. Let's now go ahead and swing around to the side. All right, so now since we are around to the side of this one, aluminum or gloss black roof rails do come standard. Aluminum or gloss black window surrounds as well. Rear privacy glass does come standard. Taking a look at the side mirrors, they are bodycoled power adjustable side mirrors. They will be heated with LED integrated turd signals. Going to be power folding then as well. Get a little bit of front fender accents. You guys can see that little bit of gloss black there found in the front fenders. It is not functional. It's just a little accent piece. You got the M logo just above that, of course. One of the cool things about the X7 is you do get bodycoled side skirts and fender surrounds. That is not always the case, even on luxury automakers, believe it or not. Then, taking a look down at the wheel setup, 21-in alloys do come standard, but there are 21in, 22-in, and 23-in designs available to really customize this one and make it your own. But, I think the side profile looks plenty fine. If you didn't like the gloss black accents, simply go with an exterior finished in black. And then everything is body colored. So there you go. But pretty much rounds out the side profile. Let's now go ahead and swing around to the back. Right. So now since we are around to the back of the X7 here, all the way to the top, you do have a bodycoled shark fin antenna. Just below that, you got the rear spoiler with the integrated brake light. You got the rear window wiper, a very large and in charge rear window wiper, I might add. Probably the largest rear window wiper I've ever seen. Got the M60 badging, of course, found on the tailgate there. And of course, that's going to be swapped out for the XI40i logo if you go with that particular configuration. LED tail lights do come standard. Uh looks like we got a little tow hitch down there and that's kind of cool. That it's probably an option. But then to the sides, integrated dual exhaust outlets, it looks like with quad satin black tips. That's a pretty cool look. And that's either going to come in the satin black tips or it's going to come in satin chrome tips. So depends upon the configuration that you go with yet again. But having said that, I do believe you guys know what we have to do next here. As always, up to 4,000 RPM. Here is that exhaust clip. All right. And so now, since we are around to the back of the X7, when it comes to opening that rear tailgate, it is a power tailgate. Of course, there is a button on the key fob. There is a rubberized button on the uh on the tailgate itself then as well. But once opened up, cargo capacity behind that third row comes in at 12.8 cubic feet. If that was not enough space, of course, the third row does fold down. That's going to bump that up to 48.6 cubic feet. And then with all rows folded, 90.4 cubic feet, which by the way is more than the Mercedes-Benz GLS. It's more than the Volvo XC90 as well, just to name a couple. I'll give you those exact numbers at the very end of the video, but it is bestin-class, I believe. So, that is pretty darn good. There are buttons found in that cargo area to fold down the rear seats. That definitely made that very convenient. There's velour carpeting in the back as well. Always a massive fan of the velour carpeting really in any BMW. There's a cargo cover back there. It's probably the most heavyduty cargo cover, too, that I think I've experienced. LED cargo lighting back there. You got grocery bag hooks. There's tie down anchors. There's netted storage. There's a 12volt power outlet. And then if you were to lift up underneath of that cargo floor, you got some in flooror storage there. But then making our way up to the third row legroom. I'll give this a shot. It's 33.3 in is the number. For reference, I'm an even 6t tall. This is how much space I had in the third row there. So, probably better left for small kids, but as an adult, you might be able to make it work cuz the second row does slide forward a little bit if you really needed to. But cup holders back there, of course, you got USB charging ports for both sides in the third row. Uh rear ventilation with settings for the third row specifically. I thought that was pretty cool. So, the third row passengers, if they look up to the ceiling, they can actually set their individual temperature back there if they really wanted to. And they also have their own personal third row power moon roof, which is very rare. You don't see that like at all. So, that's pretty cool. You can open and close that, too. But then making our way up to the second row legroom. That comes in at 37.6 in for reference. I am still an even 6t tall. This is how much space I had in the second row there. Now, bench seating does come standard. We don't have it with us here today. We got the captain's chairs. That's an $850 option if you wanted to go that route. It's kind of a a narrow kind of fit though for like a passenger to walk up the center because of the armrest for the second row. So, I'm not sure it's good for that particular reason. But, it is a little bit of a space between the second row passenger. So, maybe kids aren't fighting that kind of thing. So, I guess it's good for that reason. But, nonetheless, rear center armrest with cup holders if if you did go with the bench seating. There's USB charging ports not only in the center there, but also on the back side of the front seats. There's also an optional kind of code hook on the back side of the front seats. That's what the rest of that is for. So, I'll show that to you guys real quick. Also, though, power side window sun shades. I love that feature. So, if you ever pull into a parking lot after getting Chick-fil-A or something, and you don't want the sun to be in one of your kids' eyes, cuz it's always in one of your kids' eyes, uh you got the power side window sun shades, and that's super easy for them to use. And then heated rear seats come with the climate comfort package that goes for $1,600. So heated rear seats are available for them then as well. But then making our way up to the front seats. Power adjustable multicontour front seats do come standard. You get memory settings for both driver and passenger. So that's pretty cool. Heated front seats and front armrest here does come standard. So you got to appreciate that. Leather seating coming standard. Marino leather goes for $2,700. We got that marino leather. So that's pretty cool. ventilated and massaging seats as well. I've had the massaging seats on my short little test drive here today, and that's adjusted through the infotainment screen, by the way. So, that's been fun to play around with. There's different kind of settings for the massaging seats here. I'll see if I can pull it up real quick. There's uh pelvic activation, there's upper body activation, whole body activation, back massage, shoulder massage, lumbar massage, upper body exercise, whole body exercise. is I'm not sure how much exercise you're really getting by sitting in a seat, but nonetheless, that's what it's called. Overall, as far as seat comfort goes, extremely comfortable. And of course, the headrests are very pillow-like as well. But so then making our way to the steering wheel because this is pretty cool. It is tilt and telescoping. It is leather wrapped. It is power adjustable. It is heated and the 10-in two grips are absolutely gigant. The thickest tenon two grips in existence. And again, you got those carbon fiber paddle shifters as well, which we didn't get to really test, but still pretty cool looking. But now, let's go ahead and make our way to the startup. Let me start by showing you guys the key here. This is the Mspecific key because we have the M60i of course, but you got lock, unlock, that button to pop the rear tailgate, the power tailgate there. By the way, the BMW logo, that's the lock button, but it's also your remote start if you press it three times. That's how that works. But it is all keyless entry with a push button start. So, all I'm going to do here is simply put my foot on the brake and press that glass engine start button located just to the left of the glass shifter. And so, once started up, when it comes to the gauges, this is a 12.3 in digital gauge cluster, and it's pretty darn nice. If I were to put it in sport driving mode, it changes the look of the gauge cluster up there. Sport plus looks just like sport essentially. Comfort is going to give you a different look as well, as well as eco pro. It's going to give you some different colors there. So, overall, I think the gauges are pretty darn nice. I don't have any issues with them. It gives you things like how many miles you have left until you hit empty. There's your outside temperature. There's speed limit recognition up there as well. So, yeah, that definitely gets the job done. But now, let's go ahead and make our way to overall interior quality because this is where our X7 really shines here. So, there's so many options on this car, by the way. So, Alcantara headliner, we got that. That comes standard on the M60i. It is optional on the XY40i if you wanted it. There is a panoramic moon roof that comes standard, but a sky lounge LED roof is part of an executive package which we have which goes for $2,100. So, that's going to light up in the ambient lighting kind of color at night. It's going to be hard to show you right now, but at night that should look absolutely amazing. And I'm going to try to show you guys this ambient lighting. I'm going to pull underneath of this overhang here, and that's going to give me some kind of uh some kind of interior shots for you guys here. LED interior lighting does come standard. Universal garage door opener for up to three different garage doors found at the bottom portion of this frameless rearview mirror there. Uh four zone climate control does come standard. Five zone climate control goes for $800 if you wanted that option. Wireless phone charger coming standard. That's located just in front of the heated and cooled cup holders, which by the way are part of that executive package I just mentioned. And I've had these cooled cup holders on with my Baja Blast Mountain Dew here. So, that's definitely been pretty cool. Multiolor ambient lighting, of course, that always looks good on this thing. Uh, you have your choice between wood finishes, carbon fiber finishes, like we have, uh, piano black finishes as well. So, all of that looks absolutely amazing. And by the way, that's definitely authentic carbon fiber as well. Glass controls. Now, I wanted to mention that to you guys. That goes for $650. And with that, you get the glass controls for the engine start button, the shifter, and the circular dial just to the right as well. And it looks absolutely amazing. So, I'm definitely a big fan of that. Everything surrounding the glass controls and the shift buttons here is finished in an authentic carbon fiber. It's not just some fake thing. It's the real deal. And then within the center armrest, Decent amount of space in there. You got a USB charging port in there as well. Carbon fiber, by the way, is carried onto the doors. You have aluminum speaker covers just underneath of that. Uh aluminum speaker covers up top here, which is back lit and an ambient lighting color that you pick. And by the way, we got an optional Bowowers and Wilin sound system, which should be insane. We're going to test that out in a little bit. It looks like kind of aluminum foot pedals down there. I liked that as well. And we got this two-tone soft leather um found on the doors and the seats, of course. So, that definitely looks good, too. So, I don't think you can get any better interior quality than what we got going on in this X7 right now. But, anyways, let's now go ahead and make our way to the infotainment screen. Speaking of that sound system test, we'll get there. Uh 14.9 in infotainment screen coming standard. It is touchscreen or you can use the circular dial and buttons located just to the right of the shifter. It's your choice there. Bluetooth and audio streaming coming standard. Wireless Android Auto, Apple CarPlay. You got factory navigation system up there as well. Uh climate control settings you can adjust up there. And the massaging seat settings you can adjust up there. The uh ambient lighting settings you can adjust up there as well. There's just a lot of different apps you can check out up here. Quite honestly, a lot of different things you can play around with. But uh that does include the radio information by the way. Okay. So, when it comes to the sound systems, there's actually three of them. So, a 10- speakeraker hi-fi sound system with 205 watts comes standard. But then there is a 16 speakeraker Harman Carden sound system that comes standard with the M60i. It's going to be optional in the X drive 40i, but then there's an optional 20 speaker Bowowers and Wilkins sound system with 1500 watts with diamond dome tweeters. This goes for $3,400. And this is what we have with us here today, which is wild. So, let's go ahead and turn on the radio. Let's see what we got playing today. And let's test out the clarity of this one. [music] One of the best sticking sound systems I ever heard. That was nuts, dude. That was insane. [laughter] That was so good. So good. 100%. Go with the Powers and Wilin sound system if you like music, man. Cuz that was absolutely brilliant. And I don't know what else to say. like the bass ridiculous. The clarity was ridiculous. You got 20 speakers in this thing. That was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. You cannot beat that. That's dang good. Absolutely love it. But anyways, last thing I wanted to mention to you guys on that infotainment screen release is when you do put the X7 in reverse, you will find a rear view camera coming standard across the board, letting you know who or what is behind you. You also have the surround view monitor there to the right and you can actually touch on the little cameras and that gives you a couple different views as well which is always fun playing around with. But anyway, super high definition and that as always is going to lead us into safety. And so let me start with what's new for 2027, newly standard at least is the active driving assistant package that did not used to be standard. It is this year. So that gives you adaptive cruise control with hands-free driving mode which should be absolutely amazing. I didn't actually test it out, but that's what's new for 2027 when it comes to the safety. Front side, side curtain, airbags, of course. In the back, you got latch, aka lower anchors and tethers for children for the rear car seats, rear child door locks, tire pressure monitoring system, but also coming standard, frontal collision warning, active blind spot detection, lane departure warning, speed limit recognition, and parking sensors. And then there is a driver assistance professional package that goes for $2,500. And that gives you highway assist with hands-free driving at up to 85 miles per hour. But overall, when it comes to my final thoughts here of the X7, absolutely brilliant sound system. Probably within my top four, I would say it's a dang good sound system. Bowers and Wilkins is always in my top four. It's been in my top four on the S90, the Volvo S90 back in the day where I think it gave you like 21 or 22 speakers in a little car. It's a bigger car, but anyways, absolutely brilliant sound system. Uh, great driving dynamics. This thing, I'm sure, is going to be plenty quick after the break-in period. Brilliant ride quality. That's really where this thing shines. Absolutely serene cabin as well. So, driving dynamics are in point. Brilliant interior quality. I don't think I have to elaborate on that with the carbon fiber and the ambient lighting and the crystal accents. Also, plenty of cargo space. Like I was saying, this has a little over 90 cubic feet of cargo space. If you were comparing that to to the Mercedes-Benz GLS, that comes in at 84.7. And then the Volvo XC90 comes in at 85.7. So, pretty substantially more cargo space. Yeah, the cargo space is definitely in the favor of the X7, but the only room for improvement I really got on the X7 is that this thing could get dang pricey quick. Like, this thing has got a Civic worth of options basically. So, MSRP is 115. This one goes for around 135,000. So, you got an extra 20 grand tacked onto the MSRP. So, that's kind of wild. But anyways, that's pretty much it for this video, you guys. Thank you so much for watching. Feel free to follow me on social media stuff. If you want to see what's coming next on the channel before it gets to YouTube, be sure to hit the subscribe and the bell notification button. If you're into new car reviews, that is what I've been doing for 12 years now. I do appreciate you guys watching more than you know, and I will see you guys all in the next video. Stay gold.