By Tim Plouff

After getting the bungalow in the Bahamas and the ski lodge in Vail, you’ll need some way to express your sudden new contentment with the car of your dreams.

Surely, the list will include some of the exotic sports cars, brands with names such as Ferrari, Aston Martin, or Porsche. Perhaps you’ve been secretly longing for a huge Bentley or a Rolls Royce with a tweedy-capped chauffer to whisk you to your weekly meetings at the bank. All of these choices are fine selections for the well-to-do, but some affluent people like to share their wealth with others, or at least welcome their presence.

Extend your list of candidates to proper four-door luxury sedans and your choices multiply. Premium sedans include notable rides from Jaguar, the XK8, Mercedes’ S-class, Audi’s stellar A8, and the new Maserati sedan. Or maybe you like the understated elegance of the Lexus LS430, the Japanese wunderkind that has the Germans all up in a lather. Again, all fine automobiles that require a healthy endowment but reward ownership with respect from the plebes plus a decadent level of sophistication and luxury.

However, if you are like me, your intentions include driving and thoroughly enjoying the rewards and thrills that such a fine machine can bestow upon its owner. Exploring a fine car’s capabilities, stretching it to its limits, is far more satisfying than riding around in a motorized version of my living room.

If this is your persuasion as well, then your list of cars is shortened to this week’s test car, the new 2006 BMW 750i outfitted in a handsome Barbera Red Metallic paint.

The 7-series is regarded as a premium large sedan even though several competitors are larger in all of the typical measurements. Slightly bigger than the Lexus but similar to the Jaguar, Mercedes and Audi super sedans, the 7-series is BMW’s largest offering. A longer L version is available — with five more inches of wheelbase and overall length for added rear seat space — plus the 760 model offers V-12 power for the family that just needs to spend another $40,000 for an upscale sedan.

The strength of the 7-series is its superb combination of luxury and performance. The 750i corners like a smaller, more nimble sedan. It outpowers almost everything else in this class, longingly pulling you to ultra-illegal autobahn speeds with much more expediency than any previous 7. But along with the brutish, sports car like power comes a coddling blend of amenities that will make most mortals blush.

The 750’s effortless power — up to 360-hp this year, 35-hp more than last year — can sometimes seem hidden. Not quite as isolating as the Lexus LS, the 750i still protects you from the sights, sounds, smells and sensations that would otherwise intrude during the trip to see your financial planner. Noise, vibration, and harshness control is so good that your moving velocity becomes a relative term. You are that deprived of the customary stimulations that make you a law-abiding motorist.

The masterful V-8, now the same 4.8-liter motor that powers the top-end X5 SUV, builds power faster and faster as the rev’s build. The needle sweeps across the speedometer at an ever increasing pace, thrusting the car forward like a Saturn rocket. Lift your right foot NOW or you’ll be supersonic!

Fuel economy, once the bane of luxury car owners, is respectable in the 750i. Driven responsibly, the powerful 750i returned a solid 25-mpg. Ply the right pedal excessively and you can drive the miles per gallon down into the teens. I doubt that fuel economy is a major sticking point for buyers at this level.

Dynamically, the BMW leads the class in agility and overall feel, just like the smaller 3-series and 5-series sedans do in their respective classes. Bend the wheel into your favorite turn and the four-door plants itself, takes a firm line and exits the other end with the accuracy and precision that you expect in a BMW chassis.

This crisp handling does exact a small toll in the ride department, yet the fully independent suspension is compliant and smooth in ways that other cars just can’t match. You won’t ever confuse the 7-series’ ride with the exaggerated float of a Lincoln Town Car.

Stuck in traffic, or plodding along to dinner with your mother-in-law aboard, the 7-series provides creature comforts that you didn’t even know you needed.

You’ll love the voice-activated Telecommander system for the hidden cell phone (it slides in and out of the dash, a la James Bond) and navigation system, because we already know that no one else listens to your commands now. The steering wheel automatically powers out and down to meet you plus it heats up when needed and handles multiple functions that would otherwise be left to other devices in the car, things like manual-mode shifting of the six-speed automatic or dialing the emergency response system that BMW uses.

The power seats move 10-different ways (16-ways in the 760) including power headrests that feature wrap-around panels that support your neck on long drives. The leather sport seats are heated and cooled, have memory options for three drivers, plus come with extendable thigh bolsters and automatic hip and torso bolsters that move in and out to hug your body. Great seats, bar none. 

The center console is climate controlled, the windshield wipers sense the rain and start by themselves, the headlights level themselves when your load inside increases or you twist into a turn plus they clean up when dirty, too.

Eight airbags are ready to protect you in the event that some unforeseen obstacle encumbers your path.

The 7’s array of electronic gear is staggering. Beyond the usual active safety features like an anti-skid system with traction control and anti-lock disc brakes, there is an Active Roll Stabilization program and a front and rear obstacle detection system.

The BMW uses a tiny dash-mounted lever to signal the transmission’s gear selections — up for reverse, down for drive, and in for park. You push a button to activate the electric parking brake; push it again to release. The ignition is another push button, necessitating a key in the slot only to run yet this inconvenience can be avoided if you elect to order the keyless operating system.

Mirrors automatically dim, tilt down for backing up, and can be programmed to your favorite settings dependent upon driver memory selected. All four windows move up and down with one-touch precision, sun-shades hide rear seat occupants from harmful rays, and the exterior door handles produce a brilliant white area light that clearly illuminates your nocturnal path.

Of course, the 7-series continues to be the primary stage for BMW’s admired, reviled or insert your own adjective here, I-drive controller system. Engineering types will gravitate to the cutting-edge sophistication that the I-drive puts at your finger tips — everything from BlueTooth communication, satellite navigation, weather band and satellite radio, to engine diagnostics and climate functions throughout the cabin. The rest of us will need hours to master the elaborate steps needed to perform basic operational procedures. The I-drive knob, now topped by soft leather, is admirable for the depth and complexity of systems that it masters — like using the mouse on your computer — but simpler controls have worked well for years and continue to do so for the majority of drivers.

If you move to Palm Beach or Palm Springs, I-drive will help you navigate your new surroundings and provide countless hours of entertainment while waiting in line at the latte shop. That is the key to the I-drive: recognizing its value as both control assist and gridlock entertainment.

My sister-in-law is an avowed fan of the roundel brand. Well-informed and well intentioned, she is a high-placed official in our justice system that unfortunately spends a great deal of time with fools who suffer from a simplistic, uniformed view of our world. These folks never let reality stand in the way of their opinions, or actions.

This outlook occasionally rubs off onto her, until a visit here lets me scrub off these barnacles.

She queries why BMW hasn’t pursued smaller, more fuel-efficient luxury cars in light of changing market demands. BMW has been down that path before with little success. Established as a premium, high-performance marquee, BMW has practiced a very successful business model that produces large profits from building class-leading coupes, sedans, convertibles, and now SUVs, vehicles that combine superior engineering and performance with upscale luxury. Small and economical have not been a big part of this past, as luxury buyers have tended to shy away from the austere.

That will evolve as BMW is now working on diesel-hybrid powered cars — unusual only until you remember that most BMWs are built in Germany where diesel is much more popular. These powertrains, surely engineered to increase power and fuel-efficiency over conventional diesel engines, would allow BMW to produce both smaller and larger cars to meet whatever demands the market expects from its automakers.

The 750i is a window into a world of what is possible in today’s automobiles, a benchmark for others to follow but also a reminder of what will trickle down to other cars in the future. It is a joy to experience such a finely crafted device, a car that pushes the envelope in all the right directions whether the common folks can afford one or not.