2010 BMW 750i / 750Li xDrive - First Drive Review

Among folks fortunate enough to live outside of the Snow Belt, all-wheel drive is usually only brought up in conjunction with pickup trucks and Jeep Wranglers. For those of us that have to deal with snow and freezing conditions for months every year, though, an all-wheel-drive car can be the difference between getting to work and getting stuck at the end of your driveway. Indeed, here in Michigan, just about every luxury ride on the road wears an “x” or “4Matic” or “Quattro” badge on its rump, signifying four-wheel power, with the BMW 7-series being one of the only cars in its competitive set not to offer all-wheel drive. Until now.

Fitting all-wheel drive to a big, rear-drive car, however, can run the risk of upsetting driving dynamics. Take the current BMW 535i xDrive. With its power distribution tightly set at 40 percent front and 60 percent rear, it understeers like a baseball player barreling headfirst into home plate. Now imagine if the 7-series, which in short-wheelbase form has over seven inches more between the axles and at least 600 pounds on the 535i xDrive, was fitted with the same system. Dynamic disaster. So the engineers at BMW took that previous version of xDrive—currently used in the 3-series as well as the 5-series—and reengineered it in such a way that the all-wheel-drive 7er handles just as well, if not better, than its rear-drive sibling.