The flagship sedan redefining luxury and outshining SUVs

YOU'VE probably seen that meme with a turtle on a fence post and wondered how it got there, followed by a politician's face asking how they got into the position they occupy.

- WILLEM VAN DE PUTTE

That's pretty much the same way I feel about SUVs.

When did the world decide that saloon cars aren't a thing anymore, and turned its attention to ubiquitous boxes?

Perhaps I'm just being old-fashioned, but an SUV should be a rugged vehicle used for adventures and exploring - not a flashy wannabe Camel-man transporter.

This was the discussion I was having with my mate around a braai fire while I had the BMW 740i on test.

He's a long-time BMW fan, having owned a couple of 3-Series and was fortunate enough to have owned a fifth-generation 7-series with a V12 turbo-charged engine.

Like many people, he's not a fan of the big signature kidney grille and while beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I think it befits the rather large 7-Series flagship, but not so much on some of their other models.

Luxury interior

There are no polarising opinions on the interior, though, with everything worthy of being classified as a luxury sedan. It's like sitting in a luxury Bordeaux villa in a comfortably soft La-Z-boy, with so much modern technology you'll have to own the car for months before you've managed to get to grips with everything.

It has BMW's curved display digital screen that combines a 12.3-inch driver's display and 14.9-inch touchscreen infotainment system, using BMW's Operating System 8, and can be controlled either through touch or voice control.

Big-screen TV

The real star of the show, though, is behind the front seats.