5 Ways the 2023 BMW X7 XDrive40i is the Ideal Holiday Road Trip SUV

They say you don’t just marry the person; you marry the family.

Being elder millennials, my wife and I have families as blended as Bob Ross’ palette at the end of a show. There are no less than seven parents who raised us, and most of them have their own family events over the holidays.

That’s why there was a certain level of poetry about my holiday season test car, the 2023 BMW X7 xDrive40i. For one week at the end of 2022, we would need to visit all* of them. Seven families, seven days, in an X7— Reese and Vince ain’t got nothin’ on us.

We drove over 800 miles (1,289 kilometers) over the holidays, giving us plenty of time to get familiar with BMW’s largest Sport Activity Vehicle. Here in no particular order are five reasons we were all too happy to use it as a holiday road trip SUV (and two areas it could improve in):

* – Ukrainian Christmas fell outside of the wild week. Whatever, six out of seven ain’t bad!

Available in just about every modern BMW, the turbocharged inline-six remains the engine everybody else in the class is targeting. Simply put, it’s one of the best engines in the industry: powerful, smooth, and blessed with a cultured hum. In the X7 the 3.0-liter produces 375 horsepower and 383 pound-feet of torque, funnelling the power through an eight-speed automatic to all four wheels.

No matter the combination of road and engine speed, the inline-six is responsive, unrolling a thick carpet of torque for the X7 to strut down. The ZF-sourced ‘box rarely puts a cog wrong, kicking down quickly when needed, and slurring its way to eighth as it settles in on the highway.

The X7 also sipped fuel in a way that is ultra impressive for something this size. Yes, most of the distance was done on highways, and premium fuel is pricier. But the X7 still clocked 22.4 mpg (10.5 L/100 km) over the entire two-week period. That’s slightly better than the combined figure, in less than ideal weather, on winter rubber.

The xDrive40i is so good that, unless someone really loves the V8 rumble and/or regularly tows, I’d suggest not even looking at the X7 M60i.

The front two rows of the X7 provide first-class accommodations. The driver and passenger seats offer plenty of adjustments, ensuring folks of vastly different proportions can still get comfy behind the wheel. Speaking of, comfort is excellent up front, with good lower back and under-thigh support in particular.

A luxury flagship should be able to isolate its riders from the outside world. The X7 does a great job here, with minimal road and wind noise. There’s a decent amount of tire rumble, but we’re chalking at least part of that up to this tester riding on winter rubber. Through two separate winter storms and wildly changing temperatures, the X7 remained a comfortable oasis we were always happy to hop into.

While the X7 does boast more space over the X5, this unibody SUV is still some way’s off of the space offered in the truly gargantuan body-on-frame competitors. The third row is acceptable for adults, with decent head- and legroom. I fit just fine, but I’m all torso; those with inseams beyond 30 inches could become intimately familiar with the second-row seatbacks.

This particular tester came with what BMW Canada calls the Dynamic Handling Package. A pricey addition at $4,750 CAD, it pairs four-wheel steering with a road-previewing active drive feature for the standard air suspension. The result is a serene cruiser with surprising low-speed maneuverability.

On the subject of throne-related drawbacks, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the weaksauce massage function. That might seem incredibly picky, but this is a flagship model we’re talking about. Even on the most aggressive setting, the X7’s front seats were too light in their approach. “But Kyle, weren’t you driving around in the depths of winter, bundled up in a winter coat?” you might ask. Not really, no: I despise the feeling of being buckled up in a big jacket, so I tend to take off outerwear before starting a drive. I still couldn’t feel much, unless it was the lower cushion portion of the massage. Mercs do a better job here, as do Volvos.

Similarly, there’s another powered seating aspect that drew complaints: the slow fold of the powered third row. When you’re standing in the middle of one of those is-the-snow-blowing-upwards storms, the casual collapse is an eternity. Thankfully, outside of one instance, we never needed to stick actual humans back there, so the third row stayed down for additional cargo storage.

BMW has upgraded that central touchscreen to iDrive 8.0 for 2023. The new system has a reasonable learning curve: the biggest hurdle is making sense of the myriad icons in the main menus. Once you’ve found your favorites, it’s easy to pin them to a custom menu. Only one small problem, literally: the custom menu button is tiny, and on the far side of the touchscreen. The old physical button setup was preferable here. The other nitpick: having to bring up the main climate control menu every time we want to adjust seat or wheel heating.

It feels weird to refer to a 14.9-inch touchscreen as modest, but the X7’s twin-panel setup (the other being the 12.3-inch instrument panel) is close. There’s excellent contrast, so the blacks stay black, minimizing nighttime glow. Touchscreen responses are quick too, and the voice assistant can handle simple requests easily. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both standard. The former worked without issue all holiday season, and Apple Maps directions even integrate with the instrument panel and head-up display. More automakers should be allowing this already.

I went this long without talking about it, but yes, I like how the X7 looks.

The X7 went under the knife this year, emerging with a vastly different face pulling major influence from the new 7 Series. It’s been 10 months since I first saw it in the metal, and what originally felt wholly unnatural now looks … well, not pretty, but nowhere near as offensive as pictures suggest. The cliff-face of a front-end gives the X7 much more substantial presence than both the previous model and the X5—two SAVs that were all too easy to confuse at a glance before.

The bits of chrome work well with this Sparkling Copper Metallic paint, providing a good bit of contrast without looking gauche. I’m not a fan of the black wheels, but hey, they’re only on here to fit the winter tires; the 23-inchers listed on the spec sheet are much nicer.

BMW’s designers expended most of their effort on that new nose. Move around to the side of the X7 and there really isn’t much to tell it apart from last year’s model. The taillights are a similar shape, but now feature more three-dimensional elements, including a fun pattern on the corners.

This might sound unfair after the previous Pro, but bear with me. As good as the X7 is, it doesn’t always feel like the X-badged equivalent of the 7 Series.

No doubt that will be rectified when the X7 comes in for an entirely new generational change in a couple years. Nonetheless, with the dramatic new i7 sharing dealer space with this thing, the X7 may end up feeling like it’s sat between two stools. There is real, serious clear air between the 5 and 7 Series, but from behind the wheel, the X7 can feel largely like the excellent X5. At least there’s a light-up logo on the dashboard to remind you otherwise.

The best part of the X7 experience is that the SUV never missed a beat during a very stressful time of the year. With the third row folded flat, the BMW easily fit our gifts, overnight bags, and various other pieces of holiday detritus without issue. It was comfortable enough for family members to fall asleep in after a night of carol sing-alongs and a very competitive White Elephant gift exchange. Family members who count Range Rovers, Jaguars, and Volvos amongst their garages all wanted to poke around the big Bimmer, and all came away impressed with its swanky cabin and stately looks.

At a starting price of $78,845 ($110,980 CAD) including destination, the 2023 BMW X7 xDrive40i is hardly the most affordable holiday road trip vehicle. I can tell you it was one of the most relaxing, with a hard-to-beat mix of tech, comfort, power, and agility. If you’re shopping for a three-row luxury SUV, make sure this one’s on your wishlist.

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