BMW X7 Review 2026

If you're reading this BMW X7 review, you're either fantasising about a lottery-win garage or looking to buy one of the most luxurious SUVs on the market. The sheer size of the BMW X7 is one of its main selling points – not only for its massive visual impact but also for its huge amount of interior space. Yes, it's expensive but, considering the unbelievable quality and vast amount of luxury kit, it's hard to say the BMW X7 is overpriced.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, the X7 is BMW’s rival to the legion of luxury SUVs out there, taking on big names like the Audi Q7, the Mercedes GLS and, of course, the all-conquering Range Rover. 

Complete with seven-seats, a luxurious interior and cutting edge technology, the BMW makes a strong case for itself as the best big SUV on the market. And we do mean big. Even next to its huge competitors, the X7 looks like a complete behemoth thanks to its epic proportions and that gigantic, gaping grille at the front. This car is no wallflower, that’s for sure.

The X7’s size brings more benefits than just on-road presence, too. All of the seven seats are surrounded by loads of space, making this one of the roomiest people-movers you’ll ever encounter.

All the seats fold down and flip back up electrically, and while this makes the process very easy, albeit also painfully slow. There's a split tailgate (both parts electrically operated, naturally) and a huge boot, along with a standard-fit electrically-operated panoramic glass roof.

Trademark BMW quality is evident throughout, but the cabin has an even more luxurious feel than the smaller X5, with sumptuous materials everywhere you look. There's plenty of cutting edge technology, too, including a fully-digital instrument cluster. That said, in some ways it doesn’t feel quite as special as a Range Rover.

The engine line up comprises two petrols and two diesels. They’re all superb, with a great mix of power and refinement, but it’s the entry-level diesel, the 30d, that's our pick of the range. And despite its size and bulk, the X7 handles very well for such a big car, making it more agile than most of the competition.

Its real forte is ride comfort, though, especially on the motorway. That said, wherever you drive it, it's smooth, quiet and effortless.

As we touched on above, the BMW X7 is one of the most desirable SUVs on the market today. Sure, its bold looks won't be for everyone (and you can say goodbye to ever being let out of a junction again), but it's up there with the Range Rover in terms of desirability.

The huge X7 pretty much pummels most bumps into submission, and the standard air suspension does a fabulous job of isolating you from the effects of bigger ones.

And, considering the size and weight of this car, it does a decent job in the corners, too. Sure, it never shakes off its bulk, but there’s not as much body lean as you might expect so it feels stable when changing direction. Again, it’s not as athletic as the Q7, but it’s certainly a lot less wallowy than a Range Rover.

The steering is quick enough and nicely weighted, and if you regularly use your X7 in town, you might want to find an example with the optional four-wheel steering fitted. This turns the rear wheels in the opposite direction at low speeds to aid manoeuvrability, and it’s really effective.

You have the choice of four engines in the X7, two diesel and two petrol. The starting point is the 30d diesel, which is a 265PS 3.0-litre six-cylinder. It has enough muscle to get the huge X7 up to speed impressively quickly, and for a car of this size, it even has a surprisingly strong turn of speed on the move. It’s all you need in the X7, and that’s what makes it our favourite.

The M50d uses the same basic unit, but with four turbochargers to hike the power up to 400PS. It’s absolutely savage in the way it gets away from the mark cutting the 0-62mph dash from 7.0 seconds in the 30d to just 5.4 seconds. Fun, yes, but expensive and rather needless for most X7 buyers.

The entry-point for petrol buyers is the 40i, a 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo with 340PS. It’s too thirsty to be our recommended engine, but it’s a very pleasant thing nonetheless, really responsive at low revs, and as the revs rise, it punches properly hard. At the top of the range is the 50i, with its 530PS 4.4-litre V8. We haven’t had the chance to try it yet.

All cars come with a cracking eight-speed gearbox that swaps cogs quickly and smoothly. There is a slight delay when you really put your foot down, but it’s nowhere near as ponderous on that score as the Audi Q7 or Range Rover.

The X7 hasn’t yet been crash-tested by Euro NCAP, but all versions get the same basic suite of safety equipment, which means that buyers of cheaper (in the very loosest sense of the word) versions aren’t penalised in this important area.

As well as a comprehensive suite of airbags and stability aids, the X7 comes with automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, run-flat tyres, speed limit information, front- and rear parking sensors with cameras, a self-parking function and cruise control with a braking function.

More was available from the options list in the form of the Driving Assistant Professional pack. This added a vast suite of added semi-autonomous functionality that would effectively let the car to drive itself under certain circumstances.

With a car as enormous as the X7, you’d bet your mortgage on it being a fabulous tow car, with the ability to pull as much as anything else on the road. Not so, though. Pretty much all versions of the Range Rover will pull a braked trailer of up to 3500kg, where the 30d version of the X7 will only do 2200kg, and the ratings only raise in small increments as you progress further up the range.

Let's start by looking at the practicalities of squeezing the BMW X7 onto your driveway. It measures 5151mm long, 2218mm wide (including door mirrors) and 1805mm tall. It's one of the biggest SUVs on sale today.

There’s a huge amount of space up front, and again in the middle row of seats, there’s a massive amount of headroom and legroom, allowing even tall passengers to stretch out luxuriously. The enormous width of the cabin, plus the flat rear floor, allows you to seat three across the rear bench in relative comfort, too. 

The third row of seats also have class-leading space, with enough room for even gangly adults to travel comfortably.

Access is also good thanks to huge rear doors and a large gap between the seats to clamber through. All of the seats behind the front ones can be raised or lowered - and in the case of the middle ones, slid and reclined - electrically. That means it’s very easy, but it’s also very slow. 

With all seven seats in place, the boot can carry 326 litres of luggage – enough for a few shopping bags or a couple of carry-on cases, but in five-seat mode ,you get 750 litres to play with. Turn your X7 into a two-seater, and there’s enough room to carry a moderately sized sofa. 

BMW also offers the option of replacing the three middle seats with two individual chairs with their own armrests and a huge range of electrical adjustment. Bear in mind, though, that if you specify these, you won’t be able to fold them down flat.

Everywhere you look, you’ll find materials, surfaces and finishes that simply ooze quality and class. No matter how hard you hunt, you’ll fail to find a single part that falls below this incredibly high standard.

The design isn’t perhaps as showy as in some rivals, with simple features designed with ergonomics in mind, but it’ll match anything else in the class on sheer quality. The same goes for the standard of the assembly, which feels faultless from start to finish.

Effectively, all versions of the X7 get the same infotainment system, and it’s one of the best in the business. Importantly, it’s got the majority of important functionality covered.

There’s navigation, Bluetooth, DAB radio, a wifi hotspot, wireless phone charging and a whole bunch of clever connected services. Apple Carplay is also supported, but Android Auto isn’t. It will be in time, but only on a handful of Android devices.

What’s great about the system, though, is that it’s so easy to use. Like every other system under the sun, it has touchscreen functionality, but what marks out the BMW is that it can also be operated using shortcut buttons and a scrolling wheel on the centre console, which is much simpler and much less distracting on the road.

Despite the complexity of the system, it’s hugely intuitive to use, with logically arranged menus and easy-to-find features. The graphics are sharp and fast, so it’s nice to look at and slick to use.

At the time of writing, prices began at just over £74,000 for the basic xDrive 30d, while the range-topping M50i cost around £93,000.

Fantastically expensive for most of us, perhaps, but not all that fantastically expensive when compared with rivals. Those prices are on a par with what you’d pay for an Audi Q7 or Mercedes GLS, and quite a bit cheaper than you’d pay for a Range Rover or Bentley Bentayga.

The X7’s resale values are among the strongest in the class, too, so it’ll provide better protection for your initial investment, meaning you’ll get a bigger piece of it back when you sell the car on.

Robust residual values also mean more affordable monthly payments of those who buy on finance, but when the car is this expensive, these will still be pretty hefty.

At the time of writing, the 30d M Sport (including optional Technology Pack) was being offered on BMW’s website for just under £1,000 per month on a four-year/40,000-mile PCP, following an initial deposit of less than £4500. That represents a deposit contribution of almost £7000 from BMW.

You’d expect a car of the X7’s proportions to be a wee bit on the thirsty side, and you’d be right, although to be fair, it actually performs a little better than most rivals on this score.

The most frugal version is the 30d with an official WLTP figure of around 33mpg, while the more powerful 50d diesel places second with a figure of about 31mpg.

Unsurprisingly, the 40i is the best of the petrols with 25mpg, while the 50i has a combined figure of just 21mpg. And you’ll do very well to get anywhere near that in the real world, even with a very well-behaved right foot.

All versions of the X7 sit in group 50 for insurance, which is the most expensive one there is, but are you really surprised?

Buy a brand new X7 and you’ll pay first-year VED tax of £1850 or £2175 depending on the version, which will be rolled up in the car’s on-the-road price. From then on, you’ll pay £475 for the next five years of the car’s life, and then £150 per year after that.

The X7 is new enough that there’s no much reliability data available, but you might be concerned to learn that BMW finished stone-dead last inJD Power’s 2019 Vehicle Dependability Study.

There’s very little that’s basic about the BMW X7 in its basic form. Aside from all the safety and infotainment kit we’ve already talked about, all X7s come with four-zone climate control, a panoramic roof, heated front and rear seats, leather upholstery, soft-close doors, ambient lighting and automatic lights and wipers.

Aside from upgraded brakes, the step up to the BMW X7 M Sport (which costs around £2500 on brand new examples) only really earns you aesthetic upgrades inside and out. Despite that, this will still be the best-selling trim.

It’s a similar story with the range-topping BMW X7 50i and 50d models. Most of the differences are aesthetic ones, although you do get a performance differential and upgraded Harman Kardon speakers.