The 2009 BMW 7501 tp be launched in November

If you have become used to the radical flame surfacing, Bangle butt, and iDrive of the seven-year old BMW 7 Series, rest assured the new one will respark controversy.We get just the 750i when it launches here in November, with the new 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8 (rated 400 horsepower and 450 pound-feet in the X6). BMW claims best-in-class fuel efficiency and says the 7 achieves ULEV2 emission standards.

A long-wheelbase 750iL comes to the U.S. later, and at least one of two inline-sixes, the 740i’s twin-turbo 3.0-liter, now making 326 horsepower, or the 730d’s new 245-horse, 3.0-liter turbodiesel, probably will be added to the U.S. lineup. The car is packed with leadingedge tech, including optional Dynamic Driving Control, with four settings from “comfort” to “sport+” to make chassis engineers out of its drivers, and Integral Active Steering, which turns the rear wheels opposite the fronts at slow speeds, and with them at high speeds, up to three degrees in either direction.

BMW has deconstructed the much-reviled iDrive, adding buttons for CD, radio, phone, navigation, AM/FM, climate control and eight “favorite” buttons of your choosing. A nonintuitive electronic six-speed automatic lever, like the X6’s, shares the console with the iDrive control, which has a new screen design.

BMW has created a car that no one can argue hasn’t been vastly improved, and yet it will be just as polarizing as the one it replaces. Love it or hate it, give it this much: The new 750i isn’t resting on its laurels.