









Poor BMW. It had planned to take the covers off its new mega-SUV, the X7 Concept, at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Instead of carefully stage-managing the introduction of what was bound to be a controversial-looking new model, someone leaked images of the vehicle to Bimmerpost a few days early. The X7 is another nail in the coffin of the luxury sedan, and it's more proof that the public wants ride height and a hatchback more than it wants low centers of gravity or elegant proportions.

Because of its trademark kidney grille, BMW's cars always suffer from pareidolia. We can't help it, those grilles look like nostrils and our brains convert the rest into faces. And the X7 has a pretty massive pair of nostrils on it. You can appreciate BMW's dilemma: a car that large is going to have a lot of front acreage to dress. But the current 7 Series is probably already pushing the limits in that regard, and we just can't stop seeing some kind of evil Pixar character with this one. Don't be surprised if the production car gets some rhinoplasty before going on sale.

In profile, things get a lot more cohesive. It's still obviously a very big vehicle—BMW needs something with three proper rows of seats to play in this part of the market—but the enormous wheels give it the proportions of a more reasonably sized car. I'd make yet another plea for the return of station wagons and a 7 Series Touring as an alternative, but no one would ever buy such a thing in this day and age.

In our experience, the best place to appreciate a large SUV is on the inside. For all the problems we have with them, that lofty seating position does give you a better view. In the luxury car market, it's increasingly going to be these big SUVs that play the role of technology demonstrator, and the interior shot shows a revised iDrive infotainment UI that looks almost production-ready. Since the official BMW reveal isn't until tomorrow, things like specs will have to wait. But we can expect there will be a plug-in hybrid option—the Concept is studded with i badges and there's a charging port on the driver's side.