BMW launches its new 7 Series with a snazzy lifestyle programme

HAVE car, will travel, goes the old saying. But if that car is a high-end BMW, then you might travel in style.

BMW Asia launched the new BMW 7 Series on October 11, with dealers BMW Eurokars and Performance Motors now taking bookings for the flagship limousine. 

Priced from S$578,888 with Certificate Of Entitlement, the car is only available as a 735i for now, which has a 3.0-litre, six-cylinder engine that launches it to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds. 

BMW is counting on new features such as crystal lights and touchscreens built into the rear door handles to lend it an air of opulence. It also has doors that open and close electrically at the touch of a button, with an optional two-tone paint scheme to add an extra touch of grandeur. Not that the 7 Series really needs it; having grown significantly, it is now nearly as long as a Rolls-Royce.

But the German carmaker is hoping that a new privilege programme it calls BMW Excellence Club will entice customers in ways that go beyond paint and metal.

Buying a car from what BMW calls its luxury range – the X7 (a three-row Sport Utility Vehicle), the 8 Series Gran Coupe (a low-slung, four-door coupe) as well as the 7 Series – automatically enrols a customer into the programme’s range of perks.

“In addition to ongoing exclusive access to cultural, gastronomy and international driving events, customers will also enjoy free airport transfers and special care packages for their vehicles for the first three years,” Lars Nielsen, the managing director of BMW Group Asia said at a media event to launch the 735i.

The care packages include vehicle grooming. “A clean car drives better,” Nielsen said. “It just does.”

The new programme is a reboot of similar lifestyle perquisites from the past for the towkays who tool about in BMW’s flagship cars. 2002’s BMW 7 Series Privileges Programme gave customers the use of a luxury catamaran in Phuket called the Peak Performance, as well as access to the Blue Canyon Country Club. It eventually included discounted rental rates for a private jet.

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BMW Asia has appointed Gopinath Uthirapathi, a former product specialist in the company, to run the programme. Details are still being fleshed out, but the first perk is Art SG, an art fair in January that BMW Excellence Club members will have VIP access to, ahead of the event’s opening.

At the same launch, BMW Asia also announced a new aftersales package that will bundle five years of servicing, as well as an extended warranty that stretches to five years or 200,000 km, with every new BMW. Why should the high-end customers have all the perks?