There aren’t a lot of BMW Alpina B7’s in the USA, maybe 500 a year are imported. Finding these unicorns on CarMax lots always surprises me – the only real specialty tuner they carry that I’m aware of. Clearly more rare than M-cars and AMG’s, even if performance is not all that different. Think of it as the almost M7 that doesn’t exist? This 2014 Alpina B7 L was maybe a $130,000 car new nine years ago.
Interestingly, to me, I wrote about this exact car when it was offered for sale by CarMax in North Carolina in July 2020. Here’s the link to that write-up. Three years ago it was offered at $39,999 and had only 41,000 miles. It’s dropped $9.000 in that time, was driven 14,000 miles – not much for three years, and best of all MaxCare is available for a fresh five years and up to 125,000 miles. That said, every BMW 7-series I’ve ever gotten a quote on the MaxCare was quite expensive – sometimes $9,000 or more. Would be worth it to be out the door for $40,000 for this very special car.
The interior is luxurious, but muted. There’s an Alpina logo on the steering wheel and the dash display but otherwise resembles a long wheel base 7-series. It’s fully loaded for 2014 with adaptive cruise control, heated and cooling massaging seats, heated steering wheel, and much else, all part of the Cold Weather Package, Driver Assistance Package, and Executive Package. The rear seats below are spacious and includes the DVD player. It’s not lost on me that most of these features are available on new Mazdas and Toyotas for about the same price, but there’s a real sense of “driving rich” in a car like this for the same price.
And long time readers know, I love no blanks or dummy switches where features should be, and not disappointed here. Has my beloved night vision assist, for spotting deer or ferrying Navy SEALS on night time raids in stealth.
The trunk is massive. Old school Cadillac large. This a car for road trips.
What makes the B7 roar is the 4.4 liter twin-turbo V-8 beefed up to 540 horsepower, almost a hundred more than the 750i of the same year and a few more than the V-12 M760i. It’ll hit 60 mph in the low four seconds and maybe push over 190 mph at the top.
Reviews don’t surface any shortcomings for the car and most mention the performance is in line with other luxury sedans from BMW and Mercedes. And yet if you like BMW’s, the nuance and exclusivity of having an Alpina B7 for the price of a Camry, and with MaxCare to shift repair risk from the owner to CarMax, then you might be interested in this high-performance low cost luxury liner. It’s coming soon to Norwood CarMax in Foxboro, Massachusetts. You can track it with this link or by the stock number and VIN below.
Stock No: 24753369 VIN: WBAYE8C5XED136529
I swore to myself no black cars with black interiors ever again, but that B7 sorely tests that constitutional amendment. What a beauty!
There’s also some newer 760’s you might like! Still gotta expand your garage though Scott.
Always tempting to see a B7, but I just don’t get excited enough about Bimmers. I’m a Benz man, and I just cant excape that.
I like my M3 but for bigger vehicles I’m also a Benz fan. That said I could be convinced to try an Audi W8 someday!
Yeah, it’s have to be a B7 (without the “L”) to have any chance of fitting in my ridiculous 16’ 9” garage!