What’s a SAV, you ask? It stands for Sports Activity Vehicle and it’s what BMW calls its luxury range of what other manufacturers call a Sports Utility Vehicle, or SUV. It all started with the M5, which launched a whole new genre for BMW. The latest iteration is the X7, and it’s an emphatic statement of luxury. The stats – 5151mm long, 2000mm wide and 1805mm tall, with a wheelbase of 3105mm – mean it certainly makes its presence felt on the road but the exterior still gives an impression of lightness and agility. The spacious interior offers incomparable comfort all the way to the third row of seats.
From the base model, the X7 xDrive30d, to the top-of-the-line X7 M50d, a wealth of chassis technology comes as standard, including adaptive suspension with electronically controlled dampers and air springs. The vehicle’s ground clearance can be varied by up to 80 millimetres, meaning it can go lower for high-speed highway driving or higher for covering rough terrain. Upping the smarts is BMW Night Vision, which uses thermal imaging to make it easier to spot people and large animals at a distance in the dark. Now that’s savvy.