While some die hard BMW fans are not fond of the new BMW X7, others are starting to love it. You can count me among those of the latter category as I spent some time with it and actually liked it. Once you understand what its purpose is and why it has those huge grilles up front, the BMW X7 starts to make a lot of sense. That’s what Rory Reid found out, apparently, during his time with the car in a review for Carfection.

Rory, formerly of Top Gear, did have a couple of interesting things to say. From gawking at the sheer size of the thing and actually measuring it to taking it off road, he put a lot of work into it. He does make a good point though: the X7 could be simply too big for European roads. The Old Continent does have some of the longest-running bits of asphalt in the world and back when they were made, they weren’t supposed to handle such huge SUVs.

In the US though, things are quite different. When BMW announced and launched the X7, the company clearly said it is aimed directly at the US and Chinese markets. Thus, here we are, looking at a huge BMW that could have some issues fitting in tight parking spots. Luckily, the car comes with integral steering and that helps out a lot when it comes to maneuvering around town. There are also quite a number of tech bits helping out.

The way the BMW X7 drives on public roads has been discussed in detail before. However, few people have had the courage to actually take it off road, even though BMW did say this is quite a capable car to begin with. It has driving modes for rough patches of road and they do help. What Rory did to it though was quite impressive and it really show the car’s capabilities, something we didn’t really see before.