Our beloved EQS sedan lease is ending soon and since there are no EQS deals to be had anymore, I am thinking about chasing an i7. One thing that really challenged my wife was the lack of ground clearance in the EQS. Combined with the long wheelbase, we ended up with considerable undercarriage damage. Even though it has the same long wheelbase, visibly the i7 seems not as close to the ground and the air suspension can be manually raised so I am hoping it would do better than the EQS sedan.
Those who owns/owned an i7, how is the ground clearance working out for you? Bonus points if you have/had an EQS to compare.
I had an i7, currently have an EQS. I had them both at the same time. Looking at my pics, they look almost the same. The i7 may be ever so slightly higher off the ground, but I don’t remember what setting the suspension was in. Maybe worth taking a trip to your local bmw store to compare side by side?
Also, what are you running into that’s causing the damage? Sloped driveways? Speedbumps?
Lots of dips and speedbumps around the neighborhood and my wife is not the most cautious driver slowing down for them everytime. We have the plastic side molding under the door bulging out slightly on one side so expecting a hit there at the lease return already…
I was hoping the manual air suspension lift button would make a difference, EQS sedan doesn’t have the option to manually lift the car as you know…
Roughly the same cost for the ix45 and leftover i760 loaners after an initial research and I am thinking i7 makes more sense if the ground clearance won’t be an issue like it has been with the EQS…
“we ended up with considerable undercarriage damage”
Did you have it inspected? We had undercarriage damage on our AMG EQE as well. Quote for repairs came out to be over 60k and insurance totaled it. Went all SUV after that.
Mainly the plastic trim running across both sides of the car under the doors. Car was in the body shop recently and I asked for an estimate to repaire it, it was about $1.5k. Two days ago, it was in the MB service and multipoint inspection came back all good expect for front tires being at 4/32 so I just traded it yesterday for a GLC. MB corporate will ground the lease and inspect the car. Hopefully they don’t send a $60k bill! Did you have a warning light on the dash or something?
It is time consuming, but the best way is looking at dealer websites individually. Some lists them specifically as loaner/demos while some will list them as part of their new cars. O have even found some listed as used but when you look the carfax report, it is listed as a corporate vehicle.
Yeah had plastic trim damage at the bottom, mice went in and chewed up the suspension wires. They found wheel alignment issues as well and quoted to replace the whole steering rack and suspensions.
Was this the dealer’s service inspection and findings on your car or was it a grounded lease being inspected by MB?
Same dealer I retuned the lease yesterday, did a service inspection (not a lease return inspection) on Wednesday and gave it all thumbs up except for front tires needing replacement soon. They told me it will be sent back to MB and they will do their own inspection and bill me for any damage they might find…
