It provides plenty of gumption when you need it, but otherwise is quiet and smooth, so it's the one we'd recommend. Plus, its lower starting price frees up your money to go toward some luxury interior features. We'd splurge on the Driving Assistance Professional package, with a semi-autonomous-driving mode that is particularly useful in traffic jams, so we can relax and let the car do some of the work. Even the 745e plug-in, with its combination of turbocharged six-cylinder engine and electric motor, is powerful and manages to drive with a natural feel that's absent from most hybrids. Each 7-series shares some variation of the same slick-shifting eight-speed automatic transmission.