Tested: 1991 BMW 850i

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Dick KelleyCar and Driver

From the July 1991 Issue of Car and Driver.

The editorial belly is having trouble digesting the BMW 850i sports coupe. Maybe it’s the price. Any car costing $90,000 ought to do everything but make coffee—maybe even that too. When it comes from Germany and wears the blue-and-white BMW badge on its hood, you expect it to send your blood pressure off the scale with its acceleration and handling, while coddling you as if you were a Saudi oil minister.

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The 850i does all that, and it doesn’t. Speed? The big Bimmer lets you blow past most of the proles on the road—with the exception of those driving Corvettes, 300ZX Turbos, and the like—faster than they can ask, “What was that?” Its motivation comes from the same splendid 5.0-liter V-12 found under the hood of the 750iL sedan. This engine, as you may remember, specializes in smoothness and tranquility while developing 296 hp at 5200 rpm.

Mated to a six-speed manual, gearbox (a four-speed automatic is also available), the mighty V-12 catapulted our 850i from standstill like an F-16 being launched off a carrier. Blast-off to 60 mph takes just 6.3 seconds, the quarter-mile dash is over in 14.9 seconds at 96 mph, and the speed doesn’t stop coming until an electronic limiter steps in at 156 mph.

Moreover, the V-12 delivers its power with aristocratic decorum. It’s like having a giant, vibrationless, hydroelectric generator under the hood. If you hoped for soul-stirring race-car sounds, you’re out of luck; the Bimmer with the high-pulse-rate engine is the M5 sedan. The 850i’s strength is seamless power.

With the 850i’s speed and silence comes annoyance, however. A sports-luxury machine as expensive as this should be as sweet as homemade marmalade to drive, even if you’re just on a run to the cleaners. But the 850i will have you talking to yourself every time you attempt to creep along in rush-hour traffic. No matter how gingerly you toe into the throttle, the engine lunges and snaps your head. Lunge-snap. Lunge-snap. It’s like having your mother shake you by the shoulders.

Our experience with the 750iL, which also comes with an automatic, suggests that it is the 850i’s manual gearbox that elicits this spastic behavior. Apparently the automatic’s torque converter smooths the initial bump of acceleration. An 850i with an automatic is a happier car for other reasons as well. The six-speed overdrive gearbox in our test car never slotted into second gear without a shudder, and the clutch required a hefty push and a full extension of the left leg to get it all the way down. Running through the gears was more work than it was worth.

You’d hope that a device for serious driving like the 850i would have sharp-as-a-knife road manners. Hell, BMW practically invented the sports sedan, so that shouldn’t be too pressing an order. But here, too, the 850i disappoints. It feels wide of beam and bulky. Its steering is loose and woozy. On anything but billiard-table-perfect pavement, it simply doesn’t know where straight-ahead is; it sniffs around like a bloodhound in search of a scent and requires constant minding just to keep it centered in the lane. Amazingly, the 850i even stumbles over the seams in the pavement when you change lanes.

Nor is the ride outstanding. On uneven roads you sense a subtle rocking, as if the whole car were resting in a hammock that was barely moving. Our test car was fitted with the optional two-position adjustable shocks—which, frankly, offered one position too many. In the soft-ride mode, the 850i waddles down the highway. We kept the switch in the touring position, which was sports-sedan firm but still plenty supple to deal with bad pavement.

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