Buying a luxury car must be such a headache. God help all those filthy rich people having to endure the indecisive pain of plumping for one technological wonder over another.

It wasn’t so bad up to now. Mercedes had their new S-Class, Lexus not too long ago brought in their new LS430 so you could choose on modernity as Jaguar’s XJ series and BMW’s 7-series hadn’t been radically altered for a long time.

But pity the poor rich things now. This year they have to contend with the latest from BMW. The 7-series, completely new, is brimming with the innovation of a marque intent on re-asserting itself in the top peoples’ shopping list.

The emphasis with the new Beemer is on, as you’d expect, its handling, equipment and, as a source of real differentiation from the other two, an iDrive concept that removes the clutter of buttons and instruments from the dashboard.

The handling and ride are paramount in a Beemer. That explains why the distributors here went to great rounds to show how far they have refined the process. With experts brought in from Germany – people who know the car inside out and can drive way beyond this reviewer’s abilities – they demonstrated the difference techno-aids such as Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) and ASC can make.

They turned these off and took us through emergency reactions. Then they turned them on and did the same things. The difference in the level of control - at swerving, high speeds - was extraordinary.

DSC stabilised the car whenever it looks like veering wildly by applying brakes to individual wheels. ASC cut the throttle and applies brakes to the wheel or wheels it senses is about to spin. The benefits of such technological allies in a real life situation can hardly be understated. One hopes you’ll never need them, but it’s nice to know they’re with you. Just like the huge array of airbags.

The cabin is interesting if not as immediately dynamic or dramatic. The controls you can see are simple and easy to hand. That’s the way it should be. But many of the other things that need doing are channelled through a large central knob – think of it as a cross between a joystick and a mouse. It reproduces all your options and actions on a central screen. So you can choose radio, CD track, ventilation levels and hundreds of combinations therefore at the push, pull or press of this central control.

And so to the driving force behind the new Beemer. The engines. The two eight-cylinder powerplants are brand new, have more power and, BMW say, are 14per cent more economical.

The lead-in engine is the 735i which develops 272bhp from its 3600cc and costs 95,500 euros ex-works. The larger is the 745i which pushed out 333bhp from its 4398cc and costs 104,000 euros ex-works.

The good news for fans of BMW diesel engines is that there will be a 3-litre commonrail version here by early next year. That will be the same basic unit now driving the 530d and 330d. By then we will have become accustomed to driving with the world’s first six-speed automatic gearbox. It integrates the excellent Steptronic system that also allows you to change gears, via the gear handle or the buttons on the steering wheel, without having to use a clutch if you like being actively involved.

For those who have to open the doors for themselves, there is the delight in knowing they will not swing wildly or bump into an adjoining vehicle on a windy day. They are constructed and constrained in such a way that they remain at the aperture to which they are pushed.

Little things like that can impress even the wealthiest of potential buyers. They can make the difference when those poor people have to make up their minds about what to spend 95,000 euros or so on.

The new 7-series has most emphatically complicated their decision making process.

Wouldn’t you feel sorry for them all the same?

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