Article Summary
- The Dual-Finish available for the new 7 Series is currently limited to Tanzanite Blue.
- BMW combines a matte paint finish on the lower body with a manually applied glossy metallic finish on the upper body.
- In Rolls-Royce style, the two types of paint are separated by a hand-drawn coachline.
For €14,000, you could buy a perfectly sensible Dacia Sandero in Germany. The supermini consistently tops Europe’s sales charts by providing affordable transportation for the masses. When you’re shopping in the full-size luxury sedan segment, that kind of money can easily be spent on a single option. Enter the Dual-Finish.
With the 7 Series facelift configurator going live this week, we were curious to see how much BMW would charge for what it calls an industry first. Developed over two and a half years, the special exterior costs €14,000. That makes it a full €2,000 more expensive than the Two-Tone option the G70 has offered since the car went on sale years ago.
As for what makes the new option different, Dual-Finish is far more sophisticated. BMW paints the lower part of the 7 Series in a matte finish, while skilled technicians manually apply a metallic finish of the same color to the upper body. Initially, only Tanzanite Blue is available. The two shades are amplified by hand-drawn Coachline, much like the one found on a Rolls-Royce.
Why Is It So Expensive?
It takes more than 20 specialized employees to work on the car during a 12-step painting process. Each vehicle spends over 75 hours in the body shop, six times longer than a 7 Series ordered in a regular color. About half of that time involves manual labor, such as hand-taping the vehicle and sanding the body.
For the G70 facelift, BMW combines Frozen Tanzanite Blue III metallic with Tanzanite Blue II metallic. We imagine the most difficult part is creating a seamless transition where the body shifts from glossy to matte. According to BMW, “there is no noticeable transition point where the two finishes meet.”
It’s unclear whether other Dual-Finish options will follow, but we do know the new 7 Series is available with more than 500 colors and color combinations. Individual colors cost €2,350, while matte (Frozen) finishes cost €4,100. Alpine White is the only no-cost option, whereas the other colors cost either €1,220 or €1,400.
The BMW ALPINA 7 Series Will Raise The Bar Even Higher
An even more luxurious version of the 7 Series facelift will arrive next year. The newly launched BMW ALPINA brand will introduce a G72 in the signature ALPINA colors. It’s too soon to say whether Two-Tone or Dual-Finish paint will be available, but there will clearly be design features to distinguish it from the “regular” 7er.
Meanwhile, the company’s wealthiest clientele can commission special-edition versions and even order a tailor-made, one-off 7 Series through the Individual Manufaktur program. It certainly sounds like BMW wants to narrow the gap to the Ghost. However, only Rolls-Royce has access to the V12 engine, as neither BMW nor ALPINA will put twelve cylinders under the hood again.
