Test Drive: 2020 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive Delivers Luxury and Fun—But You’ll Pay

Alpina's cars bear BMW's Roundel badge, but much like Ruf is to Porsche, Alpina is recognized in Germany as a manufacturer in its own right. Indeed, its creations carry upgraded features and options—and we were happy to test the hype by spending a week behind the wheel of the range-topping 2020 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive.

The 2020 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive arrived in my driveway sporting gorgeous Alpina Green Metallic paint over BMW's Ivory White seats. It wore stunning 20-spoke, 21-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires (included for no cost) —an upgrade to the BMW-standard 20-inch wheels.

Alpina says its bodywork "directs airflow into the cooling system and reduces lift, for optimal performance, handling, and style." Regardless of whether it actually works technically—either way, not something you would notice much at real-world speeds—it certainly amps up the 7 Series sedan's road presence: Even if most onlookers don't know what they're looking at, the 2020 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive has enough style and flare to attract tons of attention, questions, and thumbs-up signals.

The car's exterior wins you on first impression, but its interior keeps your attention. Slide into the leather seats and the smell of luxury envelopes you; high-end materials stuff the cabin, and most surfaces include metal, leather, or glossy Alpina Myrtle wood. Alpina supplies just the wood; the other materials are standard but Alpina does add its plaque to the center console and a badge to the steering wheel.

Along with the interior upgrades, the 2020 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive's suspension is compliant and offers generous cushioning. The car uses a mix of Alpina's own sport suspension setup and BMW's Dynamic Damper Control, Active Drive Comfort, Active Roll Stabilization, and Road Preview. It's all standard with the package and provides excellent ride quality for whatever conditions are at hand.

The powertrain—a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8 engine mated to an eight-speed transmission—in its most docile settings moves the car forward with unstressed grace. Meanwhile, no matter how hard you drive, the cabin is a quiet, contemplative space, with its ambiance improved further thanks to the upgraded panoramic sunroofs with an LED-powered "constellation" effect. The latter is a BMW option, but it's available only on the Alpina B7 and the stock M760i.

On the roads north of Los Angeles, the ones wide enough to accommodate such a big-body car without impeding its sense of purpose, the 2020 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive demonstrated immense poise in its aggressive drive modes. I settled on Sport Plus to tackle the technical sections of mountain asphalt—Alpina adds its own drive-mode tuning via software programming—and subsequently had a behind-the-wheel ball.

Alpina's sport suspension controlled the sedan's body with impressive chops; it's amazing to find you can hustle such a large vehicle with so much ease. The suspension can also adjust the ride height within a 1.4-inch window; the B7 lowers automatically by 0.6-inch at speeds in excess of 140 mph, and you can raise it by 0.8-inch when traveling up to 20 mph, to increase ground clearance over speed bumps and the like.

Brake-pedal feel is soft but communicative. The Alpina-engineered stoppers use four-piston front calipers, and the brakes exhibited no fade during a long and enthusiastic run through some of Southern California's most majestic scenery.

Understatement alert: The 2020 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive's 600 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque—up from the 750i xDrive's 445 hp and 480 lb-ft and nearly the same as the 601-hp twin-turbo V-12 in the M760i xDrive—are plenty to propel the B7 up steep grades, let alone flat roads. The power and torque gains come courtesy of larger turbo impellers, and the package delivers improved throttle response, too. Paddle-shifting the transmission happens in an instant, thanks to Alpina's Switch-Tronic software that quickens shifts. The gearbox hangs onto gears like it's clinging to life, the engine churning out stout and prodigious amounts of power as soon as you touch the throttle. You can go crazy on your own on an isolated road, but more notable is the fact you have massive passing capability when traffic is a bit too slow.

When the road gets twisty, the BMW sport-steering system is reliable in its predictability. The 2020 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive enters corners on command, somehow telegraphing its every move to the driver—despite its 4,855-pound curb weight. It's exceptionally easy to read how the Alpina will respond to inputs, instilling driver confidence that belies its proportions. This is thanks to the standard BMW Integral Active Steering system, which allows the rear wheels to turn up to three degrees.

The low-profile, upgraded summer tires do little to worsen the ride quality in spite of the larger wheels, yet their benefit is palpable on canyon roads. The B7 offers plentiful grip thanks to the Michelin rubber. Dynamically, you imagine this is what a great bone-stock M7 would perform and feel like, if there actually was such a thing.

The 2020 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive is a special sedan—and it better be: You can buy this bougie BMW, as equipped, for a mere $154,495; starting price is $143,795. For comparison, the stock BMW 750i xDrive starts at $103,995, and the M760i xDrive starts at $158,795.

Like all such cars, the B7 is a pricey proposition. But it's also nice to see Alpina—after 55 years of operation—still produces lust-worthy vehicles which amplify BMW's best aspects while weaving its own soul into the cars' fabric. The 2020 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive is a self-assured performer that can serve as a limo or a canyon-carving ace; let's hope the upcoming XB7 mega-SUV can replicate its sedan sibling's success.