Hey BT!
When it came out in '02, it did not really impress me (and so did a lot of people including the pundits), I felt like BMW digress from it's origins! Also the iDrive was plague with a lot of problems (guess what, almost every brand/makeR ARE NOW COPYING IT!). But every year when I go to my dealer for service on my 740, I stopped by the showroom to oggle the 745 and it just started growing on me....and the rest is history!
This car is so full of electronics and highly computerized that it's almost like flying an airplane when you drive it........and the comfort......totally amazing! I drove a Mercedes S Class before I got this.......and you really get more for the money (S Class cost about US$10-12K more!). Anyho, no complaints from me! I've been always a Bimmer fan!