The first leg of our journey home with Automobile's 2009 BMW 750Li ran from San Diego to Las Vegas. Vegas is a slight detour from the southern route I mapped out to get from California to Michigan, but it was an easy place to meet my co-driver at an airport and also allowed me to visit some extended family. My relatives are former 7-series owners and were excited to see the latest from BMW.

My route covered 345 miles and traffic was light the entire way. The 7-series is very happy to cruise at 80 mph for hours on end and the 21.7 gallon fuel tank means you only need one fuel stop on a typical day of driving. My average fuel economy is in the low 20 mpg range, but there was a bit of city driving involved when I stopped at our Irvine office. Tomorrow shouldn't have much city driving and I'll report an exact figure from the in-dash display for the next stretch of driving.

So far I have only a few complaints: The 20-way powered driver's seat seems to be infinitely adjustable, but I haven't found the perfect seating position yet. A surprising amount of wind noise is coming from the A-pillar but the radio easily drowns it out. The brakes seem touchy, but putting more miles on the car may smooth out the initial bite.

However, the good outweighs the bad: The active cruise control works very well and let me follow cars closely enough to be useful in Southern California traffic. Lane departure warning works well and it's far less intrusive than the systems some competitors offer - instead of a series of beeps, the steering wheel vibrates when the car starts to veer out of the intended lane. Now you can get a little assistance without disturbing all of your passengers. Speed comes quickly in this car, especially considering there are only eight cylinders under the hood. Anything less than triple-digit speeds and it feels like you aren't even moving.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Grand Canyon and hopefully pushing in to New Mexico for the night. The drive through Arizona is also an excellent time to explore what's left of Route 66. Check back for more driving impressions tomorrow, or read our introduction of the 750Li here.