What is BMW doing?

I saw another car designer post a photoshop of the front end with smoother lines and full kidney grilles… I’ll have to see if I can dig it up, it was a huge improvement… the interior is better, but still a bit discombobulated. I think the current i3 with the wood/canvas CMF spec is better in some ways.

That’s gross. I can sometimes dig geometry (70’s wedge cars are awesome), but this thing looks like it was one of those sketches the designer did with with square wheels and nobody remembered that wheels are actually round in real life.

The grille is terrible. Page 2 of this thread had the X7 with similar grille that I think kinda works but I don’t this one is fighting all the other elements. Squinty headlamps try to stretch out the width, while the grill stretches it vertically, and the massing on the sides trys to pull the car backwards while the grille pulls it up and down.

Nope.

R

Not that I think that iWhatever concept is good looking, but I have more respect for them trying to push what differences they’d want for an electric car.

Compare that to Audi’s new e-Tron

which feels like it took “Daring” to a 1 out of 10. The only thing that says “this car is electric” is going to be the electric charger parking spot it occupies out of nail salons and soul cycle gyms.

Car makers going all electric should be pushing harder, I’d argue even though the Grille is the biggest piece of identity, it’s also the least functional part of an electric car and part of what makes Tesla’s seem so unique.

I’ll be interested to see how all of that BMW stuff translates once it steps back towards production…but I still just want an M2, even though the rest of the world thinks it wants a battery powered mini crossover not quite big enough for kids or sporty enough for driving.

I don’t agree with the more respect part, but I do think the Audi is a bland pastiche of already existing Audi and non Audi styling cliches barely reheated before being served…

Getting back to the new z4, I’m sure many of you know it will be sharing the same platform with the new Supra. It looks like it will be the better looking of the two.

Sad but true isn’t it. Give me a RWD wagon with a stick, no sunroof, a decent sized V8, an AUX jack, Toyota Landcruiser durability, and a big swinging door on the back like the Griswolds had in that movie. Last thing that checked most of those boxes and was relatively available was a 2005 S4 wagon. Looked properly cool for that time period too.

A number of people have started doing E90 M3 wagon conversions. Find a donor wagon, swap over all the bits from a smacked up M3, and viola, V8 heaven. I saw one for sale recently on the forums for less than what the 6MT CTS-V wagon’s were fetching.

oh, that is soooo nice!

Gimme that wagon! Shut up and take my money!

Came across this :slight_smile:

Seriously, what the devil are they doing with the faces on these cars? This is the “down-road graphic” solution?

It is one thing to make terrible tasteless designs (looking at you Lexus) it is another to have one of the best back catalogs in automotive design history with a singular iconic look and feel… And then decide to make these designs. … and I’m not saying they won’t sell, just that they could make something tasteful, beautiful, and timeless that also sells. The feeling I get from the whole line up is that it is incredibly goache.

Look at this digital gauge cluster? Lord of The Rings reference? Why is the IR sensor not flush mounted to the display surface like everything on every smart phone?


The interior feels rather banal. It is was a Corolla I’d say great work.

The back end would be incredibly nice for a Lexus, but walks away from BMW icons.

Ugh. I empathize with how hard it is to be working with such an iconic brand. But I think designers at other brands would probably kill to have such a strong toolbox filled with DNA elements and examples of the right and wrong ways to play with them… they need one of those design language systems :slight_smile:

The wheel looks upside down.
Designer: “here’s the new 3-series base wheel”
Marketing #1: “we need to be able to promote the paddle shifters”
Marketing #2 (who’s niece is a first-year design student): “if you turn the spokes upside down you can see the paddles”
Designer (jumps on the N’Ring straightaway while M-B is testing the new C-class)
Capture.JPG


Did BMW loose the rights to the Hofmeister kink?

The new lineup is really a mess. And not a hot one.

mo-i

Nope…

Makes me even more sure to keep my 1998 740iL seeing as how the brand looking like everything else will just make the classic “German” BMWs more valuable by comparison.

Seriously, are car designers all now that young that everything has to look like an aggressive robot toy of some kind?

R

hmmm…

Lexus: “no one can out do our gaudy, over designed front fascias!”
BMW: “hold my hefeweizen”

The only commentary I can add is I got to see the new 8 series (coupe and pre-production convertible) + X7 yesterday. In real life the 8 series is a very nice looking thing, and the X7 isn’t as bad as I expected for a huge box. The buck tooth grilles are ridiculous, but in proportions with how huge the SUV is they only feel like they could’ve shaved an inch off the height before they would’ve started to feel small. I suspect the mid-life kicker will shrink them again and it might look more resolved. Either way the so

If whatever good vibes they applied to the 8 series could trickle down that would be fantastic. But still makes you appreciate how good the current Mercedes Coupes look by comparison.

Its more offensive because the illustrator/art director never got the lesson about RESTRAINT with the highlights. Every hint of an edge on the front-most surfaces is blazing hot with highlights, making it even more gaudy. God that’s awful. And what a nightmare to wash.

I don’t even know where to start… the random chamfers on everything. Ports that go nowhere. Lines that aren’t connected to anything. Vertical vs. horizontal massing (vs. angles). The tiny wheels?

The BMW 8 looks half decent in pics. Will have to see in real life.

Saw the new X2 the other day. Don’t know what that’s supposed to be. For kids these days I guess? C pillar roundel supposed to connect to a 3.0CSi or something? Did they run out of paint or is something missing on the trim? Fog lights where they don’t actually help in fog? Because BMW has round lights lets stick some on?

Sidenote- I still can’t get over the model number/name changes that are so messed up. 3 series is a 4? 1 is a 2? There’s both a 6 coupe and sedan? There was a toy SUV that was a 1M (not the same as M1).

Nope.

R