The new BMW styling

[stitchdup]

I'm sure many of you have seen the new styling on the BMW m3. I've been wracking my brain trying to think where I'd seen it before and I finally realised where it was

[TonyK]

I've always said BMW can't make a bad looking car. When they made a station wagon I thought even that was cool and sporty looking but I believe they finally proved me wrong with this look.

[DonW]

9 minutes ago, TonyK said:

I've always said BMW can't make a bad looking car. When they made a station wagon I thought even that was cool and sporty looking but I believe they finally proved me wrong with this look.

They began to go downhill after the eighties in my opinion, though the E34 5 series and E46 3 series were OK.

Chris Bangle has a lot to answer for!

[iamsuperdan]

Not sure what the thought process was on those grilles. I don't mind them so much on the M cars, but on the standard car, with chrome trim, it's horrid.

 

Which is too bad, because I like the rest of the car.

 

For me, the 90s were the pinnacle of BMW design. The e36 3-series, e34 5-series, e39 5-series, e38 7-series. Those cars all still look great today.

These new vehicles will look dated very quickly.

 

 

 

[Rob Hall]

Sort of a retro modern touch, inspired by '60s BMW grilles, I assume...

[espo]

When I first saw the new BMW Grill design I couldn't believe they could or would do something like this. At this moment it looks, to me anyway, as a very hideous design. While I wouldn't buy a new BMW based on this design, I'm no longer in a financial position to buy one anyway. I think in time this may become a new styling trend. Think back to when Audi came out with the big Groper fish type grill and everyone looked on in horror. A few years later many new car designs included this appearance. The large black grill look is fading somewhat now but it has been a design element on new cars for several years now. So while I may think it's uglier than sin now, in a few years I may have a different opinion. .  

[Draggon]

Yuck. Maybe it will look better in person. If they had to accentuate the vertical grill component, why not something like this?

[Matt Bacon]

... because that looks like it’s a little Adolf Hitler moustache?

beat,

M.

[Rodent]

My daily driver from 1997-2004.

[espo]

21 minutes ago, Rodent said:

My daily driver from 1997-2004.

Now that's a proper looking BMW. 

[sfhess]

Maybe they decided that if Lexus could build cars with "distinctive" styling, so could BMW.

Reminds me of this.....

 

[JollySipper]

I had the chance to buy a BMW much like the one in Rodent's pic above when I was a late teen..... Something was wrong with it, so I could have gotten it very cheap. It would run fine until it got to operating temp, then it would shut off..... Now I think maybe it just had sugar in the gas tank. Always liked those Bimmers.....

[Rodent]

31 minutes ago, JollySipper said:

Something was wrong with it

It was a BMW.

Fun car to drive, but rubber parts just rotted away. Rear subframe bushings were toast at 90k miles and the fuel lines were a bonafide fire hazard by 80k.

[Rob Hall]

I enjoyed the ‘96 E36 M3 I had in the late 90s-early 00s.  I wouldn’t mind having an E39 M5 or an E46 M3.  I like them before they became excessively complicated and fragile (the mid to late 00s BMWs are horrific as used cars). 

[ATHU]

Generally speaking I'm not a big fan of modern car styling but I picked up a new 2020 330i M-Sport back in February and I love to drive it.

The huge kidneys on the new M/4-series BMW's are not that bad but the placement of the license plate there in the middle looks a bit clumsy imo...

[Oldcarfan27]

Smile!!

[vintagerpm]

23 hours ago, DonW said:

They began to go downhill after the eighties in my opinion, though the E34 5 series and E46 3 series were OK.

Chris Bangle has a lot to answer for!

Are you kidding? Bangle's stuff is down right gourgeous next to those angree beavers.

(I actually liked his work. Had an E90 4-door. What I learned to dislike are the cheap materials BMW uses in the wrong places. Which is why something is always broken on them.)

[DonW]

1 minute ago, vintagerpm said:

Are you kidding? Bangle's stuff is down right gourgeous next to those angree beavers.

(I actually liked his work. Had an E90 4-door. What I learned to dislike are the cheap materials BMW uses in the wrong places. Which is why something is always broken on them.)

Yes they have got even worse since his day! I just happen to prefer the earlier cars. The merger with Rover in '94 led to the use of cheaper materials and components as well.

It's why the older cars are much sought after! .

[Dave Van]

The Double Edsel......

[The Junkman]

Let's bring Dr Malcomb into the conversation.

Doctor?

[Mark]

The deck lids on BMWs of a few years ago reminded me of the lid on a toilet tank.  Especially when the car was white.

[Force]

I don't know what's with the German designers, they seem to have to exaggerate design features like the grilles, just because the kidney shaped grilles are significant for BMW they doesn't have to be this large, Audi has done the same lately with their grilles wich has been larger and larger over the years.

I don't mean that I don't like the kidney grille on BMW's, they have allways had them but I think this one on the 850 is one of their better designs for the grille, it's subtle but you immediately see what brand it is without it beeing exaggerated.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Force

[iamsuperdan]

4 hours ago, The Junkman said:

Let's bring Dr Malcomb into the conversation.

Doctor?

Well, if Dr Malcolm is involved, maybe this is a little more appropriate in this case!

[espo]

2 hours ago, Force said:

I don't know what's with the German designers, they seem to have to exaggerate design features like the grilles, just because the kidney shaped grilles are significant for BMW they doesn't have to be this large, Audi has done the same lately with their grilles wich has been larger and larger over the years.

I don't mean that I don't like the kidney grille on BMW's, they have allways had them but I think this one on the 850 is one of their better designs for the grille, it's subtle but you immediately see what brand it is without it beeing exaggerated.

This in my mind is one of the best looking BMWs ever. 

[Rob Hall]

I love the original 8 series styling...also the original 6 series.   Wish I had bought one of the Revell 8 series kits back in the day, they seem unobtainium now..The 3rd gen (E38) 7-series is one of my favorites, too bad there has never been a kit..

 

And the E39 5-series, esp. the M5...wasn't kitted either.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Rob Hall