BMW has been making waves for all the wrong reasons. Or, just one, actually—it’s been building awkward-looking cars with giant nostrils. However, there is light on the horizon, quite literally. I’m here to tell you that the Bavarians have turned a corner, and their new grilles have won me over. Why? Because now, they light up!
Call me juvenile, call me a philistine, I don’t care. Glowing grilles are awesome, they’re useful, and they’re exactly what the car world needs right now.
Outraged? I’m sure. Let me explain.
Here’s the thing. We’re not living in 1957 anymore. Sealed beam headlights are over, combustion’s kind of on the way out, and wallpaper hasn’t been an appropriate choice for home decor for well over half a century now. Cars aren’t supposed to look the same forever. We’re living in the gosh-darned future, and it’s high time we started acting like it!
We got a taste for this in the late nineties. Manufacturers rejoiced at the invention of the blue LED, and stuck them on every appliance in our lives. Meanwhile, the tuning scene fell in love with neons, and started the underglow craze. For a minute there, we were on the cutting edge.
But then we all went too hard with silver-this and millennium-that, and designers revolted. Everything got toned down. Culture ricocheted and backfired, and we went back to plaid shirts and punk rock, before we tripped over vaporwave and ended up spat out back into the present day.
Now, the EV transition is here and automakers want to make things look modern again. Lighting is the way to do. We have magical LEDs that put out tons of light in a tiny package for very little power usage. You can stick them on anything and behind anything and make it glow, and you can do it in all kinds of cool colors.
BMW started with its backlit “Iconic Glow” grille and it’s only gotten better since then.
Luxury automakers didn’t miss the memo. They went ham on ambient lighting for interiors, and it’s showing up in exterior design too. Mercedes-Benz started putting glowing badges on its cars, and BMW’s gone one further. It’s started illuminating grilles, and it ought to be celebrated for it.
BMW started with a backlit glow on the X6 back in 2019, and that was kind of cool. But it was the XM Concept in 2021 that really nailed the format, with the glowing outline of its snout drawing eyes from a mile away. Today, you can get the illuminated kidney grille on much of the modern BMW range, including the new X3, on which it looks particularly badass.
While the large BMW grilles can look foolish at times, they’re ultimately much less offensive when they’re glowing in the dead of night. They give the vehicle an amazing visual signature in the dark, and highlight one of the most potent pieces of BMW’s design language. Plus, they look like something out of a sci-fi movie, and I’m tired of pretending that isn’t cool.
The glowing grilles can also serve as a useful safety feature by serving as running lights, particularly during intermediate lighting periods like dawn and dusk. This isn’t critical in a world where daytime running lights are mandatory, but they certainly don’t hurt.
Now, you might hate glowing grilles. You might think they’re ugly and that they have no place on a modern BMW. But that’s okay—they’re not hurting you, and you don’t have to have one!
Meanwhile, those of us that like them will continue to enjoy them. We’ll keep driving around making “pew pew” sounds as we pretend to shoot lasers from our roadgoing starships, with the ambient lighting set to red because we’re in a dire combat situation! Okay, maybe that’s just me, but still. They’re fun.
It bears noting this isn’t even a new idea. Car companies—even the conservative ones like Ford—have been experimenting with glowing badges and similar accoutrements for decades. For a certain type of enthusiast, they make a cool car even more special.
The one criticism I have is that BMW doesn’t do a good enough job showing them off. It has a handful of pictures of glowing grilles laying around, but they’re not exactly easy to find. Sometimes, that’s the way with controversial features, but it makes it more difficult to celebrate them!
Honestly, though, that’s my take, and I stand by it. Automakers have the technology to make bits of our cars glow. It’s not expensive to do, and it can look really cool. Plus, when OEMs do it, it tends to look a lot less tacky compared to slapping on aftermarket gear from AliExpress and the like.
I’m all for more illuminated badges, more illuminated grilles, and yes, factory underglow. I’m still waiting on that last one, but it can’t be far away, right?
Image credits: BMW
No, and I refuse to buy a car with this nonsense.
I have bought two brand-new BMWs, but the brand is deader to me today than George Washington. And to be fair, the idiotic glowing grilles are among the least of the reasons.
This required even more stones than David’s timing belt take. Bravo! That being said, no. Overuse of lighting commits the greatest sin you can commit as a luxury automaker: it looks cheap
Not to mention tacky as well. Harkens back to the fast an furious neon addon-resource or some gamers pc.
Hard pass.
Yeah the tie in to the tuner scene mentioned in the article is not something luxury automakers should want to be associated with. I have nothing against the tuning scene, but there is basically no overlap with that scene and the typical buyer of new BMWs.
I was thinking the same thing, but that generation as well as the neaveaux rich are a large component of BMW’S target demographic today. BMW lost me decades ago and I ain’t never coming back. I hate to be a get off my lawn old guy, so I’ll just leave it at to each their own. I often question my youngest sons automotive choices, as I am sure my father did of mine.
I certainly wouldn’t call them “great”, but I honestly don’t mind them. I’m glad that my BMW is without a giant glowing grille, but I’ve seen worse atrocities. It’s just gimmicky shit for status seekers who lease BMW SUVs so that other people think they’re wealthy. In that context, things like glowing grilles and emblems make a lot of sense. Now, if they start doing this shit on M cars (the XM is not an M car), we’re gonna have a problem.
I’m going to start by saying something nice. I love your articles, Lewin…and I agree with my friend Angrycat Meowmeow that it took some stones to not only post this take and write an entire article justifying it. You’re a good man and a bold man.
…but no. Just no. The stupid light up grilles, influencers, etc. are a microcosm of everything that’s wrong with BMW and German luxury cars in general. It’s the pinnacle of style over substance. Rather than making good cars BMW and their peers are just loading them with useless, gimmicky tech, ridiculously ostentatious style, etc.
Much like the influencers/nouveau rich people that they’re so desperately trying to appeal to, there’s just absolutely no substance. It’s consumption for the sake of consumption. It’s design for the sake of design that serves no greater purpose. It’s a product that’s meant to be consumed then immediately disposed of for the next big thing. Its purpose is immediate gratification for shallow attention seekers fiending for a dopamine hit.
In conclusion: I hate this shit so much and I’m ashamed of what BMW is becoming…and as dramatic as it might sound, there was a time when they stood for something. But that time has passed and I fear it’s never coming back, especially with EVs on the horizon. There won’t be straight 6s for much longer 🙁
Within the range of customization options, BMW should “enhance” this trend by allowing male purchasers to submit scans of their junk as outline templates for puddle lamps. Since subtlety is no longer an attribute of BMWs, why not lean into it and let owners make increasingly more desperate pleas for attention? There could even be an “M” version that enlarges the projection by 25%.
The could hire the Chinese tail light designers and get the full coming anfg going effect.
Oh boy, I will miss I6s, and BMW made some good ones.
Well, I agree with you to some point. See, in economic theory, luxury products have their own demand laws (they are Veblen goods, in most cases), but in general, you could say that they carry part of the premium in the marginal utility they have. And per marginal utility, I am talking about details.
The audience will determine these details. Nowadays, I would say that, in fact, BMW, Mercs, and those luxury brands are, more than never, status symbols. Maybe those (me included) that learned to admire BMW because of the overengineering at the deatils that were prevalent at that time, like handling, engine, finish quality, among other, find strange what is happening to the current lineup.
But the demand is different now, influencers and alike are the people willing to pay the premium, so these details are guided towards them, like iX that have a self camera (probably others also have). They care more about style over substance.
Their marketing now shows young people, in colorful clothing, not executives going home at night. Because most of their cars are not aimed to executives anymore, but tiktokers.
So, they are playing the game. The economic one.
Is it fair? They have to keep the brand alive, so I think it is.
Do I like? Hell no. I became an enthusiast for other reasons, and I know what used to make a BMW, Mercedes or Jaguar special. That overengineering is what made me love them, not the status symbol they always were, but that prevail now.
Maybe, one day, that will be another generation of enthusiasts that will drive their interest, or pockets, to the “right” details and they will do those cars I fell in love again.
Meanwhile, maybe these grills will iluminate the dark ages ahead of me.
Hopefully BMW can just start aiming actual lasers into my eyes so I don’t have to see this trend continue.
I regret to inform you BMW has discontinued laser headlights.
Guess I’ll just have to get the ol’ bleach back out again.
*reads post*
*starts typing comment*
*looks at other comments*
*whispers* I like them
That’s it, we’re shipping you to Australia to keep this thing under control. We’ve got seven continents, we can spare one.
They still have their COVID concentration camps to use!
Counterpoint: no.
Oh, they got the influencers on board. lolz
I definitely choose my car based on what extremely attractive, self-centered, narcissistic individuals whose sole purpose in life is to make as much money as possible tell me. The more followers they have, the more knowledgeable they are. Duh.
but.. that’s what i do for my political beliefs.. is that.. not right??
It’s totally right! You’re good to go amigo
I know you are describing influencers. But it also sounds like politicians or Megachurch pastors too (minus the attractiveness). It’s a weird world.
Others have already covered most of my opinion, so I won’t repeat, but I also have another take that I haven’t seen here: anything that takes my brain a second longer to parse as a car based on unusual illumination is a bad idea.
I mean…your sentiment is correct, but it’s not like you’d see the grille without the headlights too.
I’m onboard in that it’s, at the least, distracting…. for now. We aren’t used to it yet, or the trend. Once we are, it’ll be fiiiiine.
Additional counterpoint that is also not mentioned… don’t these waste more energy? I know it’s small, but it’s gotta come from somewhere. Really shitty counterpoint, but you get the idea.
Also, I kinda like it, kinda. Kinda. I like the Rivian’s as well, but no one is giving them shit. AND, I ALSO find Rivian’s distracting! Anything that deviates heavily from what we have come to expect to see is going to cause distraction, and hence accidents. Therefore, I would prefer this concept to become prevalent.
Ok first, wallpaper is back and better than ever, so you’re wrong there.
Second, this is just the wrong take.
I had a new 7er behind me in the wee hours of the morning a few weeks ago, and it just looked soooo stupid.
And that piece of shit, temu quality lit star on the front of Mercs? First of all, it looks stupid and isn’t even well/equally lit and is never the same color temperature as the headlights or DRLs. Secondly, it means you don’t have DISTRONIC. So… likely have a stripper/base model, but then you pay more to brag that it’s a Mercedes ~*at night*~ but you have one of the cheapest versions of that car. The whole thing just pisses me off.. and it’s UGLY.
It’s possible to do this well, and I’m sure eventually Audi will do it, but as of right now, no.
Actually, no, if it’s a design trend Audi didn’t start, it probably won’t stick.
You guys posting clickbait “hot take” shit like this is not gonna end well. The old lighting site did it, and people bailed. TheDrive did it, and people bailed. Please don’t go down that road.
This ^^^
Autopian, beware. You’re on notice.
Meh, the occasional take is fine. I kind of like reading different opinions than mine (and telling OP they’re wrong as warranted, lol). There’s plenty of other articles to balance it out over here, too, thank goodness, so you don’t have to click this one if it’s not your bag.
I do get tired of “everything’s a take”-itis that some sites seem to fall into, but that’s not been my experience on here, though, thank goodness.
Okay, but Torch takes are exempt, right? I’ll read any and all of those.
Damn, RIP Autopian. Killed by having an opinion. It was a good run.
(Seriously, though, our two bars one must clear for posting a take like this are:
This is how we ended up with David’s timing belt article which, ultimately, I do not agree with, but is something he actually thinks and can explain)
Well, ok. Now that I’ve cooled off a bit… the clickbaity “Actually” headline put a bad taste in my mouth right off the bat. Sorry about that. The timing belt article was a little different because it didn’t seem like a thing specifically designed to get people riled up. This article feels like that. I really like it here and I’m worried I’m gonna lose you guys… (sniffle, not crying you’re crying)…
“If I don’t survive, tell my wife ‘hello.'”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1-bCIA_vyVc&si=xHTGzMPacb2ljjIu
Press F to pay respects
Idk, it just seems like Lewin is flying his freak flag more than it’s a big, hot, end of times, site is dying take.
Honestly, it’s just me expressing something I like, design wise. I want to come out as openly for design items that make cars look more futuristic. I think it’s good.
And I have form on this! Dial back into my Staria review on Google and you hear me cheering Hyundai’s lighting design.
I’m all about this stuff.
Yeah 100%. I personally dislike it but I think the claims about the death (by clickbait takes) of the Autopian are greatly exaggerated
Thank you for not writing Holy Crap! In the banner.
I think this is a covert campaign to sell your own BMW. Highlight how absurdly ugly newer BMWs are, tell buyers “mine has the classic understated look, you’re better off with this.”
“tell buyers “mine has the classic understated look, you’re better off with this.””
Translation: Help! My warranty is about to expire!
I call utter bullshitty clickbait. Are you guys that hungry ?!?
Design that needs to be explained is like a joke that needs to be explained – a failure, and better left as is to avoid further humiliation.
Things are not so stale on this website for such obvious reaction-seeking “articles”. Stop the clickbait.
PS And illumination of a grill has little to do wit it being ugly or nice. No need to mash the two together.
I can’t like LED grille lights? That’s illegal to say?
You mix “BMW’s Massive” and “LED” in one topic and defend them as a whole.
You knew exactly what you were stepping into – you got that horse out of the barn, ride it to the end.
And yes, for any sane brain, BMW’s latest design should be borderline illegal. It’s kitch to an insulting point. I personally believe that every time I look at a recent BMW and find it a little bit less ugly, something has died inside the design part of my brain and made it less able of discerning real automotive beauty.
As for illuminated grilles – I kinda like them when done nicely. Mazda is doing great with these.
But hey, Mazda is doing great with design as a whole. Maybe if they were getting half the design articles BMW does, the automotive world would be a better place. And we wouldn’t have “OK boomer” ads disparaging an e38 V12 make it past the common sense department.
Folks.
Folks folks folks.
I love your site. I think the mix of facts, opinions and fun are great but, on this occasion, ”just f***ing no!”
The true and correct BMW grill: https://carsales.pxcrush.net/carsales/cars/dealer/797ytm7jcwaag7ptd2ac9a0r2.jpg
Obviously this doesn’t create tiktok or ig rage engagement, but God I wish they’d fire van Hoodyonk and just do ONE last 3er with a turbo I6, and some combo of the vision Neue Klasse concept but with a modernized version of this grille/front graphic. It’s iconic but kinda odd enough that you could create some really cool/unique shapes with it and modern manufacturing… but that will never happen.
Van Hooydonk’s crimes against BMW design are many. I do not understand how he’s still employed there when he misses the plot so hard.
They had Bangle before him. BMW lost the plot 25 years ago.
Bangle had some stinkers, sure, but was nowhere close when it comes to van Hooydonk’s ridiculousness.
You know what’s the irony behind those tall and vertically oriented kidneys in old BMWs? That BMW designers back then understood that you can’t put tall and narrow features in low and wide cars, so the kidneys are contained in a larger grille that spans the whole width of the car.
That’s smart, you see? You keep the tradition alive but you make it work in an evolving body style. Alas, those smart designers are gone and have been replaced by a team of beavers.
See also: Mercedes-Benz shitty three-pointed star that is gaudy, and really poorly lit besides. I’ve seen brand new-MB’s with that stupid star and it looks like someone ganked a strip of Christmas lights from an orphanage, dipped them in a shitty plastic mold without checking to see if all the LEDs actually work, plugged that fucker in and called it a day.
It looks so, so bad, both as a matter of taste and of execution.
You know what would really blow me away, what would make me fly out of my clothes and ascend to heavenly glory like all those sainted souls awaiting Rapture? A modicum of restraint. An uncreased surface. A thing that could light up but doesn’t, a taillight that doesn’t have a cross-section you can only describe with calculus, a grill that doesn’t look like several smaller grills in a trenchcoast.
I expect to remain unhappily clothed for a long time yet.
The light-up VW logo is even more egregious to me. I feel like that one didn’t even bother to hide the individual LEDs’ glow. Both are beyond awful.
Mercedes is supposed to be classy. The light-up star is trashy AF. They should be ashamed.
That Mercedes lighted star is even worse because it’s only available on the base model.
Lmao of course it is. You know that dealerships spec that shit for every single lease special they order. I’m sure that tacky star probably winds up on the Tik Tok of the person who’s spending 50% of their income for the privilege of renting it within 20 minutes of getting the keys.
So the bimmer stuck a flashlight against it’s nose to make the nostrils glow. I did this in elementary school. It was cool when I was 8. This, not so much.
Gotta give the man respect. It took a giant set of knackers to post this.
Are they though?
I always like glowing stuff, because it is a clear indication that there is an idiot behind the wheel who is about to do something stupid.
If you all think the grill on the new X3 is bad, just look up its interior. It’s inexcusably bad.
Well, looks like Pep Boys stock just went up.
What in the absolute fuck is that
Oh, my! Suddenly, it’s 1976!
Sorry, I agree with Mies van der Rohe when it comes to design : Less is more.
This century has not gotten the message.
Lewin, I’m not going to state definitively that you’re wrong and you should feel bad—mainly because I enjoy a bit of whimsy.
But, I swear to Bog, if that shit starts becoming ubiquitous around here, I’m ordering a set of LEDs and will outline my modest, 26yo kidney grills with them to take the piss outa this.
-mind, I put yellow accents on my old work van’s ‘spoiler’ and no one noticed, so I won’t be changing the world.
No complaints when its a full outline of each nostril. At night in full dark that probably looks pretty cool. However, the figure 8/inifinty symbol versions (like in the last pic in the ad), I think look absolutely horrendous, and also fail what I assume is the premise of lighting these, making it obviously a BMW in the dark. That shape isn’t instantly recognizable as BMW nostrils.
Counterpoint: NO! NOOOOO! MY EYES! NO!
Parsh would NEVER
Parsh going the opposite direction and offering flat-sticker crests to save weight on its high-end models is the way, the truth and the absence of light. I love it.
That serves a genuine purpose and is a part of a greater engineering ethos of making the best cars possible. Therefore, it is rad. The light up grilles serve no greater purpose other than flexing. Therefore, they are NOT rad.
Yeeeeeah, flex culture annoys me so hard and that’s a large part of my objection to this absolute tackiness.
(Says a person who loves candy-colored GT3 RSes, so uh, take that as you will. But…BUT! Those are purpose-built track machines and most of the features outside cool paint options are all function, no silly flex. Even fancy-schmancy carbon packages are there to save weight.)
If I had an unlimited Parsh budget I’d get a GT3 Touring. Give me ALL the performance goodness with none of the flex…although I agree, I’d absolutely get it in a crazy color. Preferably Frozen Berry Metallic.
fun colors: it’s not just me, it’s what the culture’s feelin’
(parsh culture)
(Also, I have a soft spot for the banned-in-Yurop light-up Spirit of Ecstasy, but that one was small and the rest of Rolls’ designs are understated and simple. Even the optional grille backlighting on those is kinda understated. You know what it is when it rolls up, pun intended, let me have my dad joke. It does not need to have a giant border around the grille that looks like a corny Autozone add-on.)
To your other comment above… that’s what separates Porsche from the rest of the Germans. Er, well, BMW and to a lesser (but still shameful) extent, Mercedes. Porsche changes things because they make the car better or faster or lighter. There’s always an engineering truth behind it. They don’t put disco balls on the roof and rainbow rgb strips around the grilles because… that’s fucking stupid. People clown on Porsche for their insane options.. But I’d argue, for the vast majority, a Porsche is a purchase you make after a life of longing for one.. you should be able to make it exactly what you want it to be. It still isn’t gimmicky.
but anywho.
See also, one is a storied and hallowed German sports car manufacturer with decades upon decades of motorport history, the other is BMW.
oh, hm.
yo, don’t come at Big M8 like that
(or the legendary DTM cars, or BMW in F1, or or or)
just because the designs are hideous now doesn’t mean BMW hasn’t done cool motorsport stuff
That was kinda the joke of the “oh, hm” at the end.. That both brands have gobs of heritage to trade one, and Porsche honors that and continues to play in that space while BMW has become a clout chasing tween.
Is the same energy as Jason Derulo becoming a tiktoker
Fair fair! I love that BMW is running a Le Mans prototype now, too. They just need to fix their frickin’ road cars.
I saw a few M4s competing in LMGT3. I’m not sure how they did and I know a Parsh won that class (despite the bitterly disappointing hypercar finish), but there were definitely some beaver teeth out there last weekend.
YES MANTHEY YESSSSSS
Oh dear God, you cracked it. the LMP car has light up kidneys, which do make it easier to identify at a glance during night racing… if this is BMWs nod to motorsport, they can take it back.
Haha. There are some things that work on endurance cars that shouldn’t go on a road car. This is one.
No
No no no
No no no no no no no
No
No no no no no no
No no
Noooooooo