Home » I Have A Theory For Why BMW Is Starting To Build Non-Ugly Cars

I Have A Theory For Why BMW Is Starting To Build Non-Ugly Cars

Ac Bmw Lessugmo Top
ADVERTISEMENT

I swear as long as I exist on this cursed rock, I’m going to be writing something about BMW design every year or so. In thirty years’ time Torch, by then a Futurama-style head in a pickle jar, and David, having successfully uploaded his consciousness into his i3, will shock me via my Autopian staff compliance collar for yet another article. Ravaged by years of baked bean abuse I find myself hunched over an ancient flickering laptop, forced to comply to pay my hourly Adobe subscription bill. Honestly, the situations I get myself into for money.

Way back at the end of 2021 I wrote about the XM Concept (as it mercifully was back then) for the insurance company. Not quite a year later, Miss Mercedes stuck a poster of Chris Bangle on her garage wall, placed a few small candles underneath it, and declared him BMW’s best designer. Needless to say I had thoughts about that bout of insanity. Then I discussed the design of the slightly heavy-handed look of the newly released M2. A respite, but by September 2023, courtesy of our friends at BMW UK I spent a week behind the wheel of an M240ixDrive. I adored the car but because Car Design Twitter had coughed up another round of thirty-year-old BMW genuflection, I felt compelled to crowbar a mini rant into the review.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

Since then I’ve taken a deep dive into the design of the i3 on David’s behalf and, click whore that I am, wrote about the E30 for my Damn Good Design Series. I make that six separate pieces about BMW in the last two and a half years. And now I’m about to repeat the whole debasing exercise again. I’m either a masochist or one of the Quandt family keeps a voodoo doll of me in their desk.

Why Do We Care So Much About BMW?

This all begs the question: why do I keep doing this? A better question is, why do I keep getting the opportunity to do it? Obviously, I’m not going to turn down the chance to swan about in fifty grand’s worth of purple press car for a week, but that aside how is it that BMW manages to dominate so much of the car design discourse? A major part of it is the esteem in which nearly every BMW made from about 1976 until 2006 continues to be held in.

For a section of online car culture tastemakers these BMWs are a collection of touchstones that define what constitutes the enthusiast uber-maschine: analog controls, normally aspirated power going to the rear, thousands of discreet options and chassis codes that allow those in the know to craft a perfect build like they’re gearing up for an MMORPG raid. If you don’t get this, or don’t agree with it then you are clearly not a True Car Enthusiast. They simply can’t shut their yaps about them. It bolsters their assumed credibility, keeps the insiders in and the outsiders out. It must be guarded, protected and blurted out of a loud hailer every time a new BMW is launched, because if they don’t the whole fabric of their being is torn asunder like the fallacy it is.

ADVERTISEMENT

And it is a fallacy, because saying well ackchyually what BMW should really be doing, is releasing a car like the E30. Why? Why should they do that great BMW Know-It-All? Those cars are now forty years old. Their capabilities are about as relevant to today’s automotive market as a starting handle or paraffin headlamps. A forty-year-old BMW in 1985 would have had two wheels, or wings and a propellor. Those cars were the epitome of solid (and often sideways) Teutonic virtue, but like the Blaupunkt often found nestled in their center consoles, their best time has gone. You cannot keep looking to the past because companies, markets and customers change and evolve over time. No matter how shrill the cries from the BMW neckbeards get, the company continues to sell more cars than ever every year. Clearly they are getting most things mostly right.

Bmw1

The problems have arisen because when BMW has got it wrong, they got it really wrong. Their worst crimes are twofold. The iX is a horrific-looking thing, no matter how well it drives. And the XM is even worse. These fractal monstrosities seem to exist on a different plane, a glitch slightly out of phase with the rest of the automotive universe. Here’s what I had to say when David admitted to quite liking it back in January last year:

“Readers, I think all this worrying about moving has reformatted David’s head, rewriting the bit that controls the eyesight. I mean, I know he wears glasses but I had assumed as he can drive his optical cortex was functioning somewhat, but it appears not. There’s so much wrong with the appearance of the iX it’s hard to know where to direct the spleen juice first. Remember when you were little and tried on your dad’s suit? That’s what the body of the iX is like. Flabby and oversized and creased in all the wrong places. There’s competing shapes fighting each other all over the place, the wheel arch flats are stolen from a completely different car making it look under wheeled and the C pillar is all wrong. There’s corners where there should be curves and the whole thing shrieks of inconsistency inside and out. The color ways are bad, the wheels are terrible and there is not one thing I can find about this eyesore that I like. Put the entire production run into a burlap sack and chuck it into the Danube so no-one should ever have to gaze upon the horror ever again.

Bmw2

ADVERTISEMENT

Bmw3

They’re Just Bad Design

The issue isn’t just that these designs are not visually attractive, it’s been the arrogance of the company in promoting them, and in particular head of BMW Design Domagoj Dukec, in his insistence that BMW are right and everybody else is wrong. In a paid editorial puff piece shamelessly published by Esquire, he states:

“What I try to teach everyone who is not a designer is that good design is not about pretty or ugly. These things are subjective. What is pretty? You will never design anything that 100% of people will like. It’s not possible, because people have such different tastes and needs. So it’s not about taste, but about gauging what a customer actually desires, or what they could desire in the future.”

I think Dieter Rams might have something to say about that. The third of his Ten Principles for Good Design is: Good Design is aesthetic. To add to that I’ll repeat something I wrote for my XM piece:

“In his book Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things, Professor Donald Norman makes the case that our relationship with an object is initially determined by our visceral reaction to it. Are we attracted or repelled? Things we like the look of are more likely to have a positive emotional impact on us, and in turn we are more likely to engage with them”.

ADVERTISEMENT

Bmw4

Going by that measure, customers have been repelled by the iX and the XM. The only model-by-model breakdown of sales figures I can find was on a BMWblog post reporting on the global sales of the XM in 2023. That contains a chart showing in the first nine months of that year, just 35,088 iXs and 4,450 XMs were sold.

You can point your internet browser to any number of online interviews with Dukec defending these cars, but the reality is their external design is very poor, no matter how much you try and spin it, intellectualize them, or vilify people for just not getting it. The hubris of that tactic is underlined by the following tweet, which to their eternal credit BMW haven’t deleted.

BMW doesn’t break the sales figures for models within a range down, so we don’t know how much the infamous beaver teeth version of the kidney grill has affected the four series and the M models they infect. What we do know is they were done deliberately at the behest of marketing. From the book BMW by Design by Steve Saxty:

ADVERTISEMENT

..That need for distinction was something that board member for Sales and Marketing Ian Robertson was seeking in 2017 the G2x-generation of 3 and 4 Series cars was being designed. “The X Series SUV grilles were becoming twice the size of those on BMW sedans,” he says. “So we needed something different for the sportier cars. We looked at the aggressive grilles on the 3.0 CSL Hommage and I was the one who pushed for them to go onto the next 4 series because it helped differentiate the couple from the 3 series sedan. I debated it with [R&D boss] Klaus Fröhlich and we got so excited by the idea that we wondered if we could put them on the 8 Series too, but it was too late – a shame, because we could have positioned it differently too.”

The simple truth was that the 4 Series coupe looked far more assertive with a horizontal [I assume this is meant to be vertical – AC] treatment. Although it caused controversy amongst traditionalists, the car won over a new generation of younger buyers. Doing that is essential in a fashion-conscious area of the market. Let’s leave the last word to Ian Robertson, the man who pushed for the idea. “We might have lost some 4 Series buyers,” he says, “but we attracted far more. That’s our job – and I’d do the same thing again.”

Bmw5

Bmw6

Beaver teeth and hunchback even-numbered X models aside, the truth is the rest of the BMW range is mostly solidly handsome – now that I’ve seen and sat in the cyborg limo-of-the-future 7 series I quite like it, although along with most BMW models, it’s very color and trim dependent. Not outstanding, but I mentioned before the pre-Bangle era models were all considered conservative in their day.

ADVERTISEMENT

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

So again, why are we having this discussion now? BMW’s latest effort, the Concept Skytop was revealed back in May at the Concorso d’Eleganza at the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este on Lake Como. The tedious online BMW design discourse has roused itself back into action, heaping praise on it for not having a hideous grill and being proof that BMW can design good looking cars when it tries. I did see one curious assessment praising it for having a Bangle Butt like the E63, which is something the Skytop very clearly does not possess.

Bmw7

Bmw9

Bmw8

Bmw10

ADVERTISEMENT

Nonetheless, it’s a nicely considered, opulent open tourer with a hint of 71-74 Mustang around the side glass opening and sail panel. I think the lights are a bit shallow – this is in vogue at the moment but it makes the lit elements look a bit lost in all the sheet metal on the front and rear fasciae, and the front cheek surface between the headlight and vent is doing too much work in too small a space. Compared to the front fender line the rear is much softer – I think more consistency between these two lines would help.

The thought I have been having for a few months now is that after the PR missteps of the various Dukec interviews, and the iX controversy, BMW has been making a concerted effort to rehabilitate their design image in the eyes of enthusiasts. What planted the seed for this in my cynical mind initially was the arrival on my doorstop at the end of last year of my (purchased with my own money) copy of BMW by Design, which provided much of the background for my E30 piece. Saxty’s previous books, Secret Fords, are very much the definitive design history of Ford design in Europe, detailing how various cars went from sketch to production and all the politics and corporate interference that entailed. BMW by Design is nothing like as in-depth–despite getting glowing reviews elsewhere, it’s far less critical than the Ford books, as I hope the passage quoted earlier demonstrates. It could never have been written without BMW’s help, and there is an ongoing book tour at BMW-centered events going on throughout the summer.

Money Talks

Think I’m being my usual bitter self? Over on the Supercar Blondie TikTok there’s been a spate of BMW-centric videos recently – including the eye-popping GINA, which was a genuinely influential concept during the time of Chris Bangle. It’s actually featured twice, along with the Vision Next 100, the Vision M Next, the 328 Hommage, the Touring Coupe, the CSL Hommage R,  and of course the Skytop. I know this is partly how auto media works these days (although it doesn’t have to: you can support long form pieces like this by becoming a member here) but this is far more coverage than any other OEM has received (or rather granted). Still think I’m being cynical?

Bmw11

Bmw13

ADVERTISEMENT

It’s been mentioned recently that due to its rapturous reception as something of a return to form, the Skytop is being considered for production. This has happened with previous concepts: The Vision M Next was due to be built based on an overhauled i8 platform – the work was all done until it was cancelled at the last gasp. BMW Group head of design Adrian van Hooydonk and Chief Engineer Markus Flasch pushed the board to put a previous Villa d’Este darling, the Touring Coupe into production, but were unsuccessful.

Bmw15

One that did succeed was the 3.0 CSL Hommage, which made it into production as the limited-run 3.0 CSL in 2022. Essentially a hand-built, carbon-bodied M4 with a manual gearbox and yellow headlights, fifty were built and sold out in weeks at a list price of €750,000 ($813k). RM Sotheby’s sold one with 33 miles on it for €1,017,500 ($1.1m). My suspicion is that if any of those specials had been made they would have been offered by BMW in a similar manner, and that if it makes production the Skytop will be as well. Clearly there are a lot of rabid BMW fans with very deep pockets hankering for the old days, and in some way I don’t begrudge BMW for doing this. There is always a ceiling as to how high a premium (as opposed to exotic or luxury) brand can reach. This is one way for Munich to access the wallets of High Net Worth Individuals.

So yes, BMW can and does design great-looking cars when it tries, but the ones that really curry your wurst won’t be priced at a level you, me or any of those raging shitpirates who worship the Luthe era cars, can afford. We’ll have to enjoy the good cars they currently make and hope they don’t make a hunde dinner of the neue Neue Klasse cars. Now how’s that for cynical?

Bmw16

ADVERTISEMENT

All images courtesy of BMW Press Club

Relatedbar

 

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on reddit
Reddit
Subscribe
Notify of
145 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
3WiperB
3WiperB
4 months ago

That’s such a spectacular first paragraph!

I’m glad they haven’t messed with the grill on the 3 series and that they still offer some great colors. The wife loves her ’21 330e in Portimao Blue with the M-Sport package.

Amberturnsignalsarebetter
Amberturnsignalsarebetter
4 months ago
Reply to  3WiperB

I think BMW does a great job making the wagons look ‘right’ – the F31 and G21 are both really good looking, and the E34 Touring still looks handsome 30 years later.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
4 months ago

Part of the problem is how cars are photographed. Often from low pavement angle or just in ways they will never be viewed in real life. BMW could benefit from stylists that consider what the vehicle would look like hitched up to a tow truck or on a flat bed. Much more realistic

CampoDF
CampoDF
4 months ago

Thank you Adrian for the snarky reference to what Adobe is sure to do thirty years in the future re: hourly subscriptions. As an architect, we are hosed by the almighty Autodesk and forced to pay for the most ridiculous subscription fees packaged into a “suite” of software that we hardly even use – and there’s basically no innovation other than tweaking UI button icons every couple of years as justification for said “subscription” model of software “ownership”. They’ve even tried out pay per use subscriptions…

Daniel MacDonald
Daniel MacDonald
4 months ago
Reply to  CampoDF

Lol my god I hope not, but hourly subscriptions seems like such a thing they would do if they thought they could get away with it. I so wish someone would challenge adobe’s dominance in the creative tools space. Theres some really great UX tools now but none of those companies has branched into competing with Adobe on other types of creative software tools.

Church
Church
4 months ago

As long as we are talking aesthetics, what is going on with that header image? An entire letter is covered by the foreground graphic and I find it off-putting.

Church
Church
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

This is what you get when you outsource. To be fair, I never actually thought you did it. We know who does the header images most of the time.

Robn
Robn
4 months ago
Reply to  Church

Better Bimmers? Bitter Bimmers? Butter Bimmers?

Theotherotter
Theotherotter
4 months ago

It wouldn’t take too much for the front end of the current 7-series to make a more explicit reference to some of Paul Bracq’s studies from the mid-70s, when he was trying to get rid of the shark nose.

Cerberus
Cerberus
4 months ago

Only BMWs I ever really loved the looks of were the 328, 507, E9s, and M1 and they just make unreliable fancier Toyotas now, so it doesn’t really matter to me what they look like. Some other models were good, but nothing that really grabbed me. At one point, E9s were still fairly cheap and I thought about getting one, but from talking to people, it seemed they were more expensive and difficult to work on than a Ferrari 308 (about the same price at the time) and if I wasn’t super enthused about a 308, no way in hell I was going to bother with a BMW. I will say that I really like that emerald green they have. Someone has an M4 around here in that color and it’s fantastic.

Nic Periton
Nic Periton
4 months ago

I bought an XM this week, it is beautiful but it going to take a lot of time and money to get going again. It is a Citroen that has been in a collection for twenty years.

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
4 months ago

I remember thinking; Is that a commonly used design practice? when the stretched skin over wire-frame GINA made its debut. I could see it being a useful tool if you say you are limited to a production body in white, and want to try out alternate styles.

If you’re going to Futuramatize Torch, at least give him Bender.

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Is it a common practice, or just BMW, and just that time frame?

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Interesting. Even with great advancements in CAD, I could see merit in using easily modified full size wire frame and stretchable fabric to refine a design, add some foam under fabric in areas, scan it, then do clay model.

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Has any software offered a “virtual clay” mode where using VR googles and gloves, you could sculpt a surface, and once saved would create the math data?

Tinctorium
Tinctorium
4 months ago
Reply to  Hoonicus

Yep, it’s called GravitySketchVR

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
4 months ago
Reply to  Tinctorium

Thanks, figured something of the sort must be available by now, wished for it in 1996.

Tinctorium
Tinctorium
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

It’s great for interiors, where heavily cheated sketches can lead to cramped spaces. It gives a good way to understand how a space will feel through the whole development process.

Argentine Utop
Argentine Utop
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Benderizing Torch?
Oh, boy.

Chronometric
Chronometric
4 months ago

I am happy to be the grumpy old man driving a 2002.

Chronometric
Chronometric
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Well of course not. What modern buyer would want a spartan and efficient SEDAN, even if it is a masterclass in packaging and handling? I had to add a Bluetooth radio just to get my niece to ride in it.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
4 months ago
Reply to  Chronometric

I had to add a Bluetooth radio just to get my niece to ride in it.

Well yeah, what’s the fun of being a passenger in one of those? An old BMW SEDAN may be fun to drive but not so much fun to be driven in.

(FWIW I find kids prefer minivans. So much more room for friend and crap.

Chronometric
Chronometric
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

My 2002 (not a tii) was almost $8000 in 1976! It was purchased by a physician in Florida with every option including air conditioning. Great car, bad deal.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
4 months ago

BMW has become the reality-design show contestant who argues that nobody understands their talent when culled from the show after presenting a succession of garments that are ill-fitting, unflattering, bizarre colors, using inappropriate fabrics and are poorly finished.

Last edited 4 months ago by Urban Runabout
Ppnw
Ppnw
4 months ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

Yet the the contestant still wins in the end? Because that’s BMW’s story – a whole lot of winning, whether you like it or not.

Last edited 4 months ago by Ppnw
Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
4 months ago

Not to be too disagreeable, but to my eyes this design is better in the same way as how you feel on the second day after you discover you’re going to survive ebola relative to how you felt on the first day. It’s going to be a long recovery.

D0nut
D0nut
4 months ago

So I bought an (used) iX a few months back. I went into it thinking that its controversial looks may actually help me in getting a good deal. It probably did. Now, maybe I’m used it, and I think the interior has always been great (just wish it had more physical buttons), but I think it actually looks OK now.

The XM on the other hand is horrendous.

And… yes, the neue klasse cars look better, but at least BMW is trying to do something different.

D0nut
D0nut
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

I mean even ugly children have parents that think they are beautiful 🙂

Daniel MacDonald
Daniel MacDonald
4 months ago
Reply to  D0nut

I do think that one of the weird things to me about the iX is that a lot of the small details in the body work are very well done, the paint quality is clearly better than average to my eye. There’s a lot of stuff they clearly went above and beyond on them even if I can’t bring myself to really like the overall looks. And the interior from what I’ve seen in photos and videos is genuinely innovative and attractive.

D0nut
D0nut
4 months ago

Yeah, I actually really like the car, and a lot of thought went into it. It’s got a unique structure with a bit of CFRP, and was built as an EV from the start. For what I need, it’s perfect. I mean, I did make sure my wife was OK with us getting an “objectively ugly car” before I pulled the trigger :).

Daniel MacDonald
Daniel MacDonald
4 months ago
Reply to  D0nut

Lol I mentioned to my wife I thought a used i3 would be a great daily for me and she looked at my with that quizzical look like a bug just flew out of my mouth 😀

To me the tragedy of the iX is that they could’ve taken all that thoughtful build and engineering and wrapped it in a less controversial form and had a real hit on their hands.

Number One Dad
Number One Dad
4 months ago

It’s a shame that out of any design element, the kidney grille is the hill they’re absolutely gonna die on, since I think it translates horribly to both electric cars and giant SUV fronts. The customer segment they look like they’re designing for today is “something to buy for your do-nothing kid to do donuts in the courthouse parking lot after your lawyer gets him acquitted for his sixth DUI”.

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
4 months ago

Off topic but since you did mention the Mustang styling confluence, I can’t wait to hear your take on Ford’s apparently soon-to-drop new Capri.

I don’t hate it and I think I can even see an attempt at replicating the original’s side glass?

Angrycat Meowmeow
Angrycat Meowmeow
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Looking forward to it

Mike F.
Mike F.
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

As a once-owner of a ’72 Capri, and having just seen the purported new thing, I will have the popcorn popped and ready to go.

Gilbert Wham
Gilbert Wham
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Hear hear. That fucking thing makes me massively upset.

Bshaffe33
Bshaffe33
4 months ago

Just me saying the name Adrian van Hooydonk in my head the rest of the day…

Ranwhenparked
Ranwhenparked
4 months ago

I just assumed their management either got off the drugs, or switched to better drugs

Taco Shackleford
Taco Shackleford
4 months ago

Dieter Rams: “We should forego them because we need the resources for better things”

Amschroeder5
Amschroeder5
4 months ago

Yeah… I mean nothing in this article shows a non-ugly BMW.

Maybe I’m just too young for it (early 30s millennial), but I’ve never found even the ‘golden era’ bmw’s particularly great looking, and these have been downright horrific. But I also don’t find retrofuturistic style like the Ionic 5 good either. Now, despite the ‘very not luxury’ interiors, if I could get a Mk5 Mondeo Liftback here in the US…. *that* I find incredibly well done. Better than the overwrought AMs it came from.

Amschroeder5
Amschroeder5
4 months ago
Reply to  Amschroeder5

sorry Mk4

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
4 months ago
Reply to  Amschroeder5

I’m older, so I first fell in love with Ford’s 5 door hatches back when the Merkur Scorpio hit the shores here in the ’80s. Sooo unlike anything else with a domestic nameplate.

So the Mondeo MkIV is very desirable to me too, like a much cooler alternate universe Fusion.

Amschroeder5
Amschroeder5
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Certainly, and for me, one of those nostalgic cars was the Transformers Camaro Concept. Another the Series 2 Elise. Ford GT. The like. Growing up in the late 90s early 2000s did not see many beautiful cars in suburbia. People can complain about the sameness of the current era all they want, but it is sooo much better than it was when I was a kid.

Carbon Fiber Sasquatch
Carbon Fiber Sasquatch
4 months ago

As much as I don’t like quoting Jeremy Clarkson, BMW is currently doing what Ferrari is often guilty of. Per Clarkson, “Ferraris are often striking, but rarely are they beautiful.” BMW’s currently turn heads but few of them are actually good looking.

Al Camino
Al Camino
4 months ago

Does auto design reflect the culture? If so, BMW’s designs aptly represent today’s effed up culture.

Maryland J
Maryland J
4 months ago

Or they simply changed based on new market research. In Toyotaland, Lexus just started moving away from the predator grilles because only recently did the market research show that it was the most significant turn off for new buyers.

I honestly think Honda and Hyundai/Kia have the best approach to this.

In Honda’s case, they alternate between batshit ugly and conservative every Civic generation to woo both the young buyer and older buyer demographics respectively.

In Hyundai/Kia’s case, they simply keep throwing new designs and redesigns ala kitchsink style every generation and refresh, to see what sticks. But specific to them, they are vertically integrated, so they can do it a much lower cost than other manufacturers.

Maryland J
Maryland J
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Sure, about ten years ago. Lexus and Toyota are merging design languages now.

For example, the new Toyota Crown Signia and Lexus RZ look like color swaps, with near similar grilles, general styling cues. The new Lexus GX now has vertical fin vents under the lights, which is a typical Toyota truck styling cue, found on the Tundra/Tacoma/Sequoia

It’s even worse on the interior. Look at the interior of a Toyota Crown and compare that to a Lexus RX. If you cover up the badges and showed someone both interiors, I dare them guess which is which. They also share the same infotainment system, with no effort to make the Lexus version feel any more premium or upscale than its Toyota counterpart.

Angular Banjoes
Angular Banjoes
4 months ago

Here’s an unpopular opinion – I actually like the XM. It’s not a beautiful machine, but in the correct spec, it’s kinda cool. Plus, things like the XM aren’t meant for folks like us, they’re intended for people who want a big flashy ostentatious display of wealth, and by that metric, it’s a success. I can’t defend the iX however, that thing is hideous.

As a BMW fan, I’ve fallen on many a sword in defense of their design choices, from the Clown Shoe (remember, that was not considered to be a particularly attractive design at the time) to the Banglemobiles to the XM. I even spent my own Shekels on a G87 M2 despite the widespread hatred for its design. I’ve found that new BMWs are initially polarizing, but over time, they become more appealing. I use the M3/M4 as an example – the beaver teeth looked ridiculous, but the more I see them, the more I like them. It helps that I live in a state without front license plates though, because the beaver tooth M cars look funny with an American license plate stuck in the grille.

Citrus
Citrus
4 months ago

It should be noted that the clown shoe is actually quite ugly, but in a weird and charming way, while the XM is ugly without charm.

Some of the Bangle stuff also looked good, just caught in the E65 backlash – I think the E60 was handsome and clearly influential – and the E65 will always be ugly.

Bracq P
Bracq P
4 months ago
Reply to  Citrus

I was told by a board member at the time (1999) it was intentionally designed to be a polarizing and small run, rejected by most but with a cult-like following by the few.

США! США! США!
США! США! США!
4 months ago
Reply to  Citrus

I had a last-of-the-line 2001 E38 740i from 2003 until 2006. A car that most people consider as BMW’s pinnacle. I had an E65 after that. Twice actually. Both a pre-facelift and a post-facelift. I loved the E65 more than the E38. Particularly the pre-facelift. I did hate the E65 when I first saw it but the design grew on me over time and I still to this day think it is an amazing design. I guess I am one of the few of the Chris Bangle cult. I love that the design to this day still looks modern even though it is more than 20 years old. To me, it reminds me of Frank Gehry’s design aesthetic applied to cars. I think the E63 6-series was amazing as well. I do think BMW design has sucked since Chris Bangle left though. There are individual models that are OK. The only one recent that I truly thought was attractive was the E89 Z4.

Last edited 4 months ago by США! США! США!
Ricardo Mercio
Ricardo Mercio
4 months ago

That really is an unpopular opinion. I see the parallel with the Z3, but there are some things that I think differentiate the situations enough to condemn the XM.

One thing that really helps the Z3’s case is that it was functionally unique. It was the first BMW roadster in decades, and when they gave it a hard top, it gained noticeable practicality and chassis stiffness while also becoming the world’s only long-nosed shooting brake (that I can think of right now). It stands out by default, and THEN there’s the weird styling. Now, the Z3 is one of the only attainable shooting brakes from the past half-century alongside the AMC Gremlin, Volvo 480, and maybe a couple others I can’t remember, with the Volvo P1800SE just outside that 50-year mark. Out of those, it’s the only performance car. It’s funky-looking, but as a RWD 2-seat performance hatchback, what it does is also funky, so it matches up, and people can enjoy an ugly duckling with substance inside.

The XM, meanwhile, is a 3-row, 2-box SUV with black cladding around the wheels and a square hood. This format is the rule now, not the exception. In 20 years’ time, it’ll be one of a million luxury SUV’s, and won’t look any better. It’s divisive and looks weird and unique, but nothing backs that up on the inside. The suspension, engine, packaging, everything under the skin is ordinary for its market segment and time period.

Another example of BMW successfully going against the grain is the X6. When it came out, it was one of the ugliest cars around, but it was the prettiest SUV-fastback in the world, by virtue of being the only one. Nothing else followed that form factor at the time, and it was successful for that. I still don’t like it, but it did the polarizing thing well anyway.

Gilbert Wham
Gilbert Wham
4 months ago
Reply to  Ricardo Mercio

You missed out the Reliant Scimitar.

Ricardo Mercio
Ricardo Mercio
4 months ago
Reply to  Gilbert Wham

Thank you, I knew I would be missing something.

Attila the Hatchback
Attila the Hatchback
4 months ago
Reply to  Ricardo Mercio

What about the Acura ZDX?

The ZDX was about a year later than the X6, and (IMO) is a similar shape. I guess the ZDX was a bit smaller / shorter, but still an ugly fastback CUV.

Ricardo Mercio
Ricardo Mercio
4 months ago

You know, I had completely forgotten about it. Thank you for reminding me of another cursed vehicle.

Angular Banjoes
Angular Banjoes
4 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Oh, I’m definitely not arguing that’s it’s a good design – it is not, I just happen to kinda dig it in certain specs. By “certain specs” I mean dark colors, and without the gold/bronze trim.

Naterator
Naterator
4 months ago

I don’t understand why BMW never made the 2002 Hommage, but went full throttle on the ugly cars.

Arch Duke Maxyenko
Arch Duke Maxyenko
4 months ago

Are they though? Have you seen the supposed leak of the next X3?

Jonathan Green
Jonathan Green
4 months ago

The next X3? That’s not a leak. That’s a full on Sh-t…

Citrus
Citrus
4 months ago

Long lead times. It was clearly in the works when they thought that people wanted the iX and XM, but their relative failure has made a new design direction necessary. Which is fine, for concepts, but that thing was probably way too far along before the design department had to reconsider their approach.

Vanillasludge
Vanillasludge
4 months ago

Having exhausted all other possibilities, BMW will now begin building good looking cars.

1 2 3
145
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x