Massive failure - new BMW
Massive failure - new BMW
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Discussion

rallycross

Original Poster:

13,757 posts

267 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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Has any manufacturer every got their design philosophy this badly wrong before?

Even Ford with the disastrous jelly mold Scorpio was not as bad as this mess.

Saw one today in the flesh for the first time - shocked to see such a vile looking Bmw:

AB

20,553 posts

225 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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Congratulations on being the first person to create a thread about this.

aka_kerrly

12,506 posts

240 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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Come on, you've been here long enough to know this has been covered a million times already and always results in someone posting the photoshop of BMW with enormous grills until it covers the whole front of the carhehe

A UK number plate fills some of the gap which helps. I suspect grills with a large surface area made from relatively flimsy plastic are good for pedestrian impacts versus the rather solid bumpers with small sections of plastic grill of pre 2010s cars. It's not just new BMWs, the Jaguar I- Pace has a rather excessive amount of grill, as does the current Mercedes line up.

rallycross

Original Poster:

13,757 posts

267 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
quotequote all
AB said:
Congratulations on being the first person to create a thread about this.
Well today was the first time I saw one on the road - what a design mess.

Bmw used to make nice things like this



WonkeyDonkey

2,591 posts

133 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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rallycross said:
Well today was the first time I saw one on the road - what a design mess.

Bmw used to make nice things like this


BMW used to make telephone poles?

Brooksay

1,290 posts

100 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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I've said it before, I'll say it again: BMW appears to model their cars on Daniella Westbrook these days.

mike74

3,687 posts

162 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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I find it hard to believe that this trend for MASSIVE grilles is just for pedestrian safety requirements, surely they could just design all or part of the bumper to be more flexible or sacrificially expendable.

JAMSXR

1,845 posts

77 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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To be fair, big grills are not a new trend. It seems that BMW have just made a total hash of the overall design, and the grill is the giant rotten cherry on top. Strange, a few years ago they made lovely things like the M2, and I also love the new M5 CS.

Having seen a few in the road, the M cars are quite imposing, but unfortunately it’s in a 90s Max Power kind of way…

Nice big grill.


Fusion777

2,630 posts

78 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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This is just further indication that we’re all getting old. We said it about the X5 (a BMW SUV? It’s the end of civilisation as we know it), the 1-series and the move to FWD. Neither of these negatively affected sales, and this probably won’t have too much influence either.

JAMSXR

1,845 posts

77 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
quotequote all
I thought the 1-series was a great move - the M140 is a fantastic little motor, looks good to.

You’ve got to think these grill machines are aimed at other markets outside of Europe. What is going on here, it’s laughable.





st, it’s just dawned on me at 35 I might be getting old. I guess the social media generation are all about being seen, no matter what the cost.

Acapulco99

48 posts

57 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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Evolve do a front bumper that does away with the horrendously massive grilles. Looks much better.

South tdf

1,828 posts

225 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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rallycross said:
Well today was the first time I saw one on the road - what a design mess.

Bmw used to make nice things like this


And people probably said the same thing when that was launched like most other BMW design changes. I remember the early 00’s 5 and 7 being quite radical at the time.

CRA1G

7,247 posts

225 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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I'm pleased to say the NEW M240i Xd hasn't fallen foul of the bigger grills..... I'm not pleased delivery has been put back from January to June...grumpy

MitchT

17,148 posts

239 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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I think photography really shows up the awkward proportions and clumsiness of the new 4 Series. When I've seen one on the road, however, I thought it actually looked quite nice. Of course, this may be because once the parameters of your visual expectations have been tuned by the usual plethora of banal SUVs, it's a relative breath of fresh air.

Ivan stewart

2,792 posts

66 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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I think German cars age well ,these will look ok in about ten years .

GT9

9,030 posts

202 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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CRA1G said:
I'm pleased to say the NEW M240i Xd hasn't fallen foul of the bigger grills..... I'm not pleased delivery has been put back from January to June...grumpy
The only difference being that they've not joined the top grille to the bottom one through the number plate bar, which many other manufacturers have done.

Yet when BMW do it, we go into nuclear levels of meltdown.

Whilst the chrome surround in the OP does the car no favours, we are going to look back in a couple of years at this storm in a tea cup and laugh.

As for the OP, it seems you have been self-isolating for 2 years straight.

I would be ready for a proper lie-down when you first lay your eyes on the iX, XM concept or the next 7 series.

Court_S

14,750 posts

207 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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I’ve seen plenty around but 8mm still not sold the looks, but I goes beyond the grilles. The 4 series just looks so heavy, slab sided and dumpy.

Pica-Pica

16,648 posts

114 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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Whenever I go into a main dealer for a service, I am just amazed at how huge the cars are. I thought going from an E36 to an F30 showed a big jump in dimensions, but nowadays they are just enormously impractical. As said, the grille diminishes subjectively with a number plate, and it’s prominence depends on body colour, of course.

Cliftonite

8,748 posts

168 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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.

I recall the shock, horror, incredulity experienced when first seeing this Vauxhall Senator model:

.

Picture: Wikipedia.

A few years later, they blended into the background, scarcely noticed.

A similar example was the mid-2000s Audi A6 etc when those grilles went full-height.

The same will happen to the BMW grilles when they are ubiquitous.

chandrew

981 posts

239 months

Thursday 27th January 2022
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Over the Christmas period, the generous owner of this Ferrari 250 SWB SEFAC kindly provided his car to be parked - in the falling snow - at an event that I was fortunate to be part of.



On leaving the building where the event was being held I walked up the short hill past the local BMW dealer when on the forecourt was parked a iX in a very similar colour.



It was very hard not to think that car design had taken a massive lurch backwards.