Opinion of Chris Bangle's design direction with BMW...........

The style is in the toilet and it's hiding the reliability.

 

His trunk design clues obviously came from old '50's Rolls and mid-80's" Cadillac Sevilles, the former a far better design than any of the copiers including his. It is interesting that in the past 4 years BMW has been moving towards toning down the awkward rear end styling. The front end however has always been stylish to my eye.

 

Just saw another new M5 today. Got to take a good look at it as we were stuck in traffic in side-by-side lanes in the DC area today.

I still think they destroyed one of the best looking BMW models ever...

 

You have to be joking, that pre-B looks like an antique POS ;-).

 

Love the new designs. The 5, 6, and 7 are perfect. The 3, X3, and X5 are however not too shabby. BMW took a leap and it has paid off big for them. Benz also took a big leap with the CLS and it took off as well.

The pre-bangle BMW's look like antiques now days.

 

LOOK again...I have owned an e34 M5, e39 M5 and now my current e60 M5 and the new e60 is the best looking by leaps in bounds IMHO...it drives better, has better performance and better build quality as well...the only bad is the 12mpg the v10 gets in city driving...altough I did get 21.6mpg with the cruise control on at 80mph on a recent trip to Florida...

 

Yuk, I did like the old 7 series until I see it next to the new Bangle design...the new 7 series looks so much better IMHO...too bad a great visionary designer like Bangle isn't designing new Ferraris right now...

 

How do you know one is not? Have you taken a good look at the last two front-engine Ferrari models?

My deep moment of embarassment on these BMWs came when my next door neighbor showed up one evening with a brand new Bangle Seven. He was so proud of it that he rang my doorbell to show me all about it.

All I could do was mumer unintelligible things about what a pretty color (metallic bronze, I strategically lied about that too...) and marvel over the technical complexity of the I-drive -

I went back into the house, poured myself a stiff Glenlivet and soda, and stood around in my garage (with the door down) for a long time looking at my old Porsche 935 Targa and ZR1 Corvette.

My neighbor on the other side actually had a Pontiac Aztec for a while and to me it was not a bit more painful to look at.

Hope Jim is not a member here, but if so then I have been found out...

James

 

You are complaining about the new Bangle designed BMWs and you own a C4 Corvette and a targa Porsche! IMHO, the C4 is the butt-ugliest Vette ever made and a targa top destroys the lines and ruins the looks on any Porsche...you should be looking at them in your garage to figure out how you will ever be able to unload them on some blind fool...but, I guess the booze does help fuzz away some of the design flaws?

 

While I am not a fan of Bangle's designs, I do have to give him credit for being different. Is he a visionary? we will see in 5-10 years.

 

The booze was badly needed to fuzz away the I-drive in place of a gearshift.

About my cars:

I love them so much I will NEVER try to unload them on any blind fool.

FWTIW - the 993 Targa had an all glass sliding roof, not the targa band you may be thinking of. I bought the ZR1 for the engine, not the looks (like everyone else who has one). It is still better looking than that seven series or the C5, IMHO. And, yes, I have a C5 Z06 too.

Ahem, I think there is room for gentlemen to differ on such points...like movie divas from my era...you might pick Ellen Barkin, I will still prefer Michelle Pfieffer.

In all good fun, James

 

Vomit is just what the designers of the Enzo must have been thinking...LoL

 

Why would you think that? there has been a waiting list for all new M cars when they first come out including the new M6...and they are much larger waiting list as they make more M cars than Ferrari makes cars...

 

parkerfe...why try...you'll never get these people to see differently.

 

I guess I'm always a sucker for trying to educate the ignorant...

 

hahaha...say what you want...but like i said before bmw's are selling better than ever. So it must be a success for bangle. Hopefully one day you'll realize.

 

Hello,

I have been following the discussion regarding Bangle and hope you do not mind my contributing a few comments and some information.

As the design director, it was Chris Bangle's job to set and recommend design direction but it was approved by the BMW board.

The actual designers were however :

Adrian Van Hooydonk - E61 6 series, e65 7 series.

Joji Nagashima: E36 3 series, Z3, E39 5 series

Boyke Boyer: E38 7 series

Klaus Kapitza: E31 8 series

Geoff Velasco: X3 (Designworks)

Chris Chapman: X5 (Designworks)

Anders Warming: Z4 (Designworks)

Henrik Fisker: Z8 (previously with Aston Martin)

Kevin Rice: new 1 series

Erik Goplen: E46 3 series (Designworks/USA)

David Arcangeli: E60 5 series

Some such as Boyke Boyer have been with BMW for 30 years.

The new Mini and Rolls Royce designs were also approved by Bangle although he did not do the actual designs. The actual exterior designers were :

Frank Stephenson : new Mini Mk 1 (who also designed the Maserati MC 12)

Marek Djordjevic - RR Phantom

Ian Cameron like Bangle was not the designer but the design director of RR.

Many classic (read older) BMW designs were by ex Mercedes Designer Paul Barcq.

The new BMW designs have clearly polarised views but they still retain many of the design trademarks of BMW such as the kidney grilles, short overhangs and the C pillar kink to name a few.

Are the new designs a success ? Its hard to say. Going by sales, it would seem so but it has to be pointed out that BMW also sell a lot more models nowadays and it also depends on how the sales were obtained and calculated.

Another way to measure the success of the design is perhaps to see what the competition is doing in response. Long time rival and BMW's role model, Mercedes Benz seems to be aping its star pupil's designs with the CLS. The new S class (their most important car) in particular even sports a "bangle butt". As for Audi, while the new oversized grille is not a direct reference to the BMW designs, it does echo the in yer face Bangle design ethos. Its no accident also perhaps that these are also the top 3 selling German brands.

 

I would also add one more point.

I read one post where it was said that eastern car makers follow the west.

It might interest the poster to know that a Japanese designer Joji Nagashima designed many of the best loved BMWs and many of the Korean and Japanese cars are now designed by westerners from studios in the west.