according to Auto Express BANGLE ON HIS WAY OUT It looks as though the controversial relationship between BMW and its chief designer,Chris Bangle,could be coming to the end of the road,Auto Express can exclusively reveal. While the flamboyant stylists radical remake of the German company's range has divided opinion across the car world,BMW has remained fiercely loyal to him.Now however there are rumours that the American,whom we interviewed exclusively back in issue 773,will step down from the hot seat in less than a years time. According to our source at BMW HQ in Munich,word has it that Bangle will stay for the Global launch of the 1 Series this autumn,before declaring that his daring brand rethink is complete and that the time has come for a new design boss to take over *(stolen from clubb5.com**) **(stolen from autoexpress.com)
Because there's a lag between design and production, and he's gotta be there for his models to roll out. Then he can go. If he left any earlier, the replacement design chief would be perceived as being behind any Bangle remnants--besides the crap we have already seen, there's a couple more Bangle designs, such as the 1-series, which have yet to hit the market.
The sooner that BMW decides to "dangle Bangle" from the end of a spark plug wire (yeah, I know, they don't use them anymore)........the better.
I'm sorry, he doesn't own a rule. Flame surfacing burned it up. He has lots of mirrors though, to keep his greatest admirer near always. Good riddance, he has made my favorite sedan company into a cartoon. Hope he and the I-drive instigator have to drive crap like that for eternity. I want DRIVERS cars back, not Bangle-ized fashion items who spend all their time getting re-programmed again and again. The Ken Lay of auto design....
Agree with stufmato, go back to driver's cars. E30 M3, E36 M3, all M5's, etc, awesome cars. The new 5 to me is the best, but is still so horrid, that I would far prefer one of the last of the E39 M5s...
Good Riddance!!!!!!!! But I can't help thinking that it's like closing the barn door after all the cows have gotten out. He has already ruined BMW for me. I'll now keep my E39 530 Sport and throw the full Dinan treatment at it. The wife will get a Benz next. On a related note, does anybody know actual numbers to support how the new 5 is selling? They have been out for several month's down here in New Orleans and I have seen 1. That's right, 1!! Bangle should be made to personally apologize to each and every BMW shareholder. Dave
Awwww, why get rid of him, he was so great for the competition! I like my BMW's looking like a discombobulated mess with flares and angles. If your ever in So Cal, drinks are on me, BMW lovers. This is great news! Sunny
At least he tried something different. Since the dawn of time, all of the damn German cars look the same (i.e Porsche 911, etc), and then this guy named Chris Bangle (a non-German, I might add) tries to update those tired-ass bland BMW designs half the world calls for his arrest. So you want the ugly uniform German look where every car from the lowly 3xxi to the M5 looks exactly the same? Sorry, stop living in the past.