New 4 series

[Gaz 1061]

Shoot me down but I like it

 

[Matth5 471]

Here's a video of one of the BMW Board members driving it:

I like the look from the side... but I'm one of those people that hate that huge front grille. The latest 3 series has a nicer grille design, wish they stuck with that... 

[BMWTouring 20]

I dig it, big time.

Nice to see someone going out on a limb like Chris Bangle, all of those Bangle busses are good lookers today just like this will be/is!

[Michael. 2313]

Looks like a Lexus & Alfa had a love child. Yikes. 

[Jacko 2156]

Looks like the front and back of two different cars stuck together.

[Herbmiester 925]

The new front is growing on me but at a slow rate to be fair.  

[M3AN 4016]

With the whole font end integrated into one now, the grill becoming the bumper, even low speed incidents are going to involve costly repairs.

Edit: the weight savings and CoG improvements are impressive for such a car and I must say I like the LED strip accent lighting. But that grill... and to see a lot of it is actually blanked off makes it even more egregious, not only is it ugly, it's unnecessary.

Edited June 5, 2020 by M3AN

[Gaz 1061]

Cheap bumper repairs have long been a thing of the past, unless you catch the bottom or the side. Parking sensors, active cruise control radars, cameras all add up fast

[Driftit 2078]

I didn't like the last generation of Lexus due to their over sized grill with much of it being fake. Don't like this one either. But it's designed for China not the enthusiast. 

[Jacko 2156]

3 hours ago, Driftit said:

I didn't like the last generation of Lexus due to their over sized grill with much of it being fake. Don't like this one either. But it's designed for China not the enthusiast. 

Exactly... big kidney grills are the equivalent of putting a giant phallus on the front to the Chinese market... 

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2957]

The key phrases associated with the new design language coming from Germany are "imposing" and "road presence" so I think they have met the brief there.

A number of the vehicle shots I have seen look pretty good - mostly the M440i with the different M Performance version of the front grilles. However, there have also been some photos of other cars that have looked very ordinary in the particular colour / style combination.

 

[lord_jagganath 421]

Just about 10 years ago, we were making fun of Audi and their huge nose grilles...

 

But it sounds like there will be a decent market for the blanking plates or nose fronts, for a more understated look. 

[M3AN 4016]

They were also making fun of front wheel drives. 

[Michael. 2313]

I think they could have made a long kidney grille work, but the rest of the bumper is such a mess, the bit's under the slightly too angry looking headlights are a really over the top, it's like they had to fill up as much surface area with overstyled shapes. 

I guess they haven't heard of the term ' less is more. '

 

 

[M3AN 4016]

Regardless of whether the "style language" catches on, they're disproportionate and non-functional (either largely or entirely blanked off).

That they've actually admitted why they've done it, to pander to the predominantly Chinese Asian market, makes it even worse. That's the tail wagging the traditional BMW dog as naked as can be. 

Tesla have already convinced many people that cars can look better without grills, it's difficult to see where BMW are going with this. Maybe they'll eventually just paint them on? Pure engineering that.

Edited June 10, 2020 by M3AN

[Jacko 2156]

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2957]

On 6/10/2020 at 10:12 PM, M3AN said:

That they've actually admitted why they've done it, to pander to the predominantly Chinese Asian market, makes it even worse. That's the tail wagging the traditional BMW dog as naked as can be. 

Designing a product for its key markets and customers would be good business sense to me. On the proviso it doesn’t completely turn off other customers.

The purchasing power of the Chinese market, due to both its size (bigger than all the European markets combined) and its profitability is massive, hence the focus in a one world product strategy.

It also has a knock-on effect into other Asia Pacific markets as well, there is a reason why NZs latest and greatest BMW dealership has signs in English and Chinese simplified.

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2957]

Not going to make the mistake of commenting on Global Politics on a car design thread, we all know how that ends up.

My reference is purely to the amount of $$$$s involved in the Chinese car market, and how that is influencing the design criteria.

[NZ BMW 368]

I was in China end of last year - most car plants running single shift and not a full week. The market was stuffed. Lots of companies were suffering double digit downturns. 

[B.M.W Ltd 950]

https://www.bmwblog.com/2020/04/02/bmw-kicks-off-construction-of-new-tiexi-plant-in-china/

[Michael. 2313]

10 hours ago, B.M.W Ltd said:

https://www.bmwblog.com/2020/04/02/bmw-kicks-off-construction-of-new-tiexi-plant-in-china/

I thought the point of buying a German car was because it was made in Germany. 

 

[Eagle 1662]

If predominately serving the Chinese market then i wouldn't expect most of buyers there would care given its a status symbol.

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2957]

On ‎6‎/‎12‎/‎2020 at 1:35 PM, NZ BMW said:

I was in China end of last year - most car plants running single shift and not a full week. The market was stuffed. Lots of companies were suffering double digit downturns. 

Yes, the China market was down year-on-year, around 9.5% by the end of the 2019 sales year. However, putting that into context it was still a total market of over 21 million vehicles, which is still over 4 million cars (the whole Japanese market) bigger than the next largest in that of the USA. All of the 28 EU markets combined together only got to just over 15 million units between them.

Whilst negative growth is never great news, volumes have been holding steady for the start of 2020 and bounced back to close to 2019 levels very quickly after the initial covid lockdown. There probably is over-capacity in the manufacturing side, one thing China is very good at is building the infra-structure ahead of the demand - so building massive plants that are at low levels of utilisation to start with and then come to full capacity in the future. Which is contrary to most other manufacturers where new plants are only committed too once there is a clear "need" and the capacity added is smaller and utilised more fully from the get go.

On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2020 at 12:18 AM, Michael. said:

I thought the point of buying a German car was because it was made in Germany. 

The vehicle is being bought predominantly as it is a status symbol or designer label if you will rather than because of it's nationality. In the same way that labels such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, Ralph Lauren are all manufactured in countries overseas from their national base. Many BMWs have been built outside of Germany for a long time, UK, South Africa and USofA being the most obvious and you can now add Mexico, Brazil, Austria and Holland to the list and that is before you include CKD plants in many markets.

An additional factor for the Chinese market is that there are huge taxes and tariffs added to cars that are built overseas, which make them horrendously expensive, even compared to similar locally built models. Also, any local manufacturing has to be on the basis of a "joint venture" with a local Chinese company, so all the car plants are shared ownership in effect. I seem to remember that a car company had to have a joint venture manufacturing plant to sell any of their cars into the local market, but I am not sure if that is still the case.

[Matth5 471]

They have a 420i at the Christchuch dealer...

Yeah not loving it. 

[Michael. 2313]

Next gen they will follow this trend and the grill will extend up the bonnet to the wind screen.

Will be quite the look!