Bangle BMW's

[briancl]

Originally Posted by wEstSidE

I like the look of the E46 M3. I actually appreciate Chris Bangle's designs.

Not that you cannot hold both opnions, but you realize these are mutually exclusive? The E46 is a late 90's design that came well before Bangle was promoted up. The first design to be put into production under his reign was the E65/66 7-series around 2001 or so.

That said, the E46 is a beautiful car. The E36 and E30 are also beautiful. From what I've seen of the 3 series and the conceptuals/spyshots, I don't think the new E9x M3 will do the previous cars justice.

 

[Nantucket Red]

Originally Posted by imageWIS

NR,

You, don't like it, the apostrophe?

Jon.

I adore apostrophes where they belong.

The title should read either "Bangle's BMWs" with an apostrophe, or "Bangle BMWs" without the apostrophe.

Now that I've had that rant, let me put in my two cents about Bangle BMWs.

I like the 6 series cars a lot, though I find they fall just short of beautiful because of the front end. There are a lot of things I would change about it.

The 7 series always bored me, so there's scarcely any point in mentioning it except to say that I still marvel at its ugliness on the 5 or 6 occasions I see one pass every day.

I hate the new 3 series. If they were striving to come up with a car unique only for its generic lack of distinction, they've created a work of pure genius.

That leaves the 5 series. This I have just about started to get used to. It would be nice to tool around in an M5 for a while. They are not so bad looking, all things considered.

I must say that I've been wondering for years what made BMW stray so far from its aesthetic heritage.

 

[A Y]

Originally Posted by briancl

The E46 is a late 90's design that came well before Bangle was promoted up.

The E46 was designed completely under Bangle. Even the E39 was partly under his influence. I like the E36 best in 2-door M3 form (in Techno Violet and Modena Natur interior). The E30 looks good in so many of its models.

--Andre

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Andre Yew

The E46 was designed completely under Bangle. Even the E39 was partly under his influence. I like the E36 best in 2-door M3 form (in Techno Violet and Modena Natur interior). The E30 looks good in so many of its models. --Andre
Yes it was, but that was before they let him do whatever he wanted to do. He knows how to design cars, WHEN he is controlled. But, let him roam free and well, the results speak for themselves:

Jon.

 

[A Y]

Hmm, Bangle can do no good? Remember that the board of directors has to approve all of the designs, so it's not like he's running open loop.

Anyway, it looks like BMW USA's put up a bunch of videos on the design of their lines:

http://www.bmwusa.com/uniquelybmw/De...gnersSpeak.htm

It's a bit more fluffy than past ones, but still interesting.

Also, the MZ4 Coupe configurator is up, and I hear the demo cars have arrived in the US. I'm dreaming of an Estoril Blue MZ4 Coupe ...

--Andre

 

[imageWIS]

Andre,

Have you read what I have written? I have said that the only current BMW I like is the Z4, in both roadster and coupe form. Incidentally it tends to be the most hated design by people who love all the other Bangle-era cars.

Jon.

 

[Aureus]

The cars looks fine. The trouble is BMW always looked better than Mercedes. Now Mercedes is the better looker, and that is a failure for BMW.

 

[SGladwell]

Originally Posted by faustian bargain

hey now!

Fair point. The XJ40 may be a soulless, insipid, death-throes-of-British-Leyland attempt at riding the coattails of Sir William Lyons' inspired XJ-6 S1/S2 that was refined to perfection by Pininfarina (XJ-6 S3), but it is not really comparable the Bangle designs.

Unlike Bangle BMWs or other notable design failures such as the Triumph TR7 or Fiat Multipla its reach does not exceed its grasp.

Then again, isn't the Multipla a Bangle design, too?

 

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by Nantucket Red

A public service message from Bob the Angry Flower regarding the title of this thread (honestly, he forced me to post it).

****...thanks Nantucket...I should know better.

A.

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Aureus

The cars looks fine. The trouble is BMW always looked better than Mercedes. Now Mercedes is the better looker, and that is a failure for BMW.

I have to disagree. Mercedes have always had good (great) exterior design (SSK, 540K Spezial Roadster, 300 SL Gullwing / Roadster, W196, SLR, Pagoda SL, SL500, S-Class, etc...). The interiors were always quite bad in execution; that is to say, they used quality materials, but were always appalling when it came to design and ergonomics. Whereas I always found that BMW sometimes had to keep up with Mercedes in terms of exterior design and only really started to surpass them in the late 70's / early 80's. Which is coincidentally around the same time BMW started to really forge ahead, taking quite a bit of MB's market share.

The BMW's interiors however, were always well designed, and really showed their "˜ultimate driving machine' mantra by having the cockpit skewed towards the driver a-la fighter jet. Also, the ergonomics and placement of the switches and controls on BMW's have always been excellent (until iDrive).

Jon.

 

[LabelKing]

German car interiors were always inferior to English car interiors.

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by LabelKing

German car interiors were always inferior to English car interiors.

Not really. Check out an X-Type and an A4 and tell me which one is better made / uses better materials.

Jon.

 

[LabelKing]

Originally Posted by imageWIS

Not really. Check out an X-Type and an A4 and tell me which one is better made / uses better materials. Jon.
Well, I meant in terms of vintage. Vintage post-war German cars had a sometime fondness for leatherette and subdued plastics unless we are talking about the rather rare coupes like the 1958 220S or something of that nature. Now there are really no true English firms.

 

[SGladwell]

Originally Posted by imageWIS

Not really. Check out an X-Type and an A4 and tell me which one is better made / uses better materials.

I wasn't aware that Dearborn was in the UK...

 

[wEstSidE]

Originally Posted by briancl

Not that you cannot hold both opnions, but you realize these are mutually exclusive? The E46 is a late 90's design that came well before Bangle was promoted up. The first design to be put into production under his reign was the E65/66 7-series around 2001 or so.

That said, the E46 is a beautiful car. The E36 and E30 are also beautiful. From what I've seen of the 3 series and the conceptuals/spyshots, I don't think the new E9x M3 will do the previous cars justice.
I actually meant to say E90, but I slipped up. I do also like the E46. The only M3 design that doesn't really do much for me is the E36. It's a great car, and it looks pretty good, but it's just a little too bland for what it is. You should be able to tell a sports car when you see it.