BMW styling going downhill and SUV's?

[SW111]

Just saw an article about the 25th anniversary celebration of the X5. It is generally acknowledged that BMW's best years were the late 90's and early 2000's. It is also generally acknowledged that BMW is going downhill, especially in the styling department. Is it a coincidence that the introduction of SUV's coincides with the downward trend? I remember when BMW did not make SUV's and were considered drivers cars. Excellent steering and road feel, and overall road manners. They looked good too. It seems to me they are just ugly expensive luxury cars now. There are exceptions, and I consider my 2016 F22 M235 with a manual transmission as one of them, but it is almost 10 years old. I got it because it was the smallest lightest thing they made. I had been without a BMW for awhile and wanted something on the new side. At the local BMWCCA chapter cars and coffee everyone gravitates toward the older cars. The equivalent 2 series now is a boxy, ugly car. I honestly can’t think of anything in their current lineup that I would consider attractive. I just saw a new 7 series and one of its grills would cover both mine. I was invited to an X3 event at the local dealer. Same thing, ugly grills and blocky styling. The dash was hideous, a big screen stretched across the dash. It reminded me of a Tesla.

///M cars used to be somewhat exclusive and special. My E34 ///M5 was one of about 1500 in the U.S. It was hand assembled and had an engine derived from racing. Now they plaster the ///M badge all over, on every thing they make. It is the one thing I really dislike about my car. ///M badges everywhere.

Maybe BMW would have ended up here without the SUV's. There are other factors to be sure, Chinese and younger people’s tastes among them. But I think SUV's took the focus away from the cars. I know I am out of their target demographic now, but the Audi's and Mercedes I see around look decent.

Moderators move this to the "You know you're old when" thread if needed.

https://bimmerlife.com/2024/11/13/ce...tm_name=member

[MJBO]

Enough Generals in that post to staff an army!

You can keep your old 2 series, I’ll be enjoying my G81 and my wife is loving her G42 M240i

I don’t love everything BMW is doing, but some of it is down to increasingly stringent regulations, and others are simply what the buyers want.

I love everything about my G81, and I’ve previously had an F82 M4, E90 M3 and E46 M3 manual.

[SW111]

Yep. I mentioned that I am not their target demographic anymore and time has passed me by. I should have put in the "You know your old" thread.

[stbm5]

BMWs from a lot of years have been great. ive had an M3, M4 and M5 in the last 10 years and they were all great cars. had an X3M that was awful, truly terrible and i returned it to dealer after 2 weeks. overall though, i think they are still making great vehicles. who else offers the performance of an M3 at a lower price? might be able to argue a couple but the current M3 gives great bang for your buck, looks amazing and has great performance. does porsche have an equivalent? nope. mercedes more expensive. audi less reliable...

[DanG]

Got to remember that SUVs outsell cars. But BMW true M cars are still something special.

[BMWbiker]

BMW hasn’t been the same since they discontinued the Isetta.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by BMWbiker

BMW hasn’t been the same since they discontinued the Isetta.

It’s hard to argue with that.

[tturedraider]

I don’t think the design disaster that has befallen BMW has much to do with the SUVs. I think it has to do with the Chinese market influence and they, for some stupid reason, decided BMW design should be avant-garde. Damn the classic aesthetics that got BMW where they are today and kept their cars designs looking classic for decades after they were produced. And it definitely is affected by their decision to abandon their focus on being a driver’s car, which wasn’t helped by the introduction of SUVs.

[Nahlem]

Times change and BMW adapts to the change but i think BMW is still offering great products to a variety of customers both for the traditionalists and the newer generation. But again BMW as any other company has to adapt and move on to where the profits are and they are not in the "classic" BMW sense any-more, but that doesn't mean those customers are gone BMW definitely should offer a product for them to they are still an part of the companies loyal customers but not the biggest one any-more.

But when it comes to SUVs i have a hard time with SUVs i prefer touring versions instead but i do understand the attraction of SUVs, sitting higher up, feeling more safe due to it being a bigger cars and the luxury feeling of them, but the precived safety of SUVs are no longer true sense a lot more people have SUVs nowadays it was a study that was done not to long ago where they came to the conclusion that yes SUV driver was safer in a head on collision then those in smaller cars for a while until the rest of them catched up so nowadays no one is safer then the other ones because a lot more people are driving SUVs and they weight a lot more and the crashes are more violent as a result to the massive energy at play here. The biggest losers in the game is pedestrians and cyclists those who aint in any cars. Even the truckers are getting more injuries due to the big massive collisions with SUVs.

So now we are in a situation where the customers who bought the first SUVs that came a long are now switching to larger ones to keep feeling more safe, and you see where this is going? "Customer A buys a large SUV for his family to feel safe on the road, Customer B no longer feels safe in his compact/touring car so he buys a SUV, now Customer A also feels unsafe again and buys a larger SUV. "

Its an horrible circle we can't seem to get out of!

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by tturedraider

I don’t think the design disaster that has befallen BMW has anything to do with the SUVs. I think it has to do with the Chinese market influence and they, for some stupid reason, decided BMW design should be avant-garde. Damn the classic aesthetics that got BMW where they are today and kept their cars designs looking classic for decades after they were produced. And it definitely is affected by their decision to abandon their focus on being a driver’s car, which wasn’t helped by the introduction of SUVs.

Absolutely spot on.

BMW has always been a popular "have the new model" yuppie car. They predominantly so leases, and so BMW is not incentivized to have it's designs stay current looking.


The transition to SUVs is largely due to CAFE regulations. CAFE fleet requirements for cars have been insane for a long time, and anything that's a crossover or larger is considered a light truck and subject to different rules and lower restrictions. This is why you can still get a V8 in Audi SQ7, why the V8 will live on the in the next gen X5 and X7, but will only be in the M5. BMW simply cannot meet the CAFE fleet requirements that way. To be fair, they can't meet them regardless because they're insane, but BMW and others have decided to to what they can to limit their CAFE fines exposure. And the people who lose on this are consumers and especially enthusiasts.