Mistaken Identity

[BMWinAZ]

A few days ago I gassed up one of my cars at Costco and experienced a rather amusing mixup. I was absentmindedly staring at the three-quarter front profile of a small white sedan at the pump across and to the back of me. I thought it was rather funny that someone had slapped a BMW emblem on the hood of their Kia. As I kept staring, my brain registered that this “Kia” also had BMW wheels and brake calipers and then I realized that I was looking at an actual F44 BMW 2 series! And this is one of the many reasons why I have no desire to acquire any new BMW, another one being the very ugly front end of the current 4-series.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love BMWs and currently own three of them, an e46, e90 and f30. There are BMW models out there I would love to own and consider aspirational: they all have a “shark nose” in common and are around 35 to 40 years old! 😆

[NickyC]

The current 4 series/ G8x is horrid looking, there’s no denying that. However in a weird way I don’t mind the four door 2 series. I think the front of it looks pretty decent, even took a pic next to one last summer when I still had my F80. If the M3 or M4 looked anything remotely like the front end of the 2 series pictured below, I'd probably still have my G82.

If the chips were down, I wouldn’t mind owning one of these weird 2 series cars really hah.

[BMWinAZ]

I am not necessarily saying that this specific 2series was ugly, rather I am lamenting how newer BMWs like many other new cars have become visually interchangeable. I actually consider some Genesis, Hyundai, Kia models rather pleasant to look at (when they are not self-combusting on the side of the road). However, it makes me a little bit sad and nostalgic when a person with life long BMW experience (I learned to drive on a 1st gen 5series) can no longer identify a BMW right away. Sadly, this is true for many marques today, Jaguar being a very prominent example as well.

[Rocket455]

The Kia Forte front does resemble the F44 a bit, methinks. Similar lines, similar size...I can totally see confusing one for the other. And to OP's point, agreed that the F44 isn't ugly, just kinda blends in with a bunch of other generic designs out there (but I'll take that over the beaver teeth design any day!).

[tracer bullet]

It's a decent looking car, there's one in my company's parking lot every day.

I think the engine and driving experience however would be a letdown, but I've never driven one, so who knows. I don't really get BMW's that don't have an I6 or better, but that's just me, plenty of happy 4 cylinder owners out there I'm sure.

[G30M]

it's because designed by same people. Kia hired a few BMW designers

https://carbuzz.com/news/former-bmw-...-of-kia-design

[BMWCCA1]

It looks even more like a KIA from the rear but, deep down inside, it's a MINI anyway.

Chris Chapman was hired away from BMW over ten-years ago and is likely still design chief at Hyundai today. He is responsible for the original X5 and the E82 1-series. I spoke with him at the launch of the 1-series Concept CS1 at the NY auto show way back in 2002. That was 6-years before the 1-series hit our market!!