Gustav

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/23/au...es/23BANG.html

SPARKS has taken to writing song lyrics to express how he feels about the newly redesigned BMW 6 Series, whose curvaceous but controversial look was overseen by the company's much maligned head of design, Chris Bangle. Set to the tune of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," Dr. Sparks riffs, "We're the Sixers Lovely Coupes Club Band; we wish C. Bangle would just go."
In the almost three years since BMW introduced its revamped flagship 7 Series, no other car designer has generated as much heat as Mr. Bangle, 47. Thousands of BMW loyalists continue to debate the pros and cons of Mr. Bangle's designs on Web sites like Bimmerfest and BMWchannel. They have started online petitions calling for his removal (so far there are about 4,000 signatures) and have even sent him death threats.

But there is one thing many BMW lovers have not done: stopped buying the cars. Last year, sales in the United States (the company's biggest market) were up 8 percent, making BMW the second-best-selling luxury brand, behind Lexus, and tracking the overall upward trend of luxury car sales.

Both the 7 Series and a recently redesigned 5 Series have sold well, although the 5 Series has been criticized for having headlights that look like the comedian Dame Edna's eyeglasses and what detractors call a "Bangle butt," a high trunk line that adds bulk to a car that had always been considered handsomely athletic.

Indeed, in 2003 sales of the 5 Series were up 15 percent over the previous year. And the new $40,000 Z4 roadster has received high praise from some critics, and more than 20,000 have been sold since it was introduced. BMW says that it now makes up 40 percent of the luxury roadster market, which also includes cars from Mercedes and Lexus.

All of which means that Dr. Sparks, who has owned five BMW's including three vintage 6 Series coupes from the 1980's, isn't likely to get his wishes satisfied anytime soon.

Mr. Bangle, interviewed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit earlier this month, takes the attacks on his designs rather personally. "It would be nice if it were a dialogue, but it isn't," he said. "Everyone should have a hate Web site so they know what it feels like."

Mr. Bangle said that the design for the 6 Series actually dated to 1999, when he introduced the Z9 GT concept car at the 1999 Frankfurt Motor Show. The car featured the bulging back end and a long snouty hood that was striking, but not necessarily beautiful, which is what most car critics expected from BMW's designers. "There was outrage, shock," Mr. Bangle said.

Car companies often create concept cars to float designs or technology that they are thinking about introducing. Such tests give them an idea of how consumers are going to react to ideas that may end up on production vehicles. But the stormy reaction to the Z9 GT didn't deter Mr. Bangle. In fact, as he lived with the design through the next few years, the more he came to like its curving sleekness. "The same lines many people once hated are now being called wonderful and beautiful," he said.

Well, at least by some people. "It is a gorgeous car," said Barbara Neuerman, who retired from selling BMW's in Chicago a year ago and who owns five of them herself, including a 1986 M5 that has been modified for racing.

As might be expected, Dr. Sparks, an associate professor at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., isn't so enthusiastic. "We who treasure BMW's styling heritage can only shake our heads and wonder what Munich is smoking," he wrote in "Coupe de Grace," an article on his Web site (www.geocities.com/silbersix) devoted to the 6 Series coupes originally designed by Paul Bracq, the company's chief of design in the early 70's.

Mr. Bangle, for his part, is happy to talk about the thinking behind his redesigns of the 6 and 7 Series and especially, to explain the genesis of the "Bangle butt." "I didn't want do a diagonal belt line again," he said, tracing with his hand a line that runs from the headlights through the middle of the car, basically where the windows meet the sheet metal on the doors, and back through the taillights. Earlier BMW's had belt lines that started low on the hood and angled up, creating a wedge shape that made the cars look fast.

The 7 Series belt line is straight, more like car designs from the 1930's, Mr. Bangle said. But that caused problems at the car's rear as he added more space to the back seat passenger area. So Mr. Bangle raised the trunk (and in doing so made the opening large enough to load golf bags easily, not an insignificant consideration given the car's demographics).

But in the process he unleashed an outpouring of anger from thousands of BMW lovers who had gotten used to design changes so evolutionary that they were virtually invisible throughout much of the 90's.

Mr. Bangle argues that his designs are evolutionary, too. "I'm a believer in the Stephen Jay Gould theory of evolution, where periods of equilibrium are punctuated by major jumps," he said. "I like the large trunk opening. I'm not thumbing my nose at anyone with the design."

And truth be told, many of the complaints about the 7 Series were about the car's interior and controls, including the bewildering I-Drive system, in which a single silver knob was toggled and rotated through a confusing menu of radio and heating configurations. (Newer versions of the I-Drive are easier to use.)

Even worse, critics said, on 7 Series cars the gearshift for the automatic transmission was moved from the center console to the steering column. "Without a central shift column, it didn't feel like a driver's car," Mrs. Neuerman said.

Mr. Bangle contends that as people get used to his cars' innovations, they begin to appreciate them. Not everyone agrees, of course. Online critics have compared the new 6 Series to everything from Toyota's $20,000 Solara to a Mercedes-Benz (an insult among BMW fans) and complained about its "dropping nose and dragging butt."

But all the Sturm und Drang might just be a good thing, said Mark Nursey, 18, a college student from Michigan who drives an as-yet-un-Bangled 3 Series.

"He shook things up," Mr. Nursey said. "These cars simply don't look like everything else on the road."

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DBBX

These cars certainly don't look like everything else on the road...that's why the 7-Series is getting a facelift early on....

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bernhtp

There's nothing early in the minor changes for the 7. It is right in the middle of the series design lifetime, right where it has always been.

Tom

DBBX

The point I was trying to get across is that they're making changes to the 7-Series already and of course they're going to wait for the middle of the series design. If they hadn't waited for it, it would look bad on their part. We'll just see if they make a major change to the front end of the car or not, hopefully they'll make some changes at the rear of the car, that's where I believe the change should be made but other than that I like everything else about the car.

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JESawyer

Oh no, the new 6 doesn't look like a 70s coupe! I was expecting it to fly out of Munich wearing a 3.0 CS badge.

Tigger, please.

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Contrary to popular belief, Chris Bangle did not design the E65 7-series or the E85 Z4.

bernhtp

I guess I still miss the point as they just did mid-life changes to the 3-series comparable in magnitude to the ones contemplated for the 7-series here, and I don't recall any major controversy over the E46.

All I see is the minor mid-life changes that are completely normal and that have no apparent relationship to the controversy.

Tom

vndkshn

You are dead on Tom... BMW has always done this. Looking for a smoking gun ("they redesigned it already") where there isn't one (mid-cycle touch up that BMW has always done) doesn't get anyone anywhere. It happened to the e39 as well.

What will be much more interesting.. is HOW far they go with it. Do they totally ditch the current headlights, etc. Instead of when they are doing it, I find the spy shots of how much they are changing much more interesting.

MEnthusiast

You guys are right about the freshening. Lets say the design is a total disaster- BMW will not admit that- they will stick to the plan. The only way to know will be with the next model. The headlights are one of the easiest parts to change. They will be changed to large round lights with a round turn indicator- eliminating the "eyebrows".

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All the best,
Jerry
00 Z8 Jet Black/Red Sport / some others

DBBX

I agree that BMW will not admit the flaws they made with the 7-Series. We will have to see when the facelifted 7-Series comes out and if there is any major change, then it may just be that there were too many people who weren't in accordance with the original front of the car.

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bernhtp

Whatever you think of the design, it is clear in the 2.5 years of sales so far that it is far from a "total disaster."

Tom