Dear Mr Bangle:03E39M5 said:Auto Spies perspective: Bangle says 'Almost no one has had the courage to take a radically new direction the way BMW has.’ We agree. But the problem with their radical new direction is the radical new designs STUNK. None of us are against radical change. We just want radical change, done right. Chris, we're all willing to give you a second chance. We just hope you get it right the next time.
1) No matter what you and GMC Truck and a few random tasteless Japanese designers think, the turn signals do NOT belong on top of the headlights.
2) Just because all the Japanese brands run around trying to be exactly the same as one another does NOT mean that BMW should join the parade. We buy BMWs because they're NOT Infinitis.
3) A good design is a good design, and is not improved by randomly throwing a bunch of crappy pointless details at it (like the E60's headlights and taillights, and the ridges-to-nowhere on the E60 M5's lower rear bumper.)
4) Your crew is to be applauded for getting the video displays up at eye level in the E60, E65, etc. They are equally to be damned for the entire dash layout below the video display in those models. Your recent designs are more German-hotel-room-furniture than German-car, and alas this trend appears to carry on to the new 3er.
5) I realize that, as a designer, it's tough to maintain a focus on doing the simple things right when the engineers have also lost their direction and drifted off into silliness like iDrive and Active Steering. But someone has to take the lead in sorting out this mess.
6) We, as customers, do not really care what the clowns that legislate pedestrian-safety requirements for the EC want. I personally don't care if my car is any more pedestrian-friendly than a Hummer H2. We do not want our next cars to look like Bozo The Clown's nose.