This week’s ‘what were they thinking?’ breaking news is brought to you – it feels not for the first time – by BMW.
Yesterday I saw a new BMW X7 photographed by a colleague, and later passed an actual, in-the-metal, new 7 Series on the road.
That meant seeing them both far from the attentions of a professional photographer, someone who might try to capture them in the right settings, or at the right angle – from the back is the best, I find – to minimise the shock and awe of the new, oversized front grille some new BMWs seem to be sporting.
I’ve been trying to think of the word that best describes the feeling you get on seeing it. I’m currently going with ‘horrific’, but it’s a developing theme.
What I know is that both times I saw that nose, I winced like I was watching a replay of a grisly sporting injury. These are genuinely painful cars to look at.
Why would you design a car to look like that, I wonder? Did it look amazing on paper, with something going distinctly awry during the production process? Or was it just a design office joke that got way, way out of hand because nobody once quietly put their hand up and said: “Er, boss, this car; very nice and all, but isn’t it a bit, y’know, absolutely minging?” The only thing I think it cannot be is because everybody looked at the finished thing and said: “Perfect, I think we really nailed it there.”
It’s easy to be dismissive, I know. Especially with design, which is more subjective than pure engineering. As such, I’ve felt trepidatious meeting a designer after casually, perhaps cruelly, dismissing their otherwise quite attractive car as looking like it’s had a stroke (Land Rover Discovery rear) or like a stress-ball Jaguar F-Pace (Jaguar E-Pace) because that was a bit mean. But here, where is the line on being too cruel, when they are, to my eyes, the worst-looking cars a mainstream manufacturer has launched for decades?
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As the old saying goes ' beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. Some car designs over the years have not been instantly loveable but have stood the test of time.
We all have very individual tastes so its great to still see some variety out there. If you come home to see you car on the drive/street and still love its look thats all that matters.
Every iteration of a new model has to at least look different to entice you to buy the next model (along with techincal and infotainment 'upgrades'). Its a bit like smartphones, how much can you really change externally within the bounds of regulation and safety.
Of course we all remember the 'jelly mould' Sierra when it first came out. $64,000 question - would a technically brilliant, but plain ugly car sell better than a sexy looking one but terrible to drive and use everyday for the school run?
I don’t know....
Having skim read the reply’s from posters I have a question for them, what is the best looking car on sale in Britain?, by which I mean a car that that has no design flaws.....
Still too kind Matt. They
Still too kind Matt. They are even worse that the banana-up-the-bottom Scorpio, which made me cry with laughter to the extent that I had to leave the room when I first saw it (and I worked for Ford back then).
I have to say the Bangle 5 has aged exceptionally well - a far more focused, modern and confident design that the current blob.