http://www.autocarmagazine.com/News_...p?NA_ID=214328

Chris Bangle, BMW’s controversial design boss, has said the company’s design revolution is over and his team is preparing to start from scratch ready ‘for the next revolution’. Bangle, talking to Automotive News Europe, said the launch of the 3-series marked the end of a styling ‘revolution’ started by the 7-series in 2001.

He dismissed suggestions that the 7-series had an unattractive design, claiming that ‘customers liked it — very much so’.

He admitted the new 3-series was the best interpretation of BMW’s design language. ‘Perhaps we designers have matured, or the public is more ready to appreciate it.’

Bangle said he sees ‘almost nothing’ from other car makers in terms of ‘real and formal innovation… Almost no one has had the courage to take a radically new direction the way BMW has.’


http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=101968

BMW's Bangle: Ready for the next design revolution
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
Posted Date: 3/14/05

BMW AG design chief Chris Bangle remains controversial. Most rival designers are critical of the new BMW shape. He talked with Staff Reporter Luca Ciferri at BMW headquarters in Munich, Germany.

The new 3-Series sedan looks like the model in which the design language that started with the 7 Series achieved its final balance.

With time we all mature. Perhaps we designers have matured. Or perhaps it's the public that is now ready to appreciate this new design language.

Is the 3 Series the end of a design cycle or the forerunner for models to come?

It ends the revolution we began with the 7 Series, and we progressively evolved on the Z4, the 5 Series, the 6 Series, the X3 and the 1 Series. We now start again from scratch, in preparing for the next revolution.

Why does the world accuse you of high treason against BMW design?

I don't know, and I don't care. I've been designing cars for more than 20 years and have seen the industry from inside numerous automakers. The top management of no other carmaker in the world is as deeply involved as at BMW.

What is your point?

That I didn't sit down one night all by myself and single-handedly change the direction of BMW design.

Why was the current 7 series such a radical design change for BMW?

It's the model that BMW used to celebrate the first 100 years of the car and the passage into the third millennium. More important, it's larger outside, much more comfortable inside, and incorporates the state of the art in automobile technology.

But the car is anything but attractive.

I'm sorry you don't like it, but our customers do - very much so. The mission that marketing gave us was very precise: The new 7 Series must not only appeal to the 60-year-old who is driven around by his chauffeur, but it must also win over the successful 45-year-old who wants a large car that's also dynamic and sporty to drive. It also needed to have dynamic lines.

 

umm..... ok, let me get this right.....

with the current "new" designs, he alreedy set the cars so far ahead that no one knows what yr he's in (we are in 2005, maybe he's in 2011?)

and now he's working on the NEXT revolution? umm...... maybe he can just start from the cars they used in minority report and i-robot? i mean? in terms of yrs, that's about right already?

 

His cockiness runs all the way down to their customers...

 

I think I am a minority in my opinion that the current beemer designs are... absolutely gorgeous! Except for the X3, that is. I especially love the 7-series (yes, even the taillights... personally I like the 01?-05 taillights better than the new, redesigned ones on the 06) and the Z4. I can't wait to see a new M5 and the new 3-series in person! I have one thing to say to the BMW design team: keep up the good work! I'm really excited to see what the next design "revolution" has in store.

Just my 2 cents.

 

although it wasn't love at first sight, the new bengal designs have grown on me (as the current GS) .

to bengal for not just sitting on the BMW legacy.

 

None of the Bangle designs have grown on me except the 7 series & I don't think the 6 is bad to begin with, the rest are still

 

This guy should be a politician. He has learned the arts of evasion, double-talk, and cover-up almost perfectly. I say ALMOST because some of us still see right through it.
He could be President of the American Ostrich Society.

 

the 7 series is the only current bmw design i like. i even like it more than the new 3. the cars that will never grow on me are the z4 and 6 series. the 5 would look nice with some sort of kit and staggered setup.

 

i like the 6 series alot.....id want one.....

but i will stand my ground that i like the current model m3 that's out right now........

 

to me the 6 series is the only one i love

 

Probably because it looks the most like a Toyota (Solara)...

 

The Mercedes CLS looks more like the Solara coupe in it's profile, someone posted pics of their profile here before. I don't think the 6 looks much like the Solara . . .

 

Is there such thing as an American OStrich Society mmarshall???

I like the look of the 7 series alot, even in stock form , as compared to the S and LS.

The worst has to be the X3 ..............black bumper

 

hahaha, dunno, personally i dont' see that. i think the solara is pretty weird looking

 

There is such a thing as The American Ostrich Association