Not really a "minivan" if the rear doors don't slide fore/aft.
Funny how BMW really has gone downmarket so to speak. I'm sure still expensive because you're paying for the name, but really, who would want one of these?
OMG, that new BMW is terrible. This is the marque that we spend so much time and history with??? No, they've sold their soul to some accountant. Love the Jaguar - that thing is sharp. If it only came with a manual transmission...I mean, c'mon! Can't BMW hire some designers from say...Jaguar? Compare that black blob to this:
isn't that 2 series van a ..... front wheel drive ? :eek:
While I generally agree that today's car designers are somewhat lacking, I don't think it is the accountants who have ruined car design
I was at a design conference at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles and I asked the presenter who was a professor from Art Center in Pasadena about that subject. His reply:
"There are far more extremely talented car designers out there than the car companies can even use. But, apart from a few high end daring companies like Lamborghini, Bugatti, Ferrari, Tesla, etc..., all of them are run by their marketing departments. Because that is where the money is coming from. And the more mass produced a car needs to be in order to be profitable, the more they focus on "not offending the largest number of people". From there you get the blandness we see at the lower and middle end of the spectrum."
Apple and Tesla are two great example of the opposite of that, where they are run by one strong willed individual who values design far above what the marketing department thinks, even for mass market products.
Put BMW badges on a Camry or an Impala and most people would not know the difference. Same goes for SUVs.Perhaps my comment was too harsh on the talent level of car designers; I wholeheartedly agree with the "blandness" comment. I was watching an episode of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and he captured in perfectly. He looked out over a parking lot full of modern cars and said "This is just oatmeal."
Another marketing department design thing that drives me crazy is the level of electronics in modern cars. If we could buy cars without all that crap they would be cheaper, lighter, simpler, more reliable and safer (because we wouldn't be distracted by all the lights and knobs and screens and whatnot). I think the marketing guys believe this stuff is necessary because of "checklist" type car reviews such as those provided by consumer reports where the lack of a certain electronic feature seems to diminish a car's overall score. My 8 year old Range Rover has 37 computers in it (the new ones have even more). And, when I jump in my Range Rover to drive it, I turn off the touch screen that is programmed to come on when I start it up, and the parking/backup warning system any time I put the thing in reverse. I don't like my vehicles flashing and blinking and beeping at me.
Not really a "minivan" if the rear doors don't slide fore/aft.
Funny how BMW really has gone downmarket so to speak. I'm sure still expensive because you're paying for the name, but really, who would want one of these?
“drives me crazy is the level of electronics in modern cars.”
Because I don’t keep my modern DD’s beyond 160k miles and 10 years, I LOVE th benefits of modern electronics. Many of them make driving safer and more convenient. The only one I currently hate is the open-everything feature on my keyfob. Last fall the open button inadvertently got held down in my pocket and my x5 opened up in the rain. Luckily I discovered this after 15 min and nothing was ruined. Don’t understand why this feature is not disabled when the rain sensor detects moisture.