Of all people..

"moarpowerr" (moarpowerr) 08/30/2013 at 23:15 • Filed to: Design, bangle

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Chris Bangle has apperantly spoken up against the current trend in automotive designs, this is coming from the guy who designed what I think is the least attractive era of BMW's...

http://autospies.com/news/Chris-Ban…

Victorious Secret > moarpowerr 08/30/2013 at 23:23

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He isn't wrong.

Current designs are sterile and playing it very safe and not really trying anything new at all.

At least he said "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu world" and tried something drastically different yet still very much what you'd associate with as a BMW.

But no, we hated them. So we forced them to go back to the mundane F10 which might look like a spiritual E39 successor but in this day and age the F10 is about as stylistically interesting as a Civic.

Jacques L' Autre > moarpowerr 08/30/2013 at 23:23

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I don't think Bangle gets enough credit. He took what was at the time a staid, unmotivated, boring design set that was common amongst German, and other car companies at the turn of the century, and flipped them on their heads. Bangle's flame surfacing revolutionized the world of car design in ways we're still seeing today, but nobody gives him credit for that. I think 10 years, maybe 20 we'll look back at the Bangle era as a good thing, not the tragedy most of the automotive world has made it out to be. Not bad for someone who almost became a pastor from Wisconsin.

moarpowerr > Victorious Secret 08/30/2013 at 23:28

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I agree that the current trend is mundane. I do agree with what he is saying. However, he is also part of the reason why BMW's look today as they do. Even though he tried doing something different, the end product wasn't that great, in fact there were alot of styling cues that I thought were downright ugly. The new "F" series bummers look today as they do because they are a toned down evolution of his designs...

moarpowerr > Jacques L' Autre 08/30/2013 at 23:29

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Still didnt like his eras of BMW's. Especially the 7 series...

6cyl > moarpowerr 08/30/2013 at 23:44

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I agree with him there are lots of resign opportunities that designers are passing up to be safe. Just to pick one think about LED's. Tail lights still look nearly the same as they did 20 years ago. There are two, one on each side. Dodge is so far the only one I am aware of that has started playing with this and IMHO with excellent results. Same goes for headlights and now day time running lights. Audi started this LED bars in the headlights trend and now everyone is doing it but no one is really getting creative with it. Think about it you could instead of having to headlights have one LED bar prearranged at the factory with different lights going in different directions and you would only need to make vertical adjustments. I am too tired to think and I think I'm rambling....

Leadbull > moarpowerr 08/30/2013 at 23:48

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But at least his designs were interesting and innovative. Not perfect, sure. But cookie cutting doesn't push the envelope and inspire innovation.

phenotyp > moarpowerr 08/30/2013 at 23:57

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No matter what people say about him, he is one of the most inspiring people to have been given the responsibilities he had. Always questioning, always pushing, and always several steps ahead of everyone else. He took the inherent compromises of car design and made them work, while others fought against the inevitable and lost. He got a lot of things really right, and BMW has stepped back very far since he left.