German Car Zone

I think a lot of people are waiting for this car. The current 5 series is rather ugly....good car....but not very pretty.

I am glad they shoved Bangle in to an upstairs office where he can't destroy the looks of cars anymore.

If this new 5 has the looks of the new 3 & X6 it should be a winner.

I think a lot of people is a lot of generalising...you and your peers/friends may think it's ugly, but that by no means represents the views of 'a lot of people'. But each to his own I guess... you think it's ugly, I think it's terrific.

Yesterday I saw the 545i (pre-face lift) and it looked very fresh and exciting compared to the cars around it. It definitely hasn't aged one bit. I still remember seeing the first spy pics of the E60 5er, especially the spy shot of the car in white completely undisguised as BMW were loading it into a truck after a photo shoot... looked stunning then, still looks stunning now. Can't wait to see what BMW produce with the F10.

If you read my post you would notice that I said "I think a lot of people are waiting for this car." Then a whole new sentence started with "The current 5 series is rather ugly....good car....but not very pretty."

So try not to get your panties in a bunch defending your precious BMW unless you personally designed and built the thing. It's just a car.

That being said, it's not hard to find "a lot of people" in forums that don't like the look of the current 5 series. Although I'm sure you would need 6.5 billion people to qualify as a lot when it comes to disliking a BMW.


Back on topic....if the new 7 series is any indication...there won't be any good leaks before the 5er is officially launched.

I for one don't think that the 5er is ugly. And i'm sure that the hundreds of thousands of E60/E61 5er owners would agree.

As for Bangle, only ignorant fools would think he no longer has influence on his designs. The higher you climb, the greater the influence you have.

Probably Eni can confirm this. But I doubt Bangle actually designed the E60.

No, Davide Arcangelo designed the E60.
The guy worked for Pininfarina before coming to BMW, and his most famous work before E60 was the Peugeot 406 Coupe.
Davide died of leukemia before E60 was even launched.

Again: Bangle didn't pen any of BMW cars. He is there to run the design department - to manage the processes, to steer the design directors, to motivate the stuff. He is the link between the design department & senior management of BMW AG (incl. Board of Managers).

Yes, he influences designs a lot, and he has the power to influence the Board of Managers which design to pick. Since it's BoM's job to do so. Bangle just advocates for certain ideas & designs.

So, if the directive from above changes, or their taste preferences - Bangle can only execute the instructions.

Mind that today completely different people seat in Board of Managers than 10 years ago! And I'm sure their tastes are different, and also there are new marketing facts present, and also the designer perspective has evolved: after revolution comes evolution.

Thanks Eni. You probably know this and if it is not too much trouble, can you give a list of who designed what at BMW. That way when the next idiot comes along blaming Bangle for everything from his wife's mood swings to global warming, I can throw the list at his face.

Ahahahahaha!!! Priceless!

It's already been written somewhere here.

I'll find it & repost it.

Here they are:

Exterior designers of recent BMW models ... THE MOST COMPLETE LIST UP TO DATE!!!!:

• Joji Nagashima: E90/E91 3 series, E36 3 series, E36/7 Z3, E39 5 series
• Adrian van Hooydonk: E63/E64 6 series, E65/E66 7 series, Z9 GT Concept, Z9 Convertible Concept, MINI ACV30 Concept ... (now Head of Design BMW Automobile)
• Geoff Velasco: E83 X3
• Anders Warming: E85 Z4 roadster, GINA Light Concept, Mille Miglia 2006 Coupe Concept ... (now Head of Exterior design BMW Automobile)
• Chris Chapman: E87/E81 1 series hatchback, E53 X5, X-coupe Concept, CS1 Concept ... (now Head of Automotive Design @ BMW Group DesignworksUSA)
• Erik Goplen: E46 3 series
• Davide Arcangeli: E60/E61 5 series
• Tomasz Sycha: E86 Z4 Coupe
• Marc Michael Markefka: E92/E93 3-series coupe & cabrio, E82/E88 1-series coupe & cabrio
• Pierre Leclercq: E70 X5, X71/E72 X6
• Karim Antoine Habib: CS Concept, F01/F02 7-series, F?? "new 8-series" (project "GranTurismo")
• Juliane Blasi: E89 Z4 roadster ... yes, it's a woman
• Jacek Froehlich: F10 / F11 5-series

• Mark Djordjevic: RR Phantom family (Phantom, Drophead Copue, Coupe)
• Frank Stephenson: R50-R53 MINI Mk1
• Marcus Syring: R55-R58 (R60?) MINI Mk2

Mind that interiors, M-kits, M-specific exterior, rims / wheels, interior details like steering wheel, iDrive knob etc are designed by other people!!!

And as you can see NONE of the BMW model's exterior hasn't been penned by Chris Bangle!!! EVER!
And that the design team is VERY international.

Btw, Chris (Bangle) once said due to cultural & lingual differences very often onomatopoetic words were used when desribing some desgn elements / ideas ...
For example: "We need a little more "woosh" here ..." or " The fascia has to express "Agrrrrrhhh" or "the line has to "sssssssshhhh" (=to flow) and then "zap!" (=to end abruptly). And there was a lot of hands talk & facial expression to additionally support the description. Such language was the most common frequency all designers could understand & operate despite all the differences. Interesting.
That's why Chris is so poetic, expressive & graphic when describing something. Like explaining something to a small child. Check his explanation of GINA acronym.


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