Ever since I was a youth in the 70’s, I liked BMWs. I can remember my grandfather
saying that the BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke) was a ‘real car.’
In my opinion, during the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, BMW cars had style, character, and
performance. The it’s ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’ hit the mark!
During the mid 80’s, BMW came out with the eta ‘fuel economy’ engine in
response to the energy crisis. Such did not keep with BMW’s traditional character
of performance and driving pleasure . In the 90’s, the automaker came out with
V8 engines in response to the Japanese luxury offerings. These BMW engines
did not make much more horsepower than the company’s straight six-cylinder
engines. Furthermore, the unleaded fuel sold in the U.S. caused trouble for these
aluminum engines. Like the eta engines, some of the V8 engines were eventually
dropped.
In the early part of the 00’s, BMW got the engines back on track as they put
out impressive horsepower and achieved good fuel economy. However, in my
opinion, the styling of BMWs took a hit. Chris Bangle was the first American
to head design of the German automaker. He took BMW in a new direction’ with
both the cars exterior and interior styling. On the exterior, some opposing shapes
were introduced. And on the interior, the traditional look was gone and technology
including iDrive was added. BMW toned down the Bangle exterior for the 3-Series
and then carried such moderation to the 5 and 7-Series. Furthermore, the iDrive was
also revamped!
Regarding the Bangle era, Car magazine reports, “We printed the first official
pictures in the May 2003 issue. By August, the letters page was devoted to BMW’s
design guru. ‘How much abuse can Bangle take?’ questioned one. ‘Did Bangle
make these cars ugly to confront our conformity to comfy conservatism? Nah,
he’s just rubbish designer,’ wrote another. Voting on a poll in the same issue,
68% of you were decisive in your dismissal.”
It fairness, it must be mentioned, however, that Bangle has his supporters. As
you may well gather, I am not one of them!
In my opinion, like many other of today’s automakers, BMW does not seem
to be entirely decisive as to what it wants its vehicles to be. Getting back to just
being a refined sports sedan maker with excellent reliability is what will do it for
me. It worked in the past and it can work again!
Kyle Busch is the author of “Drive the Best for the Price…” He
welcomes your comments or car questions at his auto web site:
www.DriveTheBestBook.com.
