Very interesting news!

 

I honestly think BMW designs went to shit with Bangle. Look at the E46, E39, E38, Z3 generation. These were genuinely good looking cars. You didn't need to get so used to looking at them everyday to think that they "aren't THAT bad". You saw them and you liked them.

I'm sick of everyone saying that something is ahead of it's time when it looks terrible.

 

One of our family car option before we bought the S4 Avant 6 speed was to buy a 2001 E38 sports package and have our mechanic put in a 6 speed manual. The ETK shows all the parts required, and we would have had one ass kicking classic BMW with a real gearbox.

But then we got lazy, and when the one and only yellow S4 Avant with alcantara interior came along, we pulled the trigger.

We helped my MIL picked a nice 2001 E38, and I love driving it whenever we visit. It's classic luxury BMW with classic good looks. And yes, I would take that any day over the bangled 7 series.

 

Droooool.

 

probably the person most car guys hate most but BMW did sell a lot of units during his reign......

 

You can bitch and moan about him all you want. But he was nothing but a success for BMW.

Look at other car manufacturers, they are all starting to utilize aspects of his designs.

 

I know, I just couldn't get my ass in gear.

At one point, there was a nice Imola/Caramel sports package 2001 E38 with 35K miles for not much money.

I even talked it over with my mechanic and he was all gunho on the project too.

Then I got lazy and when the yellow S4 Avant came along, I just went for it.

Maybe some day. This will be a cool project for any car nut, and I know just the mechanic that can do this. And everything will be OEM since they did make E38 with 6 speed in .de.

 

And they are all going ugly, like the new Benz S class, nasty looking.

 

I disagree, he was a success for the accountants, but while they're canceling CSL versions and making X6s and X1s, I don't consider that success.

No one can argue that BMWs have sold exceptionally well of late, but I don't think you can attribute that to Bangle so much as, cheap financing and weird lease schemes that got anybody and everybody into one as well as making more and more cheap models.

 

I may be the only person in the world that feels this way, but I actually liked pretty much all of Bangle's designs. The Bangle 5-Series was so menacing and yet handsome. The flame surface styling on the Z4 looked great and ultra modern compared to the rather dated Z3, imo. The 7-series was the only design of his that wasn't an immediate hit with me, right off the bat. The facelifted 7-series looked pretty good though. That being said, I really really like the new styling for both the new 7-series and Z4.