Quote:
Originally Posted by JST
I assume there's a pedestrian protection rationale for this design, rather than just repair cost, since all previous generations seemed fine with a design that subjected the hood to frontal impacts--but maybe it was just keeping the cost down. It does look stupid.
To me, the E36 is the best design. It's clean and crisp while also using a bare minimum of plastic to look appropriately beefy and aggressive.
The E30 is a classic, but as an 80s homologation special it's in a completely different league/conversation, styling-wise. That said, I wouldn't be pissed if we saw a return to box flares, particularly on the coupes.
The E46 is...meh. I never like it compared to the base car, especially with the ZHP/M technic bumper.
The E90 is fine, and I actually like that one a lot more than the base car for whatever reason. The E92 had gotten big enough that in my mind it just makes no sense as a coupe anymore, and the styling reflected that.
Same is mostly true for the F80. It's a bit too boy racer for my tastes and I'm not a huge fan of the carp whisker air dam design, but it's grown on me and the proportions on that car work a lot better than the E90.
The G80 is a fucking disaster all the way around. It's like someone took the F80 and was instructed to make it 28 percent uglier in every particular, except the grille, which was 128 percent.
|
As a general matter, it's clear that all manufacturers have put a lot of effort into getting rid of metal panels near the front and rear edges of the car. Whether that's the hood, the front panel under the headlights in the E30/E36/E46, the metal between the bumper and the tail lights on the E30/E36/E46, etc. It's uglier, but it makes a lot of sense as far as repairability goes.