Ever since I was a little kid, I have been into cars. Whether that was through playing with hot wheels or going to the LA Auto Show, I loved to learn about the latest makes and models coming to market, often spending hours watching Youtube videos and reading articles about them. One brand that has stuck out in particular for me is BMW, and I have followed them closely over the last 10 or so years. 

While it is obvious that manufacturers have to constantly innovate to maximize sales, sometimes their new design ideas come under fire from fans and enthusiasts alike. A brand that seems to have been getting a lot of attention in the media lately has been BMW, with many of their new designs evoking complaints from many. 

However, to understand how we got here, we need to take a look back about a decade. While others will convince you that the early 2000s or the late 2000s were the golden age for BMW, I think that the early 2010s had some of the best designs. In my opinion, the early 2000s designs were too analog, and while the late 2000s had stunning designs, the reliability was atrocious. 

This brings me to the line-up in the early 2010s. Across the board, there was a clear brand identity. Every model had a reasonably-sized kidney grill and the signature double-ring headlights. No matter what BMW you saw on the road, it was unmistakably a BMW. Additionally, in terms of interior, there was a good amount of tech that, by today’s standard, is not mind-blowing, but it got the job done with the navigation and Bluetooth.  There were also analog aspects such as the tachometer and speedometer. Everything didn’t feel digitized. 

These days, however, everything is unclear. Some cars are purely electric, like the iX, others are hybrids, like the “e” badged cars, and others can be ordered in electric or gas form, like the 4, 5, and 7 series. I think that this has led to the design language being broken up. Some cars like the m3 and m4 have weird bucktooth looking grills. The SUVs have no shared designed language. The XM is some 175k monstrosity that looks nothing like any of the other SUVs and has a hybrid powertrain that’s so heavy that it makes it slower than the X5m which is $40k cheaper. 

BMW cars seem to have lost their character. Not only is there no cohesive overall brain image, they have, in my opinion, fundamentally lost what it means to be “The Ultimate Driving Machine”. Now, they’re just plastered with screens everywhere, and it feels more like they are trying to appeal to Instagram models and soccer moms than to true enthusiasts. They drive like boats, with all their technology making them multi-ton vehicles that lack sharpness and are tuned for smoothness. It feels like they have completely lost their soul. 

However, I do digress, because one thing that I have noticed is that over time, the designs really grow on me. For example, when the refreshed LCI 5 series came out in 2020, I was skeptical, but over time it has grown on me and has gone on to be one of my favorite designs, especially in m5 trim. Even “atrocities” like the m3/m4’s bucktooth grills don’t look as hideous anymore. 

Overall, I have to give BMW credit for innovating. While not everything that they do sticks (like the XM), in the end, many enthusiasts do come around and, 20 years down the line, will argue that the designs we have today were “some of the best designs ever put out by BMW”. Trust me, it happens for almost every generation of BMW ever made.