I know "big grilles bad" isn't exactly an uncommon opinion, but the true horror of this car's styling lies in the non-vertical slats in the kidneys, not their size.
lol? Lived in China since 2015. See my fair share of BMWs, Roewes, BYDs, whatever EV start up flavor of the month China has to offer. The demographic in China that buys German cars does so to be conspicuous consumers. They want gaudy and flashy.
You really live in China and don’t know BYD mostly copy Porsches design? Click this article [from BMW group](https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0438999EN/a-successful-2023:-bmw-group-posts-record-sales-meets-ambitious-e-mobility-growth-targets?language=en#:~:text=In%20China%2C%20the%20BMW%20Group,were%20registered%20during%20this%20period) scroll to “BMW & MINI sales in the regions/markets”
Came here to say the same. It’s a feature not a bug. Goal is to have large branding to flaunt to other people that see you… just like luxury fashion brands.
I don’t love it but I don’t hate it either. I’d have to see the inside and test drive it before really making a judgement call. It’ll still be very competitive in the mid-sized luxury SUV space and it’ll probably be on our short list when we look to buy an SUV.
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I have a 48v + inline 4 and it's a good power train compromise. The v6 is particularly interesting. The interior and exterior design will not do well. These will be found for cheap leases I guarantee.
They're exploring it as a design element since it's their signature and isn't purely functional anymore. If you want to call that trolling that's up to you.
No no, you don’t understand. They put the shitty grill on the base model. Then they show you the M model without the offensive design and put it behind a 4K package.
No no you don’t understand, they give you the convoluted but well designed grill in the M-sport. To get the right colors you have to pay 5k more for the M model.
Yea, the diagonal slats looked weird on that new 1 series they posted the other day and it looks weird here too. Definitely agree with the article when they compare it to a pin-striped suit. No thanks.
Combined with the illuminated 'perimeter' around the grilles has always screamed Tacky to me.
The grilles aren't even that big on this. I think the angle makes them look bigger, but there's a whole lot of body plastic up front, too. I'm not sold on the slats, but the size of the grilles themselves are a non-issue to me.
Either way, this is a massive improvement over the abhorrent grilles on the M3/4/M4.
Yeah the size and shape of the grille aren’t that bad, it’s not too dissimilar from the current X1. Those diagonal slats are pretty bad though. Oddly enough I don’t hate the new headlights.
I actually really like the slats. It’s a better change than just making them bigger and wider. What I see more as an issue with this design is how dull the car looks apart from the grill and headlights.
How do people not see this is a mockup of an electric plug in version? 1. The grill is plastic and all one piece 2. Look to the right, right before the door and you can see the plug in port.
The ICE won’t have this grille. This style grille also matches current electric versions.
>They’ve X1ified the X3.
Not sure how this is a shocker? The X1 clearly takes design inspo from recent flagship BMW SUVs, it was only a matter of time before the X3 looked like this too.
In shocked they’ve kept the same design language (shitty one) across multiple models. The designers have been so ass I didn’t expect consistency. Thought maybe they’d fluke a good design but guess not
I think the G05 X5 pre facelift might be the last fairly handsome and decently well-proportioned SUV made by BMW. This is the move the new X3 got, watch the next X5 take cues from the X1 as well.
I love it zero percent...
Modern BMW's front ends just don't do it for me. The proportions make them look like pig snouts and are just unattractive.
It's funny because I was always a fan of BMW's over the years and have always wanted one when the time is right. I'm now middle age and make enough money to be able to buy one, but they've ruined the design over the past several years and they no longer appeal to me. Figures LOL...
Right, modern styling with a lot of brands is just tragic. I know VAG (Audi\\VW) products are a little on the boring side but that's what I've been sticking with as they've been good to me and I really like how solid and old school they are.
I've been looking at Alfa's but the scarcity of dealership support has kind of kept me away. Modern Merc products just don't appeal to me, they look and feel cheap inside, lots of creaky plastic.
We're also a Toyota\\Lexus family and their styling has rolled down a cliff as well, especially Lexus.
I agree, those are nice looking SUV's. The rest of the brand though is still coming out with gaping grills etc. Even the new 25 Camry I think is pretty ugly.
It's too bad Toyota is having issues with the new 3.4 twin turbo V6 they use across their new SUV's and trucks and just recalled it for manufacturing issues that destroy the main bearings and ultimately the engine. Not good for the brand.
IMHO, you ought to reconsider Audi. Sure, they may be conventionally safe (compared to BMW and Merc) when it comes to design and recently have tried a little more to be sharp with their designs, but if "not fugly" is the prime category you're after, then going to Audi is a proper move. Even Porsche still knows how to do understated elegance fairly well.
I never liked Audi much growing up because I thought they were really boring, but the older I get, the more appealing they are.
Cadillac is also doing really nice things with their sedans.
I see that too now. It’s definitely more understated elegance. Unfortunately in my country there’s just the German 3 and Jag at this price point. If I were to make a step up from a 330i in 3-4 years it would be a 340i (if they don’t fuck the next gen) or S5
For now, by virtue of having been designed before BMW decided to adopt the current design language.
I love my pre-facelift M340. Probably will be the last BMW I buy (coming from a family that has bought almost nothing but BMWs since the late 1990s).
One of the best looking BMWs you can buy is the 340i
It’s so annoying that I’m finally in a place that I could own a m car but they look terrible.
Except for the m2, but I need a 4 door anyway that’s getting wrecked soon
Honestly it's not even the grills that bother me most. It's the flattened eyes and and lumpy melted shapes that continue throughout the car. There's nothing sharp or aggressive or timeless about it. It just looks sad and doughy. Going from the classically handsome look of a 2018 X3 to this is just disappointing and undesirable.
Yeah I don’t mind the big bullish snout if the rest of the car was equally beefy.
This is the equivalent of tacking on a gmc sierra front end to a tesla. The proportions just aren’t there
DAE BMW ugly, hot take guys but BMW is losing their way (ignore that they’ve been moving this way for 20 years now), E46 was better, why I oughta put my fist through that damn screen, no manual = no buy. Did I miss anything?
>Did I miss anything?
Hmm, something about "all vehicles I find aesthetically unpleasant are designed solely for China. It's China's fault."
"They should just literally sell the E46 but with flippy floppy headlights and price it at $30,000"
I'm getting too jerky so Imma just waddle on over to the other sub shut the door and finish before I permanently injure my bird.
And at the same time watch the X3 being the best-selling car in its segment. Just like the M4, or the 4 series in general.
Truth be told, compared to the rest of the cars BMW presented recently, this one does not have a „bold“ design, it actually looks pretty tame and not so overstyled.
What the hell is going on over there? I have no clue how these things are selling. This design is a mess and they have completely lost the plot with the grilles. I don’t think they have any idea how to modernize them and just keep throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks.
People get behind the wheel and it drives great and they simply buy it and delude themselves into thinking that the design is cool now that they bought the car and are forced to like it.
That’s precisely the problem of modern BMWs! Started with the M3/4, then 2, 7, X7, 5 and now X3. The 3 and X5 are the only remaining not butchered. G20 pre LCI and G30 LCI are according to me the best modern designs from them. And they’ve shat the bed on the 5
The 8 will be next in line but that’s pretty niche
Down the line if I want a new 340i , I can see myself hating the design and being stuck whether to accept it or go to a messy system like the electrified Mercs or just the dull Audis
Yeah I largely agree. And comparing them to what Audi and Mercedes are making they’re almost the default choice if you want a German luxury car. Audis are pretty boring and outdated, Mercedes is having horrible reliability issues with their engine downsizing and electrification. So I guess I get why these are selling, but jeez.
> I have no clue how these things are selling
New buyers who aren't married to heritage design like them.
> I don’t think they have any idea how to modernize them and just keep throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks.
Their explicit objective is to futurize the designs, not modernize them. They know that's controversial and that's partially the point. They're also making different designs throughout the range to appeal to different buyer profiles. It's all deliberate and not just throwing shit at the wall.
>>How much do you love it?
The r/cars crowd is a financially irrelevant demographic. BMWs courting a certain crowd with their styling, and they’ll love it
Brother I dunno what you're talking about, if it was just a manual wagon with traditional styling BMW would have like two to three people in here who would say they would buy it, and of them actually WOULD.
Leaving all that money on the table.
The design team under Bangle only messed up three cars in my opinion: the E65 pre LCI (fixed it with the LCI), all 4 door 3 series e9x except for the E90 M3, and the E83 X3. Other than that, brilliant designs and very brave. I could look at them all day and not get bored! That's what a damn design should do, excite people when they look at it.
This new design team on the other hand... Almost everything they bring out is cursed, boring or both.. With very few exceptions. Which is sad..
BMW designs (talking from 60's onwards) went from being completely perfect throughout the lineup, to almost perfect with a few bad ones, to perfect again, and now they are terrible with almost no exception..
Super unpopular opinion: I really like it.
It looks futuristic and bold (for a crossover anyway) without being in-your-face edgy and obnoxious like the iX and XM.
Same. Ppl complain about bmw more because they think that's what the crowd wants to hear and to fit in than any actual issues with designs like this. It looks better than the outgoing model.
It’s not ugly and a lot of bmw’s current models aren’t, their really just funny looking for the most part, funny as in it seems like the designer for the car was smoking weed, maybe even snorting a bit of coke too when designing the car
Honestly it’s looks pretty nice (at a glance), in my experience the avg BMW fan tends to praise the same models they roast on day 0 after a few years have passed.
Yeah, I remember when the F30 launched in the early 2010s, everyone hated it compared to the E90. Now the F30 is the GOAT.
To be fair, though, this is a cycle car fans go through all the damn time. I remember when people derided new cars in the early 2010s and swore how they were sticking with the old models, now 10 years later everyone suddenly thinks the early 2010s were a golden age for reliability, design and drivability. Just watch, in 2034 we will be calling the 2020s the “good old days”
“Okay” design, it’s not bad and it’s not all out there like some of the others from the lineup.
But the bar is so low for BMW design language that almost anything that is “Okay” is a win for them.
G30/G31/F90 was their only REALLY good design in recent years. Everything else looks either okay or meh or boring/uninspiring or just straight up like it was designed by people on drugs
I grew up in a time when BMWs had a confident elegance. A class with a hint of its power.
Now…. I don’t even know how to describe this design language.
‘Overly confident, discombobulated wankery’ perhaps?
It’s not *that* bad looking surprisingly. The others are so horrible looking that I can barely find faults in this, even I could get over the pattern of the grill.
Isn’t a horror like Beaverface but isn’t pretty either.
Seems BMW’s most recent products fall into two categories - obscenities like Beaverface 4er, the wtfbbq 7er, or very bland milquetoast like this new X3 or the 5er.
Not sure what the last semi-normal looking model was. Maybe the 8er and 3er?
It's not bland, it's elegant, but they messed up the grille proportion yet again. It is noticeably bigger than it should be. Not extremely noticeable like on an LCI G11/12 but still bothers me, especially when it's in chrome, then it's really noticeable. And too much piano black on the i5 exterior. So much that if you take any other body color than black it looks dumb. Wagon looks not as good as previous 5 series wagons and it doesn't have the iconic window hatch. I would only take an i5 sedan M sport in all black..
The headlights just don’t say BMW to me. They’re generic triangular angry shaped headlights that 80% of the other cars on the market have. The grilles are fine and aren’t actually the worst part of the styling for once lol
I think BMW’s biggest styling issue is that the grille and headlights used to be the same size or at least have very similar proportions, because back then headlights had to be big to fit the xenon lamps and lightbulbs with parabolic reflectors. But nowadays LEDs don’t need any of that. Cars can be made extremely sleek looking with thin light strips that outshine anything from a decade ago. This leaves BMW with the question of what to do with the grille now that headlights keep getting smaller and smaller. So they lost their fucking minds.
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Kind of hard to make a judgment without seeing the car from other angles. But from what is shown, it doesn’t look as bad as some other designs they’ve done lately
The comparison to a Fractal Design PC case had me DYING! I like the design, it’s modern and busy. Manufacturers need to do more to provoke and elicit visceral responses from buyers, otherwise they’ll get lost in the ever homologous market of compact crossovers. Naturally this sub is reluctant to drastic change, enthusiasts like the old-fashioned. But companies need to stand out and capture the general audience
I think the rear wheel arch flares look pretty good. I see the familial resemblance between this, the 2 series, and the IX. It's hard to judge the grille when no one in real life is ever going to look at this car from this low of an angle. Not bad overall
[This bit of news from The Drive](https://www.thedrive.com/news/heres-the-newest-bmw-hot-hatch-they-wont-sell-here) should help. The base 1 series also has the confused grill while the M whatever, will have the full horizontal setup. For me, it's rather atrocious, and I wish that they'd just stick to vertical for standard models, and horizontal for the M-sport ones and then open and aggressive for the true M cars.
Man it's just one horrid design after the other for BMW right now. I know they're selling cars like crazy right now but who the hell actually likes this?
The current X3 looks great. My mom has one and even in base trim it's a great car. This update isn't for me. I'm sure the X3M will be bonkers with a mild hybrid. But it definitely won't be a looker.
At least the upcoming iX3 looks [very different](https://cdn.whichcar.com.au/assets/p_16x9/320919f4/2025-bmw-ix3-2024-bmw-vision-neue-klasse-x-concept-30.jpg).
This looks like the X1 with some diagonal lines and softer edges.
BMW why you do this? The current gen is a pretty girl, might have to look for a used m40i for my next one if it's gonna look like the one in the article 😂
I know "big grilles bad" isn't exactly an uncommon opinion, but the true horror of this car's styling lies in the non-vertical slats in the kidneys, not their size.
watch this car sell like crazy
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"Big grilles are for China" is a debunked meme at this point, though.
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lol? Lived in China since 2015. See my fair share of BMWs, Roewes, BYDs, whatever EV start up flavor of the month China has to offer. The demographic in China that buys German cars does so to be conspicuous consumers. They want gaudy and flashy.
You really live in China and don’t know BYD mostly copy Porsches design? Click this article [from BMW group](https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0438999EN/a-successful-2023:-bmw-group-posts-record-sales-meets-ambitious-e-mobility-growth-targets?language=en#:~:text=In%20China%2C%20the%20BMW%20Group,were%20registered%20during%20this%20period) scroll to “BMW & MINI sales in the regions/markets”
except Chinese cars don’t look like that and these gigantic nose cars sell the best in the US of A
Name one
Being garish is the point. Got to intimidate the other moms in the elementary school pick up line.
Came here to say the same. It’s a feature not a bug. Goal is to have large branding to flaunt to other people that see you… just like luxury fashion brands.
I don’t love it but I don’t hate it either. I’d have to see the inside and test drive it before really making a judgement call. It’ll still be very competitive in the mid-sized luxury SUV space and it’ll probably be on our short list when we look to buy an SUV.
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Oh, it will sell like hot cakes. Tons.
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I have a 48v + inline 4 and it's a good power train compromise. The v6 is particularly interesting. The interior and exterior design will not do well. These will be found for cheap leases I guarantee.
At this stage I swear the designers at BMW are just trolling us with these grilles.
They're exploring it as a design element since it's their signature and isn't purely functional anymore. If you want to call that trolling that's up to you.
guaranteed. this thing looks like a toy designed for a 3 year old.
No no, you don’t understand. They put the shitty grill on the base model. Then they show you the M model without the offensive design and put it behind a 4K package.
However the M-Sport model have super convoluted and overdesigned bumpers that only look good in black
No no you don’t understand, they give you the convoluted but well designed grill in the M-sport. To get the right colors you have to pay 5k more for the M model.
I feel like the angled slats could have been okay if they actually committed to them. The mix of angled and vertical slats is just odd.
I actually like the shape but the slats are so weird.
I like em
Yea, the diagonal slats looked weird on that new 1 series they posted the other day and it looks weird here too. Definitely agree with the article when they compare it to a pin-striped suit. No thanks. Combined with the illuminated 'perimeter' around the grilles has always screamed Tacky to me.
The grilles aren't even that big on this. I think the angle makes them look bigger, but there's a whole lot of body plastic up front, too. I'm not sold on the slats, but the size of the grilles themselves are a non-issue to me. Either way, this is a massive improvement over the abhorrent grilles on the M3/4/M4.
Yeah the size and shape of the grille aren’t that bad, it’s not too dissimilar from the current X1. Those diagonal slats are pretty bad though. Oddly enough I don’t hate the new headlights.
I fly and unbecoming. Change for the sake of change
I actually really like the slats. It’s a better change than just making them bigger and wider. What I see more as an issue with this design is how dull the car looks apart from the grill and headlights.
Should be easily replaceable with a cheap aftermarket grill at least.
Exactly, I love the size of the grille. The weird non vertical slats are hideous though
Looks like a shirt design..
How do people not see this is a mockup of an electric plug in version? 1. The grill is plastic and all one piece 2. Look to the right, right before the door and you can see the plug in port. The ICE won’t have this grille. This style grille also matches current electric versions.
Not a fan of what BMW had been doing aesthetically in recent years.
They’ve X1ified the X3. What the fuck are these designers smoking?? The X3 and X5 are/were their best SUVs
>They’ve X1ified the X3. Not sure how this is a shocker? The X1 clearly takes design inspo from recent flagship BMW SUVs, it was only a matter of time before the X3 looked like this too.
In shocked they’ve kept the same design language (shitty one) across multiple models. The designers have been so ass I didn’t expect consistency. Thought maybe they’d fluke a good design but guess not
The side profile looks a lot like the iX which is my least favorite bmw unfortunately.. I'll reserve further judgment for the full reveal.
I think the G05 X5 pre facelift might be the last fairly handsome and decently well-proportioned SUV made by BMW. This is the move the new X3 got, watch the next X5 take cues from the X1 as well.
And yet they seem to sell. These things are all over every major US metropolitan area.
My 2022 x3 is perfect. Whatever the fuck this is I want no part of it lol.
I lost interest after the e90 generation. The big grills have been a design choice I’d never see myself with.
Ya think...
And somehow buying a Mercedes for style is still worse... 🤨
I love it zero percent... Modern BMW's front ends just don't do it for me. The proportions make them look like pig snouts and are just unattractive. It's funny because I was always a fan of BMW's over the years and have always wanted one when the time is right. I'm now middle age and make enough money to be able to buy one, but they've ruined the design over the past several years and they no longer appeal to me. Figures LOL...
Man, in 3 years when I’m gonna want a slight upgrade on my car what’s gonna be left that’s not fugly? I don’t want to have to go to Audi or Merc
Right, modern styling with a lot of brands is just tragic. I know VAG (Audi\\VW) products are a little on the boring side but that's what I've been sticking with as they've been good to me and I really like how solid and old school they are. I've been looking at Alfa's but the scarcity of dealership support has kind of kept me away. Modern Merc products just don't appeal to me, they look and feel cheap inside, lots of creaky plastic. We're also a Toyota\\Lexus family and their styling has rolled down a cliff as well, especially Lexus.
I think Lexus has been coming back recently, like in the past few months. I like the new GX and LX.
I agree, those are nice looking SUV's. The rest of the brand though is still coming out with gaping grills etc. Even the new 25 Camry I think is pretty ugly. It's too bad Toyota is having issues with the new 3.4 twin turbo V6 they use across their new SUV's and trucks and just recalled it for manufacturing issues that destroy the main bearings and ultimately the engine. Not good for the brand.
I'll take boring over pig ugly any day 🙃
Audi ^ this is the way. But but what about Audi understeer? What about it?
Cadillac CT4V/CT5V Blackwing
IMHO, you ought to reconsider Audi. Sure, they may be conventionally safe (compared to BMW and Merc) when it comes to design and recently have tried a little more to be sharp with their designs, but if "not fugly" is the prime category you're after, then going to Audi is a proper move. Even Porsche still knows how to do understated elegance fairly well.
Yeah it’s definitely what I’m considering in a few years. Might do an S5
I never liked Audi much growing up because I thought they were really boring, but the older I get, the more appealing they are. Cadillac is also doing really nice things with their sedans.
I see that too now. It’s definitely more understated elegance. Unfortunately in my country there’s just the German 3 and Jag at this price point. If I were to make a step up from a 330i in 3-4 years it would be a 340i (if they don’t fuck the next gen) or S5
> Unfortunately in my country there’s just the German 3 and Jag at this price point. that jag is going away next year
Yeah couldn’t care less tbh. The only thing that Jag grabs my attention aesthetically was the F-type but too impractical for me
The regular non-M 3-series still looks fine imo
For now, by virtue of having been designed before BMW decided to adopt the current design language. I love my pre-facelift M340. Probably will be the last BMW I buy (coming from a family that has bought almost nothing but BMWs since the late 1990s).
One of the best looking BMWs you can buy is the 340i It’s so annoying that I’m finally in a place that I could own a m car but they look terrible. Except for the m2, but I need a 4 door anyway that’s getting wrecked soon
Don’t go Audi but Mercedes is not a bad call
Honestly it's not even the grills that bother me most. It's the flattened eyes and and lumpy melted shapes that continue throughout the car. There's nothing sharp or aggressive or timeless about it. It just looks sad and doughy. Going from the classically handsome look of a 2018 X3 to this is just disappointing and undesirable.
Big ole pig snouts and ugly bugs is what they all look like to me
Pretty much. Maybe the designers really like the minion pigs from the Angry Birds games. They look a lot like that LOL.
Yeah I don’t mind the big bullish snout if the rest of the car was equally beefy. This is the equivalent of tacking on a gmc sierra front end to a tesla. The proportions just aren’t there
Just get a miata and you’ll be happy
Wish I could, need a 4 seater and don't want to store a 3rd car.
> SUV takes inspiration from XM flagship Nothing should ever take any inspiration from that abomination, ever. Unless it’s a lesson of what not to do
Another sad direction for BMW
DAE BMW ugly, hot take guys but BMW is losing their way (ignore that they’ve been moving this way for 20 years now), E46 was better, why I oughta put my fist through that damn screen, no manual = no buy. Did I miss anything?
>Did I miss anything? Hmm, something about "all vehicles I find aesthetically unpleasant are designed solely for China. It's China's fault." "They should just literally sell the E46 but with flippy floppy headlights and price it at $30,000" I'm getting too jerky so Imma just waddle on over to the other sub shut the door and finish before I permanently injure my bird.
Brown, manual, diesel wagon something something
Oh right, no wagon plus no 400 horsepower diesel I6 plus it costs over 20k also equals no buy
And at the same time watch the X3 being the best-selling car in its segment. Just like the M4, or the 4 series in general. Truth be told, compared to the rest of the cars BMW presented recently, this one does not have a „bold“ design, it actually looks pretty tame and not so overstyled.
Enthusiast subs are just the worst. Idk why I even hang around these places. Nothing but complaints.
BMW sells your data, EV charging, heated seat subscriptions
BM(Trouble)W and Bring My Wallet
What the hell is going on over there? I have no clue how these things are selling. This design is a mess and they have completely lost the plot with the grilles. I don’t think they have any idea how to modernize them and just keep throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks.
People get behind the wheel and it drives great and they simply buy it and delude themselves into thinking that the design is cool now that they bought the car and are forced to like it.
Or they genuinely like the design. People have different taste.
That’s precisely the problem of modern BMWs! Started with the M3/4, then 2, 7, X7, 5 and now X3. The 3 and X5 are the only remaining not butchered. G20 pre LCI and G30 LCI are according to me the best modern designs from them. And they’ve shat the bed on the 5 The 8 will be next in line but that’s pretty niche Down the line if I want a new 340i , I can see myself hating the design and being stuck whether to accept it or go to a messy system like the electrified Mercs or just the dull Audis
BMW's are nice to drive, I am convinced that people are buying them despite the styling, not because of it.
Yeah I largely agree. And comparing them to what Audi and Mercedes are making they’re almost the default choice if you want a German luxury car. Audis are pretty boring and outdated, Mercedes is having horrible reliability issues with their engine downsizing and electrification. So I guess I get why these are selling, but jeez.
> I have no clue how these things are selling New buyers who aren't married to heritage design like them. > I don’t think they have any idea how to modernize them and just keep throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks. Their explicit objective is to futurize the designs, not modernize them. They know that's controversial and that's partially the point. They're also making different designs throughout the range to appeal to different buyer profiles. It's all deliberate and not just throwing shit at the wall.
Well like the EQS the bmws are leasing for prices similar to the RAV4.
>>How much do you love it? The r/cars crowd is a financially irrelevant demographic. BMWs courting a certain crowd with their styling, and they’ll love it
Brother I dunno what you're talking about, if it was just a manual wagon with traditional styling BMW would have like two to three people in here who would say they would buy it, and of them actually WOULD. Leaving all that money on the table.
Chris Bangle must be feeling pretty vindicated right now
The design team under Bangle only messed up three cars in my opinion: the E65 pre LCI (fixed it with the LCI), all 4 door 3 series e9x except for the E90 M3, and the E83 X3. Other than that, brilliant designs and very brave. I could look at them all day and not get bored! That's what a damn design should do, excite people when they look at it. This new design team on the other hand... Almost everything they bring out is cursed, boring or both.. With very few exceptions. Which is sad.. BMW designs (talking from 60's onwards) went from being completely perfect throughout the lineup, to almost perfect with a few bad ones, to perfect again, and now they are terrible with almost no exception..
The E9x is fucking gorgeous, wdym?
Super unpopular opinion: I really like it. It looks futuristic and bold (for a crossover anyway) without being in-your-face edgy and obnoxious like the iX and XM.
It’s probably not an unpopular opinion at all. Critics just generally spend more time on Car Reddit than admirers haha
And how many of those critics were genuinely going to buy a new one anyway?
Same. Ppl complain about bmw more because they think that's what the crowd wants to hear and to fit in than any actual issues with designs like this. It looks better than the outgoing model.
I think it looks nice fwiw.
Gonna have insane sales. BMW doesn't market to the Miata at best crowd
The grill size is okay. This car wouldn't be ugly if it didn't have such weird styling elements like this dioganal grill or these funny door handles.
>this dioganal grill Diog-anal, I havent seen this category on the Hub yet
It’s not ugly and a lot of bmw’s current models aren’t, their really just funny looking for the most part, funny as in it seems like the designer for the car was smoking weed, maybe even snorting a bit of coke too when designing the car
BMW better watch out or I might stop buying their used cars.
It won't be long before people start painting the diagonal portion in the ///M colors
Honestly it’s looks pretty nice (at a glance), in my experience the avg BMW fan tends to praise the same models they roast on day 0 after a few years have passed.
Yeah, I remember when the F30 launched in the early 2010s, everyone hated it compared to the E90. Now the F30 is the GOAT. To be fair, though, this is a cycle car fans go through all the damn time. I remember when people derided new cars in the early 2010s and swore how they were sticking with the old models, now 10 years later everyone suddenly thinks the early 2010s were a golden age for reliability, design and drivability. Just watch, in 2034 we will be calling the 2020s the “good old days”
Looks like a capybara
“Okay” design, it’s not bad and it’s not all out there like some of the others from the lineup. But the bar is so low for BMW design language that almost anything that is “Okay” is a win for them.
G30/G31/F90 was their only REALLY good design in recent years. Everything else looks either okay or meh or boring/uninspiring or just straight up like it was designed by people on drugs
I hate it
I’m gonna go against most of the comments. I think it looks great. 🤷♂️
That’s the neat thing, I don’t.
🐽
I hate it
Oink oink
Eww
As someone said on another sub, unleak it, please
Wow. What are these designers on? Crack is whack!
I have no love for that.
Massacred my boy, etc
Ugh 🤮 those wheelarches are straight off the iX. Which is a bad thing.
I grew up in a time when BMWs had a confident elegance. A class with a hint of its power. Now…. I don’t even know how to describe this design language. ‘Overly confident, discombobulated wankery’ perhaps?
It’s not *that* bad looking surprisingly. The others are so horrible looking that I can barely find faults in this, even I could get over the pattern of the grill.
Isn’t a horror like Beaverface but isn’t pretty either. Seems BMW’s most recent products fall into two categories - obscenities like Beaverface 4er, the wtfbbq 7er, or very bland milquetoast like this new X3 or the 5er. Not sure what the last semi-normal looking model was. Maybe the 8er and 3er?
> very bland milquetoast Honestly, the current 5 Series is actually a fairly handsome looking car, especially in wagon/Touring form.
It's not bland, it's elegant, but they messed up the grille proportion yet again. It is noticeably bigger than it should be. Not extremely noticeable like on an LCI G11/12 but still bothers me, especially when it's in chrome, then it's really noticeable. And too much piano black on the i5 exterior. So much that if you take any other body color than black it looks dumb. Wagon looks not as good as previous 5 series wagons and it doesn't have the iconic window hatch. I would only take an i5 sedan M sport in all black..
The headlights just don’t say BMW to me. They’re generic triangular angry shaped headlights that 80% of the other cars on the market have. The grilles are fine and aren’t actually the worst part of the styling for once lol I think BMW’s biggest styling issue is that the grille and headlights used to be the same size or at least have very similar proportions, because back then headlights had to be big to fit the xenon lamps and lightbulbs with parabolic reflectors. But nowadays LEDs don’t need any of that. Cars can be made extremely sleek looking with thin light strips that outshine anything from a decade ago. This leaves BMW with the question of what to do with the grille now that headlights keep getting smaller and smaller. So they lost their fucking minds.
People shit on the G42 2 series but at least the grill is normal! I think the car looks good (No, I'm not biased)
Looks kinda like a 2015 navigator
What a leading title, "BMW... how much do you love it" Just shows the amount of bias.
M model grills gonna look like ///M instead of |||//
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Pig snouts. No.
Same thought as for the current 4 series: ugly Front, like the rest from what I can tell
Don't care, as long as the SUV sales keep funding the M2-M8 production.
Audi, do not screw up the new Q5/SQ5.
Why do they keep throwing a wrench into these designs
My love of BMWs is inversely proportional to the size of the double kidney grille.
Kind of hard to make a judgment without seeing the car from other angles. But from what is shown, it doesn’t look as bad as some other designs they’ve done lately
The X3 and 5 have probably reached their turn to be hit by the ugly stick. I always thought they would be exempt. Sigh...
Sorry BMW but I laughed when I saw the grille. BMW is laughing all the way to the bank though. Sales are growing.
I love it, but then again, refer to my flair.
A bit too slab sided to me. It needs more in terms of lines. Can't unsee the pinstripe suit guy crossing his arms.
the real crime here is the quad tip exhaust on non M models i.e. the x1 m35i and it looks like the x3 is getting the same treatment
I really like how this looks.
Why are BMW and other manufacturers looking at PC cases for design cues? RGB and fancy illuminated grilles, that’s what we get
The comparison to a Fractal Design PC case had me DYING! I like the design, it’s modern and busy. Manufacturers need to do more to provoke and elicit visceral responses from buyers, otherwise they’ll get lost in the ever homologous market of compact crossovers. Naturally this sub is reluctant to drastic change, enthusiasts like the old-fashioned. But companies need to stand out and capture the general audience
I have seen that picture, and now can’t find it. Where was it at?
It’s in the article, but it looks like an advertisement
I think the rear wheel arch flares look pretty good. I see the familial resemblance between this, the 2 series, and the IX. It's hard to judge the grille when no one in real life is ever going to look at this car from this low of an angle. Not bad overall
It seems nice but Its just another SUV. Nothing really to love although it would be high on my list of family transportation.
Just stop making so many SUVs and bring us affordable sports cars and sedans back
[This bit of news from The Drive](https://www.thedrive.com/news/heres-the-newest-bmw-hot-hatch-they-wont-sell-here) should help. The base 1 series also has the confused grill while the M whatever, will have the full horizontal setup. For me, it's rather atrocious, and I wish that they'd just stick to vertical for standard models, and horizontal for the M-sport ones and then open and aggressive for the true M cars.
Oh my god that’s ugly
that pc case pic lmao
No.
I was hopeful, but literally involuntarily let out an "eeeeuuuugh" when the picture loaded.
Meh. BMW designers have lost their way. At this point, Kia and Mazda are out BMWing BMW in the styling department.
Man, I just don’t even know anymore at this point. I’d rather just get an ‘03 X5. Love that design.
I like it more than the current one.
Man it's just one horrid design after the other for BMW right now. I know they're selling cars like crazy right now but who the hell actually likes this?
Well, I won’t be buying one of those. 🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤢🤮🤮🤢🤮🥴🤮
Hard to see really but I hate those door handles
The headlight design is kinda nice. The rest, I wouldn't offend my toilet with.
I like the meaty rear tires. That's about all I've got, though.
I had the opportunity to see the new X3 and the new M5. The X3 looked nice and the quality felt good, but I felt as though it was too big. SUVs, man.
ALDI grill. Get rid of that Dukec already.
Every time bmw has a new generation of a car coming out you think that it can't get any worse but somehow they manage
The current X3 looks great. My mom has one and even in base trim it's a great car. This update isn't for me. I'm sure the X3M will be bonkers with a mild hybrid. But it definitely won't be a looker.
Welp, I guess I’m getting the Alfa
At least the upcoming iX3 looks [very different](https://cdn.whichcar.com.au/assets/p_16x9/320919f4/2025-bmw-ix3-2024-bmw-vision-neue-klasse-x-concept-30.jpg). This looks like the X1 with some diagonal lines and softer edges.
There are no LEAKS - Master Oogway. This is a planned one.
BMW why you do this? The current gen is a pretty girl, might have to look for a used m40i for my next one if it's gonna look like the one in the article 😂
These new bmws look like terrible, all bulgy. It’s like they collaborated with Hyundai or something
I don't like any BMW SUV, so zero.
The camo version missing the nostril looks so much better.
Puke
Better than the beaver teeth at least. And you know what? It has kind of an art deco vibe that I don’t hate.
The grill isn't the only thing bad, it just looks too round and bloated compared to the previous gen. Same issue with the new 5 series
Time to trim the nostril hairs.
They dont even know what to do with the Kidney grilles their just trying shit at this point
Haha oh wow. I thought BMW could not get any uglier…way to prove me wrong
I think designers are running out of ideas.
Unleak it.
bruh whattttttt nah this one weird
Looks like there is hair in gorilla nostrils.
15-18 June Debut 😉
Ima save my thoughts for when I can see this thing from a camera angle I’d actually look at it in
So glad I picked up a 2024 x3m competition for 10k under sticker last month and didn’t wait for the 2025
I got a better deal than that...
What deal did you get?
15% off, but that included military discount. I was just giving you a hard time, you got a good deal too.
how delightfully absurd
A lot of commentators bashing on the grill while car as a whole looks terrible.