2004 (E60) 5 series styling

[Silver4evr]

Hey guys and girls! What do you think?

[Torque]

it's nice, but there is a little too much detail (shouldn't be so rounded)

[TECH]

It looks like a Pontiac and a 745 went to bed together.

[Lucky]

I just think it is consistant with where the BMW design is going. Its fine. but only because the 7 looks like it does.

[woobiee]

as a car it looks good.

but when you factor in that it replaced the E39 5 series...it angers me and personally the E39 looks better.

[CosmosBlack]

I recently posted this somewhere:

There was a e60 530i parked right next to my car yesterday in the garage when I was leaving work. When I was approaching my car, I got a good comparison view of the two machines. I thought to myself, Mine looks better!

Then I walked around the 530i, checking out from bumper to bumper and the interior. I had seen one at the dealer here before, but here's giving it another chance. And I thought to myself again..."How the hell am I gonna trade my car in to upgrade to this thing that doesn't look better than mine!!!???"
It's still a n

However, from pics, I feel somehow the new M5 that's coming out looks better than the regular 5, probably coz' it's lower and the different aerodynamic kit.

[ksz]

I have the opposite reaction. I am beginning to "wake up" to Chris Bangle's designs. As I posted elsewhere, I've parked my E39 next to an E60 and considered the E39 to be primitive or, rather, out-dated. The E60 is a fresh new design, more avant-garde and really pleasing to my eyes.

[y2khris]

There are certain styling aspects that are specific to certain cars. The kidney grill is one things that makes a BMW, well a BMW. I have always appreciated the cut like on the sides of the BMW 5 series (like my E28), starts from the front, and goes all the way to the rear of the car. The new BMW's (Lets hope that the E46 sticks around till someone has the sense to fire Bangle) have lost the fluidity that the older BMW's had.

I dont want to talk about this anymore, I am slowly converting from BMW to Audi, thanks to Bangle

[woobiee]

i too am warming up to bangle designs. The 7, not so ugly anymore, but i STILL have problems with the front. I loved the Z4 from the start.

like everyone says and what i stated above: the new bmws dont look ugly, its just ugly to me because it replaced a legend (E39). i mean sure i understand that the E39 is a very old platform, but comon bangle, replace it with something that looks remotely like a traditional bmw.

i think it comes down to tradition. the new bmws hardly have any bmw lines in them, even the very traditional kidney grilles are starting to look, well, not bmwish. (look at the Z9 concept and the 6 series coming out..whats the deal with that chrome horizontal slat that runs across the top?)

okie thats my piece of it btw, the new 5 looks much better in person than in photos

[ksz]

There are still traditional BMW cues in the new styling. The taillights, for instance, are unmistakable 5-series, only "morphed" to render a more aggressive and eye-catching look. The double round headlights are still there. BMW never waivered from their double-round lamps, and today everyone is coming back to them. The kidney grill is still satisfyingly BMW. On the 545i, the grill "spacers" are chrome- accented, yet another traditional BMW ornament.

To be honest, I did not care at all for the redesigned rear end, but after a few repeat sightings, I think it works well. Sure it can be improved and BMW will no doubt make subtle styling changes throughout this model's (7-year?) lifespan. I commend BMW for making aggressive moves to "modernize" its fleet. Today almost everything on the road looks more or less the same. BMW is setting itself apart...some will like it and some will not.

Audi is also about to introduce style revisions. The new 2005-06 A4 will have a new double-grill in the front. I don't think it works well on the A4...reminds me of the Jaguar S-Type, but not as well suited. The double-grill idea works better on the Audi Pikes Peak Concept vehicle.

[woobiee]

the first time i ever saw the E60, the first thing i though it looked like the new honda accord.

contrary on what you said, i think cars today are starting to look the same. the bulkyness of hondas, toyotas, lex, acura, even audi and bmw all are on the same page. (some look better than others, acura and audi are doing it beautifully i think; but i think toyota and lex needs more work) bulkyness i mean thick doors, smaller windows...basically the look yields to a fatter looking car

[y2khris]

ksz,

You sound like a BMW spokesman, not a BMW enthusiast. I haven't met a single one of us who really prefers the Bangle-ized styling to the styling of the previous generation styling.

I have always stood up for BMW, but now I dont know what they are thinking. Certain cars have certain good traditions, for BMW, in terms of motors, I know BMW builds awesome V8 motors, but I hope that the slant 6 never dissapears the way that the 4 cylinder did in the US. It is the same feeling I felt in 1999 when Porsche went to the water cooled flat-6.

[ksz]

Quite the contrary. I have no affiliation with BMW. I owned a 1997 528i (auto) followed by a 2001 530i (steptronic) and have just placed an order for a 2004 545i (stick shift).

I have spent as much $$ on BMW as anybody else (probably a little more than the average owner). Please note one thing carefully: I am a BMW admirer, not a fanatic. I am not a fanatic about anything actually! Times change, traditions change, opinions change, and even entire generations of people die and are replaced by another generation. While I am not anti-tradition, I am pro-progress. We cannot be stuck in the past. Sure the past is comfortable and we're used to it. Automotive designs that have come in the past have established a sense of what's "right" or what's supposed to look "good". These suppositions are subject to change, like fashion. Not everyone will agree with the general fashion trends in the automobile industry, but eventually a new definition of beauty will emerge. If you've kept abreast of changes in automobile design from the 50's through to today, and if you now extrapolate to 20 years in the future, how do you think cars will look? And will that be a bad thing? Actually, 20 years from now I would hope we earnestly move away from fossil fuel engines to cleaner alternatives while preserving the performance characteristics we're accustomed to.

I am also an Apple Computer admirer, but no one will "accuse" me of being an Apple fanatic because I try to stay objective. Cars and computers are a part of life, not the most important part, so I don't get very much worked up...when there are still plenty of choices on the market.

By the way, if I really did not like the new 5-series I would NOT have ordered one. Like I said, I'm an admirer, not an "enthusiast" and most certainly not a "fanatic".

[CosmosBlack]

One should not change something just for the sake of change. Change does not mean progress or improvement. The word change has been so widely misunderstood, and is accepted, especially in corporations, as being good, creative, innovative, progress, improvement, thinking out of the box....etc....

Being able to make "good" and effective change to an existing product or design, that is another thing. In this case, I feel BMW has recently failed. Seems to me BMW made bad changes this time, for the sake of keeping up with times and to look different. They swayed too far from their roots! What's the point of setting a new trend when the majority of people do not like it? Defeats the purpose in the first place of trying to stay ahead of the competition! Now they are driving more than a few loyal BMW drivers to the competition. And BMW is aware of their mistake!

[pherbolario]

i don't know...i own a e39 but the new 5-series is gorgeous because the e39 has been up since 97...i think it is time to retire the e39's...it's a new generation now...