To say that the criticism of BMW’s latest M3 and M4 has been harsh would be a gross understatement. The vast majority of journalists, enthusiasts and average customers have been critical of the new M4’s face and BMW has heard it. All of it. In fact, execs at BMW would even go as far as to call it “brutal”. Despite that, though, BMW isn’t wavering. The design is staying.
“If you want to create something that stands out, it must be distinguished and it has to be different,” BMW Head of Design Domagoj Dukec told Autocar. That same sentiment was echoed by BMW Group’s vice president of design, Adrian van Hooydonk. “If you want to reach some customers, you have to stand out. It’s not our goal to please everyone in the world, but you have to please your customers.”
BMW fully acknowledges that the design is controversial but it seems that the brand is going to have to wait until these cars have been on the road for awhile, giving customers a chance to either buy them or not, before it makes any changes. Which is a tempered, responsible approach and most likely the right one. Plus, BMW claims that its focus groups, along with many of its customers, have already given high praise for the new M3 and M4. If it’s already getting praise, why change it, right?
Though, if the M3 and M4 don’t sell well, it will be interesting to see how long BMW keeps this current design language. We’re genuinely interested in how this is all going to turn out because our comments section has been filled with both sides of the argument; fans that say they’ll switch to another brand because of the grilles and others that either like the grille or don’t dislike it enough to not buy the car. This will be one of the more interesting topics surrounding BMW for the next few years, so you can bet that we’ll be keeping an eye one it.
[Source: Autocar]
