VIDEO: BMW's Chris Bangle reveals the cars of tomorrow

this man is the best in the business for a reason. very insightful information.

agree. and i believe there is little argument. he is the best of our generation.

He is brilliant.

bmw in the late 80's and early 90's were the best looking cars. The ex-Plymoth designer Bangle has destroyed BMW's design sole

it is good that Bangle dosen't design the engines

cabrio.. you just have to see how evolved his designs are.. think about fast forwarding 3-5 years.. these designs will define the generation.. it is alwys hard ot look at new esigns and say the old ones are better, but here, you have to beleive is a design vision and philosophy that will look good in 5 years and rememebered as fondly in 18-20 years after the model iteration has moved on. the bangle butt has influenced so many currentldesigns as have the idrive etc. he is truly nothing short of brilliant

I like his not so good little jokes.. it's funny houw nobody laughs.

Anyhow, he seems like a smart yet simple man.

dork

Right on! Well said! There is one more buzzword you forgot to describe his philosophy in design: Bullshitism.

foolish Kool

Most contraversial? Yes. Most brilliant ? NOT! Far from it!! Mr. Bangle, you are NO Giugiaro!!

He may be a dynamic speaker but I wouldn't say he is brillant in his designs. His 7 series design was a flop. Many people disliked that ugly looking trunk on it. His I-Drive system has been nothing but problems. The tail lights on several vehicles are terrible looking (where did that come from). His interiors have gotten "cheap" looking. The previous 3 and 5 series cars had such a beautiful, curvy dash and quality feel to the materials. Why not just tweak the interior and use it with the new exterior. I like the front end from on the current 3 series, but who designed the dash in it. Why was it necessary to place 2 cheap cup holders in that dash design. It really makes the car dash feel inferior; epsecially since the previous one was so inviting with its curves on the dash. A brillant person would have kept what was good and refreshed the exterior.

Bangle is brilliant....

Are you dissing BMWs? Because the current Lexuses are just boring-looking versions of them. Are you saying BMWs are boring?

Want to come say that to our faces?

huu76- i love to bash BMw but you are the only person in thw world that thinks that BMW copies Toyota. That is like saying Apple copied Microsoft. Or Sony's PS3 is a copy of the X box

Huu - and that Smart copied the Chinese

hhuu76 that is the first funny thing i have read you post

Huu76,

Stop.

We have heard your weak argument about where the 'Bangle-butt' originated from before.

No designer in a sane mental state would use a SC430 as inspiration, because car design critics the world over have panned the bloated coupe as being bulky and trying to hard to appeal to American customers. Well it worked, because in Europe people won't even go near that ungainly monstrosity.

Chris Bangle pioneered 'flame-sufacing'. He never claimed that he came up with a original idea on how to design a boot-lid.

And Chris Bangle isn't responsible for I-Drive, or BMW interiors for that matter.

But look at like this: With such controversial and over-styled exteriors, it would be foolish for BMW to continue the theme inside. Design-overload.

The simplistic and functional BMW cockpits provide a fresh contrast and relief from the exterior design.

Simple as that, folks.

The sc 430 is just behind all competition

Not sure that I am wild about his designs, but I will give him this...at least he is doing his job and trying to be innovative and advance design themes. I am so frigging tired of wedge look low front, high but. Look at every MBZ sedan and coupe...low front, high but.

Chris is a visionary.. Just over 6 years ago (way before his many flame surface designs hit the streets) one of my professors at HBS, made a great video interview of him which was used as supporting material for a BMW case study. The guy does what designers are supposed to do..push the envelope, and come up with newer and fresher designs. While each design may not always have mass appeal (and if it always does you're probably not pushing the limits of design enough), any reasonable human being should give him credit for willingness to take the risk and come up with new styling themes... Good or bad I see the controversy surrounding his designs as proof that he's still cutting edge and willing to go where some others are afraid to. In the aforementioned video, he talks about his inspiration for designs, and the need to create themes and styles that give cars personalities etc., Most of my classmates thought he came across as brilliant with a real flair for design. A lot of what he discussed then make more sense now having seen BMW's new design direction. A few years ago Walter Da Silva did the same with Audi's new grill, ditto for Peter Pfeiffer with the lines on the new CLS. While Chris still starts with a sketchbook, some car manufacturers and you all know who they are come up with new designs using two tools: A Xerox machine and a car magazine. what a shame!!
Don't forget that not every design by Giorgetto Giugaro who is without a doubt the "best car designer ever" by a mile was considered a hit either, but nobody with a brain can argue against his impact and place as the designer of all designers for the past 50 years or so.. And please lets not confuse car design from engineering elements in a car such as I-drive.. it shows a lot of ignorance...different teams are responsible for that.

Long before Mr. Bangle switched to BMW, he already did the gimmicky “Flamed Surface” at FAIT but nobody gave a dame. A perfect example was the fugly FIAT coupe he did in the 80. Just because BMW has “mystique”, people suck up to that. Had he remained at FAIT doing the same thing, nobody will give a s@#t! Throwing out some big names from design does not indicate you are knowledgeable so spare us the BMW craps. Visionary my behine.

cckw,

How wrong you are.

First, it's FIAT, not FAIT.

Second, the Coupe was launched in 1995.

Third, at the time the FIAT Coupe's syling was a BIG deal, it was FIAT's flagship sports coupe and it had revolutionary styling which blew everyone away.

It is a modern classic and still fetches high prices for good examples.

Forth, you're stupid :)

That guy is weird,all that the useless crap he talked about made me go to sleep within a minute of the video!!