SHANGHAI MOTOR SHOW: Is This BMW's Answer To The Mercedes CLS?

OMG what the hell is that?

AAAARRGH...

What is it?

Ladies And Gentlemen, The New 8 series!

> OMG what the hell is that?

That is the new Pontiac Grand-Am, by Chris Bungle.

I totally agree with you. This thing looks great and it had to do with some of the old styling.
It reminds of the old 850i and the front kind look like the '99-05 M5.

I must also mention that this car also reminds me of an Astin Martin on the side profile.

Hahhaaa !! Sarcasm from you !?

On second thoughts your are probably serious about your undying love for what is obviously an Aston Martin photoChop.

Hahhaaa !! Sarcasm from you !?

On second thoughts your are probably serious about your undying love for what is obviously an Aston Martin photoChop.

this, not a photoshop, not at all...

nasty deformed aston martin. I love Aston Martin, but this thing it's just too wide, to big, ugly oldish interior

I love that front end!!!

Looks a little like the front end of a Dodge Charger. This one may take a while to grow on me.

It's more Z8 than charger. Like Bangle's first generation of cars, some parts of it look a little half baked. The grille needs more detailing instead of being two gaping holes in the front. But the car is hot

Bangle is not one to pick up on a Dodge Charger and make it obvious in the results. To me the lines are clearly inspired by late model Aston Martins with a faint salute to Maserati.

Hmmm, shapes not bad, but the kidney's and the head lamps are hideous.

I think it looks better than the Mercedes CLS. BMW please build it.

Go back to school on the front end.

I think it looks good. I do see Fabian's point about a Charger in the lines on the side. But that's where it ends in resemblance. I like it. and love the interior. I am glad to see there is not a SCREEN domintaing the dash.

compared to the CLS, AM Rapide, and Jag concept...this thing is ugly. Bangle-butt meets Charger fascia. I will say it has a nice side profile, but does not add up to the other designs out there.

Charger? Looks more like classic BMW front end.

Exactly what came to my mind when I saw it, Charger and DB9.

That car looks so hot, i would like one. But the front end the kidney needs a little retune. Otherwise brilliant.

What we've got here is BMW raising the benchmark once again.

I'm so glad to see BMW expanding its horizons with this concept. I love it! I just hate the fact that when I see it, the name "Dodge Charger" pos automatically in my head. Changing the front headlights and rounding out the front should give it its own look. I'd buy it!!

I like the low and wide squat of this car’s profile. The elegance of a four-door Aston, of sorts. The details of the front and rear, however, are an indulgence of flame surface excess. Someone attempting a 2.0 look, perhaps to impress Bangle, that tried way too hard. Don’t throw away everything here, but try again.

On the inside, the design isn’t bad, but its concept-car-minimalist and not practical. Where does nav go? There’s a knob for I-drive, but no screen. The chrome is overdone in a manner not typical for BMW, it needs to go… and I’m on the fence about the dash stitching every time is see this concept car trick.

Verrry niiice! BMW should build this better Bangel

did they try to just smoosh a 6 and 7 together?

To be honest, recently I feel BMW have lost their way somewhat. But this car just encourages me to think this further, the exterior styling isn't great and the interior is no better...looks cheap and badly layed out.

OMG BMW came back from hell! I love it! It would kill the CLS! Only 1 note, the grill is too large.. other than that... thats one hell of a car!

Thats just plain ugly. Like a 7 45 and a charger had a bastard child!

competitor to the AM rapide??? You gotta be kiddin!!

if this car will be based on the 7 series it wont compete with the cls, because the cls is positioned between the e class and s class. this would be above the 7 series, and would be priced alot higher than the cls.

Very nice concept, and I might say its leaning towards Japanese designs.

leaning towards japanese design????
are you out of brains... ???????

I can't believe there is so much bitching about one of BMW's best designed cars in years.

Even though it's a concept, it still looks lightyears better than the current 6.

I like the overall shape, but the grill....
However, if you make it one giant (non-kidney) grill, it looks A LOT better.

I have read most of the comments and I have to agree the car does look great but please shrink the kidney grill.

Makes no sense.

CLS is Positioned between E-Class and S-Class (E-Class Coupe)
This is expected to be "Over 200 inches" in lenght and supposedly bridge the gap between 7-Series and Rolls Royce so how could it possibly be competing with the CLS ??

I call BS ?? ( The Reporting that is )

Also There is no way that is an actual Finished Concept, there are way too many errors in that vehicle for BMW to show that as the final Concept Design.

I think it's a nice looking vehicle, though the grill is way too large. However, it doesn't make any sense to say this car is the CLS-killer when it's positioned above the 7 Series. If it were between the 5 and 7, ok, but above?! Either this is a hoax or it's very bad reporting. Or, maybe the propeller guys have lost it.

Looks great, but it is too familar to the Maseratti Quatroporte.

And the DB9.

Some of the impressions that i am getting from bmw lovers here are just outrageous. I mean the overall shape is quite sensuous, but please, if someone calls that z8 looking front suitable for this sexy body, they must be in disillusion. The car looks very good, but instead of being a blind bmw supporter and calling the front end treatment good looking you guys should criticize bmw for messing up the front of this otherwise beautiful piece of design.

And by the way i think that this has better body shape than both cls and xf, but but xf has a certain fluidity in the design, which just gives it a very natural looks on the eye. But again being a neutral I'll praise bmw for giving autolovers something beautiful to look at (except the front and the very complicated surface creases, i wish the shape was more pure).

The Z8 is my favorite BMW of all time (along with the 850csi). Maybe that's why I like the front end so much.

Interesting!

I must say overall, I like the design. The front to me looks like a combination of an AM DB9 and a Maserati Quattroporte but some how that's not a good combo. BMW needs to tweak it a little bit and I think it would be great looking.

This blows the doors off of whatever that thing is that Porsche calls the Panamera. No contest there.

The real competition in this segment is going to be the Aston Martin.

You are absolutely correct. The DB9 and Quattroporte were the real inspirations,and the engineers and BMW never hid their intentions.
If you remember correctly, they were interested in AM before Ford stalled the talks.

i cant really say that i like that new front end. im a fan of the old BMW styling that makes the front of the car look angry.

aww............what the hell are they thinking? come on.......even the current BMW 650i look better than this.

Agree with u Lexus.

This is dissapointing stuff from BMW.After giving us beauties like 3 series coupe and X5,this is just the complete opposite.It's terrible.

Dissapointed.

JUGNU

This thing is absolutely disgusting, very nasty...Mercedes rules BMW in the design section by far, especially with the beautifully elegant CLS..Its a shame that a beauty like the Merc CLS is to be mentioned along with this incredibly ugly "thing"

I like the look but it seems a little too long and from a front /side view it looks like an Aston Martin.

It has potential but I still take the CLS over this.

You'll be able to buy 2 or 3 CLS's for what one of these will cost. If I read this article correctly, this is supposed to be a bridge between the 7 series and the RR Phantom so expect $200K+ as the price point.

I'm surpised so many people actually think this car looks good. I prey that the production version doesn't look anything like this mixture of Aston Martin, Charger, & Maserati Quattroporte.

The Jag FX concept is a flawless beauty, why can't BMW's concept just look beautiful & not so out there?

Very dissapointed.

MunichRob wrote @ 4/19/2007 7:38:45 PM: I'm surpised so many people actually think this car looks good. [...]

I think that if I had to do a revision of the BMW 507 for the 21st century, a first sketch could look very much exactly like this one. So, I'd say: Gaan, bwais! Don't stop ...

507 was a 2 seat soft top roadster, this is a 4 door saloon. BMW's interpretation of a modern day 507 was the Z8. Using the same Idea this would be a modern version of the 502 'super'.

A modern day interpretation of the 507 has already been done with the Z8 so I don't really understand what you are saying.

its looking really nice, as a concept car.
but in oder to turn it into a real car. still need to be refined a lot. but in the end it will be looking really good.

agreed. looks like a glossed charger to me.

definitely not better looking than the cls.

Someone please tell me how this Chris Bangle guy still has a job???? He is destroying BMW. People will still buy them because of the badge - and because the driving dynamics are the cream of the crop (though most people who buy them nowadays have no idea what that means) - but sincere BMW fans can't stand this guy. I have a relative who is a BMW collector who refuses to trade in his '97 5 Series for a new one - and one our friends has an '01 3 Series and refuses to trade hers in for a new one. Why? - Simply put - the styling - inside and outside. Get rid of this guy - start with the designs of the previous generation - and just lightly evolve them. With the exception of the new 3 coupe - the cars from Stuttgart are getting uglier and uglier.

I think you mean Munich, not Stuttgart.

Although there are some challenging design aspects in the current crop of cars I don't think that they are that bad at all. I think the current 5 is one of the best looking cars BMW have ever made and the 3 coupe is stunning.

You can't please everyone, some people prefer conservative styling, some people prefer edgy styling.

On the whole though, this concept is a duffer. take the badges and the kidney grille off and it could be anybody's concept. It just doesn't look like a BMW, you can't really see any lineage in the design. Shape is good, detailing is poor.

I hope they build this car (860i ?), I just hope it gets a face-lift first.

The front is to wide, height of the car is to low, back trunk is super small; it just plain "UGLY". This concept is just hideouse, I'm really surprise it came from BMW.

its not bad for a car this large (A8-sized?) except for ONE THING:

Those "Angry Eyes" headlights scream "Cheap Chinese Aftermarket Add-on". Looks like a BMW-copy by Dae-woo, or Kia. Or 6-Series meets Mitsu Eclipse!

Please, get rid of the "Giant Magic Flying Robot" headlights ... Honda already put that style into production (the RidgeLine) and it was funny the first time, but that Japanese cartoon-style design is getting old.

And the kidneys are too large...........

Other than that, a pretty good Bangle-ized homogenization of the Quattroporte, CLS, Aston Martin XF, etc.
Nothing new ... a "no risk" design.

A lot of this design is borrowed from the old Alfa Romeo Montreal.

Hate the huge grille and grotesque headlamps, and the Bangle butt is too pronounced; however, the side profile is sexy and the interior (while having no resemblance to current BMW interiors) looks well put-together and airy.

the face and tail lights needs a lil adjjustment, BUT this car looks reallly great

This thing is hideous, but I wonder if Lexus would make a copy out of it.

what it needs is for the canopy to be pushed forward and allow a more sleekish rear slope rather than the hatchback slope, like what the cls has done. it looks almost like a stationwagon... or a charger.

i do like the grill. it is more like the previous generation being less slant and more blunted. hopefully, this translates to the 7 series, albeit with a less generic aston look and more back to evolved bmw.

concept interior rarely translates to actual production interior.

it looks good to me compared to a cls. nothing comes close to the Rapide.

I remember where I saw this shape before .... the original version of the VW Phaeton was a large fast-back -- called the "Concept D" or "Concept D1".

Here's a photo, the "un-Bangled" concept:
http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/concept/99vw_concept-d.jpg

i ususally like most bmw concepts but this one is butt

I'm sorry to say, but I see some Pontiac in that head-on shot of the concept.

This car is simply beautiful!!
Who cares what you guys say half of you wouldn't be able to afoord it any way!


Y2006

Oh-My-GOD!
Look at this "head-on" photo of the Concept-D1, and observe the CONCAVE surfaces below the mirrors:
http://www.km77.com/marcas/volkswagen/motorv10tdi/med/D99_6778_medium.jpg

Then look at the head-on view of the BMW Concept.
ITS THE SAME CAR!

But the VW was shown in Frankfurt in 1999 ... wasn't that "pre-Bangle" days at BMW?

Did Bangle steal VW's design????

Who can identify the designer of the Concept-D1 ???
Where was Bangle back then?
Bigger image here:
http://weakycars.free.fr/galeries/x_allemagne/volkswagen/Concept_D_01.jpg

are you ok in the head?

LoL

Everyone lets try and find similarities between cars then claim they are copying each other.

NOTHING IS NEW FOLKS!!!!

Does anyone agree wit me that the side of this thing looks like a Dodge Charger.

i do see charger, but in other words, i like it alot

I admit that I like the proportions of this car. But the front end is simply grotesque. I have no other words to desribe it.

Well since we are all comparing this to stuff, how about the old SD-1? semi-luxury (for it's time) large 4 door fast back.

http://www.pistonheads.com/pics/news/10299/1982_RoverSD1Vitesse-L.jpg

Looks great from 100 feet away. They you realize that they just HAD to throw some random lines and folds into the sheet metal.

The creases in the rear quarter look like they might actually hum or whistle at highway speed...wouldn't that be hilarious?

Brutal...

what's with the grill

I wouldnt be surprised if the photo's which claimed to be of the inside back of the X6 was actually from this.... I think its good, but if BMW, Aston Martin, and Porsche all release at around the same price I think it will make the CLS seem more value for money. To be honest I still dont think any of the others including the BM CS are as good looking as the Merc CLS.

what kind of a name is DieselRules??? lol

I like the car but I will always chose the CLS I think, but i have to see the definitive model.

Just a question, how come nobody mentions the Porsche Panamera when thinking of it's competitors?

Well until the Porsche Panamera is fully unveiled we can't really compare it style wise.

The 3 things they need to change on this CS Concept is the trunk design, the Charger like character line (should just shoot straight), & the whole front end of this car has to go.

The design has major potential but major flaws as well.

Heh every one that likes this car is deboosted...wow very mature :) ...i personally like that concept..looks awesome

WTF is this??

the next generation of cars should follow this design, the best looking front design since the BMW Z8, I hope the next 7 series and the new Mercedes SL rival look like this,

The lines on the side of the car and the rear are fine, Its the horrific front that drives everyone away...

Oh yea..Larry is on drugs

I was sitting at a light today looking at the back of a Subaru Tribeca sitting in font of me, & it reminded me immediatly of the rear on the CS concept.

Sharp car, Except for the front.

S E X Y !!!