BMW getting unBangled??

[Decolliber]

11:57 Feb. 04, 2004
BMW reorganizes design houses, van Hooydonk takes over at BMW autos


Chris Bangle, the oft maligned maestro of BMW design, has been officially kicked upstairs to Director of BMW Group Design, and will oversee a reorganized set of design departments including Mini and Rolls-Royce.

Individual studios have been set up for BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce as well as for BMW Motorrad and BMW M. The new studios will be involved in new model development from the first sketches to production.

http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content.mv?port_code=autoweek&cat_code=carnews&loc_code=index&content_code=05800170

[BlueSkyJaunte]

So is this good or bad? I can't tell. The 7 is as ugly as Jay Leno in drag. Yet they're putting its designer in charge of BMW Autos design???

[nostatic]

I don't know, but I thought the 7 series was ugly until the 5 series came out.

As my dad used to say, "no son, you're not useless...you can always serve as a bad example."

[BlueSkyJaunte]

True, as fugly as the 7 and the 5 are, they got nuthin' on the Z4 in olive drab.

[stupenal]

Yeah its true. He's no longer gonna be chief designer at bmw. Thank goodness!

[ettsn]

The Peter principle is alive and well I see.

-Paul

[Adam]

The new E65 5-series just looks like Dame Edna to me.

The 5 series is as ugly as the 7 series. Even the new 6 series is ugly. Now they only need to destroy the 3 series as well. Then the mission will be complete.

I can really understand if BMW fanatics are mad at BMW.

[exc911ence]

Kind of makes what Porsche did to the 911 look a little trivial now, doesn't it!

[Dantilla]

Hopefully it will mean the un-Bangling of BMW, and not the Bungling of Rolls and Mini.

[RickC]

BMW's were the doyens of automobile style for what? 15-20 years? They looked great. New mini looks great. How could someone think that the man who ruined the looks of BMW's should keep going?

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally posted by exc911ence
Kind of makes what Porsche did to the 911 look a little trivial now, doesn't it!

Actually, no.

[Decolliber]

Originally posted by RickC
How could someone think that the man who ruined the looks of BMW's should keep going?

BMW's management board does not want to admit that it made a ghastly mistake. But kicking him upstairs to a less direct role in styling indicates that they feel they must at least pay some lip service to all the criticism. Its rather like the situation at Daimler. Ever since Schrempp took over in the early 1990s he has run Daimler into the ground with unprofitable acquisitions (he even tried to take over Fiat, before GM bought in), and DCX is worth less now than Daimler was worth by itself before the takeover (er, I mean ... merger). Daimler's board has reacted to criticism of Schrempp by rallying around him and extending his term. If they dump him it will reflect poorly on their judgment in appointing him in the first place (same with Bangle). BMW needs to bring Wolfgang Reitzle back from exile at Linde.
Moderator, may I put in some self promotion? I have a new book on global mergers in the auto industry:
John Conybeare, "Merging Traffic" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003).
My daughter is going to Yale this fall and I am going to have to come up with $50K per year. I need sales!

[BlueSkyJaunte]

BMW's management board does not want to admit that it made a ghastly mistake.

This will sound harsh but that's the typical German automotive mindset. Porsche, VW, Audi, MB, BMW....they're all guilty of this. However, since they're German, they're right and everyone else is wrong.

PS $50K!!!!!???? Tell her she needs to study where the money is:

http://money.cnn.com/2004/02/05/pf/college/lucrative_degrees/index.htm?cnn=yes