i THINK i read this before, but just in case, sharing this with you guys

 

While I'm not particularly fond of the new 7, I think it still looks OK compared to the Z4 & the new 5, which I think are hideous.

 

745 owners must be damn ashamed that even the carmaker itself calls their whips ugly.

 

that's a damn shame...

I actually like the new 5 series.

 

Panke is half-right. BMW did make a big mistake, but it was NOT, as he thinks, just a matter of " not preparing the customers". As the old saying goes....you cannot make a silk purse of of a sow's ear. It was simply a matter of taking the Ultimate Driving Machine and trying to make it the Ultimate Computer Machine. That simply does not work in a driver's car....it was a bad idea, PERIOD, not just a case of bending the customers' tastes to it. The I-Drive was an enormous step backwards, not forwards.....it replaced what were essentially well-designed dash controls with an idiotic joystick that you have to take your eyes off the road far too long to do the simplest little things with....like adjusting radio stations or fan speeds.

 

it's really a shame when a car company makes this big of a mistake...

 

well on a brighter note, i thikn it's a good thing that at least they are admitting thought. i guess i am the kind of person that get pissed when someone doesn't admit anything. heck everyone makes mistake imho. admit it, AND correct it is more important to me

 

Fine, I agree.....now let's see them start CORRECTING it. Toss the I-Drive, put the old sheet metal back on, and put the traditional SUPERB Bimmer steering gear back in.

 

So why is BMW releasing the M5 with the "old" body style?

 

Another thing, Romini....It seems like it is not so much Panke saying that BMW made a mistake....the impression I get is that Panke is saying that the mistake is really the public's, not BMW's, for "not being acceptive" enough to the new 7-series. His view of BMW's "error" is not being able to convince the public of the "necessity" of Bangle's designs. His view is that the public and the auto press are wrong by not embracing the new design and that they are living in the past. In other words, HE wants to push HIS design (and Chris Bangle's) out into public, call it the "wave of the future", and have nobody question it. Well, the world doesn't work that way....we don't have to buy his products...in fact, that is one reason why I bought an IS instead of a BMW. So I see where you are coming from, but I also see where he is coming from.

 

I don't think that the design is 100% butt ugly, its just the very poor reliabililty factor and the easy-to-use i-drive that they should focus on. I think it's easier to somewhat push more buttons than to use 1 button for everything.

At least he admits with a smile

 

 

They simplified the I-Drive somewhat in the new 5-series but it is still a POS.

 

Me too. The 7 didn't take long to get used to, visually. I can't stomach the 5 or the Z4 though. What was wrong with the Z3 that needed corrected (in terms of design); I think the old Z3 design could have been tastefully and successfully updated.

 

Typical BMW. It's the public...they are not ready...we can't be wrong.