Redesign controversy

In the early 2000s, BMW undertook another of its periodic cycles of redoing the design language of its various series of vehicles, under the auspices of newly promoted design chief Christopher Bangle. These controversial designs often featured unconventional proportions with complex concave and convex curved surfaces combined with (sometimes arbitrary-appearing) sharp panel creases and slashes, a design cue called "flame surfacing" by Bangle. Much of the new language did not rest well with BMW enthusiasts or the automotive press which referred to the new designs as "Bangled" or "Bangle-ised". Bangle is commonly mistakenly accused to have penned all of the designs himself; however, he only chose which design was to be used. As evangelist Bangle has now been promoted within the company to the BMW Group Head of Design, leaving him in charge of not only BMW but also Rolls-Royce and Mini, some question what long term effect the disaffection of BMW traditionalists for these designs will have on sales, and on the company's future. Nevertheless, sales at BMW have increased every year since some of his most debated designs have gone into production.

Though many BMW enthusiasts zealously insist that BMW is the world's top selling luxury brand, new research indicates that their sales performance has not been as a result of their ever-growing skills in creating a luxury car. Instead, BMW's research indicates, that BMW owners generally purchase BMW's for the crisp, sporty characteristics for which BMW is famous. As a result of this worrying research, BMW has redoubled marketing efforts to chase the top selling luxury car, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

Many aspects of the "controversial" designs are now beginning to surface in other auto manufacturer's designs, most notably Toyota and Honda. Though the Bangle-butt design debuted and was popularlised by BMW's 7-Series, Hyundai incorporated this design cue in 1999, three years before the 7-Series was released, and Maybach incorporated it since its first showing in 1997.

What is not as well known, however, is that Bangle was also responsible for many 'conservative' BMW designs and has worked at BMW for almost a decade. The first X5 sketches (which closely resembled the production car), were designed by him, and under his tenure the E46 3 Series came to be. Despite much of the scorn heaped on Chris Bangle, his design selections were approved by the entire executive board of BMW AG, including the majority owners, the Quandt family.