New 3 series E90

[DueyT]

I-drive? Eeeeeeeeek!

Well, it's the least-offensive of Bangles bungles -- I'm not a fan of the sharp crease wheel to wheel and the deep reverse curve of the side bodywork...

I'd take a 3 scaled-up to 5 proportions before I bought an E60...

Duey

[winfred]

i prefer to call him bunghole *

Bangle ain't no bootie man....more like a dumb a$$.
George

[George M]

If the bunghole fits eh Winfred?...lol. Yeah Lino I do find pretty much ALL late model BMW styling repugnant. Believe the E-46 is quite good and I like the Z4 pretty well though the Boxster by comparison is a much cleaner design. Believe the cars themselves excepting their unnecessary technical complexity are still state of the art but there are very few cars I dislike more than the new BMW's from a styling standpoint which I find inexcusable for such a celebrated marquee. BMW has conservatively 200 top car designers on staff from all over the world...the best in the business. And what kind of shapes are they producing? Convoluted and homogenized clones of one another...oh there is lineage all right...every new model is a butt ugly version of its next to kin. By contast the MB stuff and I am not a MB fan is better but believe the best designs are coming out of Asia. BMW has the talent...no question. It is the guys at the top however...Bunglehole for example...that makes the pick of all the designs from all the talent within the company. Once the designers figure out what the head idiot wants, they give it to him.
George

[jplacson]

I don't think the E46 (the original one anyway) was a Bangle bungle. The face-lifted version is though... which is find a step down from the original E46.

The Z4 is ok...as is the X3... but then again, they didn't have anything to be compared to. I still like the Z3's styling...and would pick the M Roadster over the Z4.

No question that the new Bimmers have great performance (although reliability is questionable...I've seen a new E60 go completely dead in traffic, due to a faulty ECU)

But design-wise... ugh... Chris Bungle is really turning Bimmers into the ugliest cars on the road.

[paul p (chi-town)]

The dash has more in common with a Buick than a BMW. Remember when it all used to angle towards the driver??? Ultimate Driving Machine ?? Not ultimate look cool in front of Starbucks machine.
Long live the e34 !!!! maybe and e39 and maybe an e38...but thats it

It is obvious that the core ‘driver’ orientation has been being diminished over several models. 1st the e39 had the window switches moved from the center console (a better placement in a manual trans car) to the door. And now it’s hit the 3er. The expectation is that a majority of the cars will be sold w/ an auto and maybe even NO-drive. They initially came out w/ lighter steering in the e46............to make it easier to PARK!?! C’mon...
Yes they’re broadening the appeal, but at the enthusiasts expense.

On the styling....
Tell you what, sure that AC tuned 3er isn’t ugly. It will turn heads but, it isn’t stunningly handsome like an e34/e38, hell throw in the e36. The e39 is already a little honda-ish. Even the e36 update, when the ‘kidneys’ became trapezoids instead of rectangles was a step in the wrong direction. In person i can tolerate the new 7 and the Z4, but the 5er really bites. The 1s look like they have some potential.
What’s truly eye caching today? The Caddy CTS-V, Dodge Magnum Hemi, Chrysler 300C, some MBs.
Oh then there's that absolutely gorgeous Maser Quattroporte(sp?)...

94 530iT&A, ‘Helga’---92 325i, ‘Rolf’…….”Hang up & Drive!”.......no, SERiously.
”Bet that phone call doesn’t seem that important now does it, huh." Nov 20, 2004

[winfred]

i herd through the grapevine the other day from a good sorce that the windows CE operating system controling about the whole car, is capable of receiving a virus beamed to it from wherever and totally shutting down the car, i think it starts with the bluetooth system and ends with the engine computer. kinda gives you a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that some ******* with a palm unit can **** your car, me and a buddy theorized a while back that it would be possible to hack the system but dissmissed it as improbable, guess we weren't totally full of ****

[George M]

hell, you don't need to hack it...it f's up enough on its own...lol.
George

[winfred]

yea but this is really ****ed up, far beyond what it's capable of on it's own as i understand

hell, you don't need to hack it...it f's up enough on its own...lol.
George

[George M]

how does that virus get beamed in tho? No question the computer can be hacked to shut it down.

[winfred]

i think it comes in through bluetooth, as i understand you can't shut it down or restrict access, any bluetooth device within range will log in