BMW released a very dark teaser image of the upcoming 2021 BMW 4 Series, and for those of us who feared it’d hew too closely to the controversial—nay, polarizing—Concept 4‘s look, you can breathe half a sigh of relief. A version of the new, angular, semi-conjoined kidney grille is present and will get the lion’s share of attention from observers, but from what we can see in a lightened-up version of the teaser image, it’s not nearly as aggressive or chipmunk-y as we’d thought.
After the Concept 4 dropped, the entire discussion surrounding the car centered on the grille—not the decent overall proportions, or even the promise of superior chassis dynamics, or any of the other things we’ve thought about when a new BMW in the 3/4-Series size class debuts. The focus on a single, polarizing styling element recalls the last time BMW took a massive styling risk—and how the conversation, for better or worse, focused almost solely on that issue. Yes, we’re talking about the Chris Bangle era, and the E65 BMW 7 Series in 2001 that sported the so-called “Bangle butt,” pictured below.
You probably know the drill. Most critics hated it. It intentionally challenged buyers and others to rethink their conception of what a luxury car should look like. The 7 Series sat in the eye of a whirlwind of attention, and whether it was a success as an individual vehicle from a design standpoint seemed to be of secondary concern to Bangle. He was confrontational, his designs were meant to polarize. Other automakers, transfixed, grabbed Bangle-esque themes and remixed them, creating more attractive but less impactful designs.
And, to be fair, the “classic” shapes of the pre-Bangle era were (perhaps rightly) knocked for being risk-averse. Our Angus Mackenzie recalls that the E46 3 Series was derided by some as “just another cookie-cutter BMW with predictably cloned design cues from the larger 5 and 7 Series models.” After Bangle, you couldn’t level that criticism at any BMW.
So, keep that in mind, that history of confrontational, challenging styling that brings a fire hose of attention to the brand. Positive, negative—does it really matter when everyone’s got your company’s name on the tip of your tongue? BMW’s game here seems to be take the most extreme, most challenging version of the design and create a concept car with it—here, the Concept 4—to generate buzz, controversy, and perhaps set a bar for the production car to clear. It doesn’t take much watering down for the challenging elements of the Concept 4 to seem, suddenly, proportional, maybe even attractive, while remaining distinctive.
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That’s what the teaser of the production 2021 4 Series reveals—a mature, almost non-confrontational interpretation of the very unique Concept 4 grille. Up top, it’s less angular, a bit gentler. The texturing inside is more modern and traditional. The semi-scalloped surround is less pronounced, from what we can tell, just a hint of the Concept 4’s deep convex chin. And the headlights are wider, softer, and more conventional. Nor does it appear that the grille protrudes so much as it does on the Concept 4, which from certain angles appeared to leap forward out of the front fascia like buck teeth.
We can see less of the rest of the car in the preview image, save large lower corner elements, which are predictably more extreme than on the 3 Series. And the overall direction of the front end is even more divergent from the existing 3 Series than ever before. The 3 Series’ kidney grilles are wider and shorter, with considerably more curvature, butting right up against the headlights. The 4 Series grille is taller, more angular, and stands proud of the headlights. Stylistically, never before has the 4 Series been less of a “two-door 3 Series coupe.”
But of course, it’ll take a full look at the car to tell how successful the design truly is—in particular, how well the front end treatment plays with the curvature of the side and the overall proportions of the car. Whatever the final product looks like as a whole, BMW’s strategy has already succeeded. The Concept 4’s influence hasn’t been erased, just toned down. And we’re more eager to see the final product than we would be otherwise. It’s a clever game that BMW seems to be playing very well.
