Chris Bangle ‘to quit industry’. Hallelujah!

If, like us, you love cars and value design, then this week was an important one for you. On Tuesday, BMW announced that its design boss, Chris Bangle, is to leave the car industry. In a statement, BMW said Bangle was quitting ‘to pursue his own design-related endeavors beyond the auto industry.’

We’ve written before about what we think of Bangle’s work for BMW. Yes, of course, design needs to be pushed in new directions, it needs to challenge us, to question again what we’ve previously taken for granted. That’s true – but that doesn’t mean that anything new or different is good. We’ve always thought there was something of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ about the reaction Bangle’s work garnered. Just because it was different, too many people in the industry seemed afraid to point and say “Wait a minute, it’s also just plain ugly!”

Bangle oversaw the current 1- (you’ve read us rant about that in the past too), the 3-, 5- and 7-series. He also initiated some  completely new niche models during his reign. Some of those designs came close to successful (the Z4 springs to mind) but most of them didn’t (what’s the 6-series all about?).

Perhaps the most disturbing phenomenon that we’ve witnessed during Bangle’s tenure at BMW is the effect his work has had on other manufacturers. When BMWs started to lose the beautifully balanced, understated looks that had made them the most desirable sports saloons on the planet, did Mercedes and Audi realise that this was their chance to take BMW’s crown? No, instead they started emulating the same sort of vulgar, half-baked design direction. The detailing on most current Mercedes is pretty hideous and we blame Bangle. Even Audi, the guardians of German teutonic design, haven’t been able to help themselves. Line up a previous generation A4 with its subtle, efficient style with the new model – full of unecesssary lines, jewlery headlights and fussy details – and you’ll see exactly what we mean.

Adrian van Hooydonk, the current head of automobile design for the BMW brand, will take over from Bangle. A new man at the top can only be a good thing but we’re concerned that van Hooydonk has worked under Bangle for many years already. Let’s hope he’s got some ideas of his own.

But that’s tomorrow’s debate. For now, let’s just celebrate Bangle’s departure. In fact, we’ll let a real expert sum it up. Georg Kacher, CAR’s European editor, was quoted this week as saying “I’m still hungover from drinking two bottles of champagne when I heard the news! Seriously, the problem with Chris was the disconnect between his words and his cars. His explanations were always so credible and made the cars sound so desirable, but in my view, the actual designs of the 1-, 3- and 5-series failed to live up to their billing.”

We couldn’t have said it better Mr Kacher.