What a better way to see how the BMW 7-Series transformed over the years than a video that morphs through six generations and 38 years of development?
After watching the video, you’d be right to say that some of the biggest sticking points are how much BMW‘s flagship has grown and fattened up and how it lost its sporty (for a car in this segment) edge after Chris Bangle’s E65 generation, but I have another gripe too: the double kidney grille.
BMW went from a super elegant and understated double front piece on the original, shark-nose E23 7-Series built from 1977 through 1986, to a monstrous grille on the new G11 – so much so that it would be closer to reality if they called it a pig snout…
Not the most scientific method – actually, far from it, but with a tape lying around on the office desk, I measured the ratio of the grille to the car’s overall width at around 1:6 for the E23 and a whopping 1:2 for the G11! It’s so damn big that it makes Bangle’s droopy-eyed 7er look unassuming, and that says a lot about the new G11’s fascia.
Will BMW ever reverse this trend? Probably, as styles eventually go out of fashion, but for now, the firm’s concepts point to even bigger and bolder pig-snouts in the future.
Note: BMW skipped the new 7s rear at the end of the video – that or the creator couldn’t tell the difference between the two