BMW 7 Series: A Slimmer Bimmer

To boost sagging sales, BMW's new flagship loses its notorious "Bangle butt" and improves its iDrive

By David Kiley

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When BMW (BMWG) unveiled the 2002 7 Series sedan at the Frankfurt Motor Show on Sept. 11, 2001, the buzz in the hall, not yet steam-rolled by the terrorist attacks in the U.S., was all about the new Bimmer with what would become known as the "Bangle butt."

That wasn't a reference to the derrière of the bespectacled, 51-year-old Wisconsin-born, California-educated chief designer at BMW, Chris Bangle, who was responsible for the styling of BMW's flagship sedan, but rather the ungainly trunk that seemed at first glance to be so disconnected from the car as to be bolted on from another sedan. The four taillights, too, were bashed for a busy, ungainly look. One European auto industry critic memorably proclaimed that it looked like a dining room table had been dropped on the rear of the vaunted 7 Series.

Maybe Paris will be luckier for BMW than Frankfurt. In early October, BMW will unveil to the public an all-new flagship, designed under the direct supervision of BMW brand design chief Adrian Van Hooydonk, though Bangle remains chief designer over all BMW brands: BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce.

Plenty of Gripes

The "Bangle butt," which seems to have been emulated by Mercedes-Benz (DAI) in its S-Class (BusinessWeek.com, 5/10/06) and Toyota (TM) in its current-generation Camry (BusinessWeek.com, 8/15/08), is noticeably gone. Also substantially made over is the much criticized iDrive electronics controller in the center of the front-seat console. The initial complexity of the iDrive was lambasted by American journalists who thought it counterintuitive. Online gripers dubbed it the "Why Drive." European critics had fewer gripes with the iDrive and more with the "Bangle butt."

Despite launching the new 7 Series, which will probably be priced between $80,000 to more than $130,000, into the teeth of an economic slowdown in the U.S., BMW North America President James O'Donnell says he believes it is a very good time to launch. "We will have the newest entry in the category, and when things are tough, customers are drawn to the newest designs," says O'Donnell, who took over in April and is also now chairman of the BMW holding company that is responsible for the company's North, Central, and South American operations.

O'Donnell was in St. Louis last week, hosting the BMW Championship, an annual golf tournament that is part of the FedEx Cup competition. Inside the 16th-hole BMW Owners' Pavilion at the Bellerive Country Club, the new 7 Series was crammed into a special room barely big enough to hold the sedan and a few visitors at a time. Dealers, high-roller customers, and a few media people were the first to see the car in the sheet metal.

Two design elements hit the eye right off the bat. First, the proportions of the new Seven. The roofline and hood are both lower. This allowed BMW designers to achieve the classic "pouncing cat" profile and proportions visible from the side view—for which BMW is famous, but which was lost a bit in the 2002 7 Series. The second most obvious element is a hard crease, like the crease in a pair of expensive trousers, that begins at the headlamp, follows down the side of the car, flows perfectly through the door handles, and through the fuel cap on one side of the car, and finishes in the taillights. The rear of the car, so much a part of the Seven's discussion seven years ago, is so well integrated into the rest of the car that it is only worth talking about as a foil to the old car. The front-end sports two character lines on either side of "the power dome" over the engine, culminating in a nose that Bangle calls "sharky."