Quote:
Originally Posted by Germanauto
Loll that's simply corporate speak for "our cars are now designed for the Chinese first."
Quote:
Originally Posted by upsidedownfunnel
The American and European market combined sell more than twice the number of BMWs compared to the Chinese market. Does it make sense to style solely for 25% of their market? Also when you take into consideration that the Chinese prefer larger cars, sales of cars like the M3 and 4 series are proportionally even higher in Western countries.
Like it or not, the large grilles are a global trend. Enthusiasts have always complained about new design trends. I'll admit I don't like the trend either, but we will all get used to it. Using the "others" as a scapegoat for everything that offends you is just being lazy.
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I guess the question is, so what? Playing the China Card and portraying them as the antagonist seems to be standard operating procedure these days. Automotive design have always catered to American tastes and this hasn't changed. China is becoming relevant and people seemingly are threatened by them, making hyperbolic statements.
Automakers have always made design/model variations to cater to specific markets. Some models (or model variation) are designed and available in Europe are not available in the US or vice versa. Same with cars designed/available only for/in Canada, Australia, Japan, etc. They've extended this to China because they're now relevant.
So generally, no, they are not styling "
solely for 25% of their market," rather they are also considering the Chinese market (in addition to other relevant markets) in design & development decisions. You don't need an MBA to figure out this is good for business.
As for large grilles, here's a
2005 NY Times article talking about this trend. So not only is this "trend" not new bud I'd contend that something that has been happening for that long is no longer a trend but an established (even traditional) design. BMW, for better or worse, is simply catching up.