For the full photo gallery, go here:
http://www.autoweek.com/files/specia...s/pages/01.htm
For the accompanying article, go here:
http://autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102612
My 2 cents is that it looks pretty good and I am sure it's going to be a very worthy car befitting its S-class lineage. However, I will also agree that such pronounced fender flares are seriously questionable for a car of this class and pedigree.
About the iDrive"ish"controller. To me, this is a natural evolution we'll see in all cars. It only makes sense that all cars will soon have powerful functioning computers and the most likely input mechanism will be a iDrive type controller or knob. I think it was Jack Welsh that said something like "in business, best practices legitimize copying", or something like that. Anyways, also notice also how the screen sits high, like in the e90 iDrive. I'm sure most all cars will be moving toward this type of design.
So what bugs me is that BMW had the foresight to see this way before any other manufacturer, and yet have fallen so short in the implementation. There is so much potential with the iDrive setup. I hope that within this generation of 3 series, we'll have some real hard-core enthusiasts that really try to push the iDrive to its limits. I'm thinking adding a computer (Mac mini, anyone?) and designing a new or customizing the existing iDrive interface to give it incredible capabilities. I wish they would make everything open source so we can tap all the talents of BMW fans worldwide. e90/iDrive lovers of the world, unite!
PS. Take a look at the antenna on the new S-Class, and compare with the e90 fin. Come-on, it's not even close, and for a car of that price, they can't evey color code it to the vehicle. It's official, the e90 has the best exterior antenna out there. Bar none.