Bangle Quits BMW and Auto Industry Altogether

[petrolhead]

Here is some news that will be a shocker to the industry: Christopher Bangle has quit as head of design for BMW Group and plans to leave the auto industry altogether.

BMW has announced the news in a press release. Bangle says he will be pursuing other design challenges beyond automobiles.

Bangle's influence on BMW's recent history and his contributions to the premium car maker's success are difficult to overstate. Bangle, only 52, is a legend in automotive design and has been head of BMW Design Development since 1992.

He headed the design evolution of the BMW 3, 5 and 7 series from the 1990s into the 2000s, an era of commercial and critical success for those models.

Bangle's team also designed all the new models introduced under his tenure - which include the Z3, Z4, Z8, X5, X6, the 6 series and the 1 series. Bangle was also instrumental in creating the MINI, a car that BMW revamped and launched as a new brand. MINI has also been a success for the Bavaria automaker.

Bangle did take some heat from critics for what was seen as a poor re-design of the 7 series back in 2002 but his achievements have far outweighed any missteps.

Adrian van Hooydonk, 44, currently the head of design at BMW Automobile, will take Bangle's place as Director of BMW Group Design. He has worked closely alongside Bangle for 17 years.

Replaced with:

[Bruno]

nice! now we're talking

[Haissam]

i don't give a damn!

and they forgot to mention the X3 :)

[Amarant]

he had his ups and downs

let's hope the new guy is even better ;)

[SSense]

Bangle definetely delivered some great designs, now let's wait for Adrian's magic, if there's any..

[Haissam]

at the dubai motor show we asked adrian what car he drove and he said Z4M Coupe!

[SSense]

Apparently the "inside story" is that the last straw was Hyundai's North America Car of the year award for the Genesis Sedan. Overheard at BMW's HQ, b/w Chairman DR NORBERT REITHOFER & CHRIS BANGLE:

NR: "Hyundai?!!! WTF Chris?!! You cant even beat a 2 bit Korean car maker?! Doesnt that thing run on rice?!!"
CB: "Well Hyundai has come a long way & contrary to popular belief they now run on gas boss."
NR: "Gas?"
CB: "I mean petrol. And there's a lot of our design cues in the Genesis. The trunk for instance. It's clearly our design."
NR: "There you go again w/ the trunk thing. Chris I must admit, I don't like big butts and I'm not gonna lie. I can't deny."
CB: "But Boss, you drive a 7?!"
NR: "Of course I do, I HAVE TO. I'm the chairman of BMW. I cant exactly drive a Mercedes can I?!!! But I do like that S class. Why can't you design a car like that?!"
CB: "The new S class also has some of our design."
NR: "Can we sue those guys for stealing our design?"
CB: "We'll not really."
NR: "Why not?!"
CB: "Well, you know the folding hardtop on the 3 convertible?"
NR: "Yeah. What's that got to do anything?"
CB: "We stole it from Mercedes' SL Convertible."
NR: ""
CB: " Also our F1 car. We stole everything from Ferrari and planted the evidence at Mercedes. We had to. F1 is way to expensive. We had to cut cost and save money."
NR: ":) "
CB: "The engines too."
NR: "What engines? We have excellent engines. Our M engines are award winning."
CB: "Well, ... We tell the public that the engines in the M3 & M5 are derived for "our" F1 cars."
NR: "So they are really Ferrari engines?"
CB: "Not exactly. We did redesign the engine covers to read "M" on them."
NR: "Chris, I don't know what to do. It's going to cost us millions to undo everything. I'm going to have to tell the board and shareholders. Our stock will crash."
CB: "Just blame it on the Economy and the Financial crisis."
NR: " "
CB: "Oh BTW, remember the billions of Euros of reserve cash that our Treasury had? I had them invest it with Bernie Madoff."
NR: "FU Chris and get your "flaming surface" a $$ out of here! Oh and BTW my other car is a GT-R!!!"
CB: "Mine too!!!"

[Wazif]

The new 7 series is Adrians baby...

Bangle designs were critical...but i think BMW did really well during his era...he had his ups and downs....

[petrolhead]

Actually with Chris's designs BMW sold more cars than any other previous designer... goes to show you that either people see something that we die hard fans don't... or they have no taste ;)

[SSense]

I really admire Bangle for his designs, for some reason I feel Adrian wont ever come up with designs like Bangle did, specially the 90's..

[ahmad.alkhalil]

Interesting to see what this new guy comes up with..

[Haissam]

adrian is not a new guy :)

and by driving a Z4M Coupe i'm sure he's got good taste :D :P

[ahmad.alkhalil]

adrian is not a new guy :)

and by driving a Z4M Coupe i'm sure he's got good taste :D :P

yeah I figured u'd think that Haissam ;) hehe

[Jonsibal]

adrian is not a new guy :)

and by driving a Z4M Coupe i'm sure he's got good taste :D :P

Offcourse he has good taste. Van Hooijdonk is Dutch ;) Thats why 'we' buy BMW :thanks:

But seriously; sad to see Chris Bangle go. I thank him for the succes he brought to BMW and all the great models we are able to drive, from his hands.

:1stcup:

[SewerSideUp]

We have gotten used to him, we have puked at some of his designs and drooled at others.
Now, if the new 7er is by Adrian. . .Then, I guess we all have to pray for BMW from now on !
Not saying it's ugly, but it just doesn't look right most of the time. When its numbers increase on the street you'll get my point.