[Brookside]

Frank Stephenson (Fiat), Shiro Nakamura (Nissan), Chris Bangle (BMW Group)

Chris Bangle Interview in Motor Trend, January 2006

Chris Bangle waxes philosophical, defensive, and personal in a wide ranging interview.

Excerpts:“So we needed to do something new. Whenever you move ahead, you leave some people behind.”

"A car designer is really a sculptor," says Bangle. "Cars are the sculptures of our everyday lives.
We at BMW do not build cars as consumer objects, just to drive from A to B. We build mobile works of art."

“We're closing in rapidly at the end of the current paradigm in the evolution of the car, and if this paradigm lasts beyond 2020, I'll be amazed.
After that, cars, as we understand them now, will be different animals.”

“Yes, the press--or elements of it--were vicious. But the only thing that bothered me was when it reached my family, and it hurt them.
I have a 17-year-old son, who was 13 at the time, and he was affected by the criticism. It hurt him.”

MORE >http://www.motortrend.com/features/c..._design_chief/

[BForbes]

What a great post from Brookside I never read until now. I do have a lot of respect for Bangle.

[ihatepostmodernism]

One thing that really puts me off about the new BMW designs is not only that they are uglier than the old stlying, but that there appears to be a cultural marxist element to Bangle's motivation. http://www.slate.com/id/2133648/&#bangletalk I get the feeling that he hates the old bmw style "establishment" and wants not to change it or update it, but kill it and fight it.