Quote:
Originally Posted by Inductive
With the horizontal and structural brace separating the oil cooler and the main air intake to the radiator, the aesthetic "skin" or outer "housing" role that the front bumper/fascia plays doesn't seem calibrated with engineering functions by creating the disproportionately large vertical kidney grilles.
The logical engineering function seems to prescribe the layout for the kidney grills to be situated above the structural brace and a separate lower air intake with mesh (debris guard) to protect the oil cooler - just like BMWs have been designed for decades.
This seems to be supportive evidence that the new incongruent and oversized vertical grilles were purely an aesthetic play - making them even more cringeworthy.
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Crash protection mandates this and was also seen on early prototypes quite a while ago.
Audi, Lexus etc also have huge grilles (as their design language). Audi also used to have a small grille above the crash structure, but changed their design. I don't think many Audi customers want the old design back, even though the big grille is there purely for design purposes.
When Audi (and Lexus) introduced their large grilles it was met with the same reactions as BMW is facing now. Perhaps history repeats itselves in this case also...
BMW have done the same on previous generations as well. The kidneys on the E21, E30, E28 and E34 for instance was just a design element of the grille, not needed for cooling purposes (they could actually had better air flow without the kidney surround blanking off part of the grille opening).
Yes, it's a design decision. But isn't design an important feature, even of a M-car?