996FourEss:

The reason the Chinese love German cars is b/c they are some of the most sophisticated consumers in the world and love the German engineering. The notion of then shifting the design to make it more Chinese is totally asinine. 

 

Make it “more Chinese”? Where did that come from? And what exactly does that mean?

As explained by BMW’s head of design, European buyers are not interested in being overt in their purchases and prefer some discretion, whereas in China and the ME it is the opposite. The new designs have been well received in those markets, and much less so in Europe and NA. China it also a growing market for BMW, so it makes sense that they would respond to what customers want. Their challenge is designing cars that have a broad appeal, and they are more than aware of the criticism from buyers in their traditional markets, and are likely to tone it down in future designs.

Quote from van Hooydonk

“Don’t worry, I don’t want the brand to turn into an oversized kidney grille brand,” he said. “But I believe we understand the reasons for what we have done with the 7 Series and that the issue will solve itself thanks to evolving tastes in the markets for which the grille was introduced.”