Ever since BMW debuted its current grill design, which started with the pre-faceifted X7, most of the automotive world has been critical of it. For most enthusiasts, the new grille design—which is also seen on cars like the 4 Series, M3, and M4—is too big. But it also lacks cohesion with the rest of the cars’ designs. Since then, countless render artists have tried to “fix” BMW’s grille design with different versions. But what if the fix actually could come from within BMW? These new renders show off what various BMW models would look like with the BMW XM’s grille. Surprisingly, it works on most new Bimmers.
The BMW XM has a strange, mostly ungainly design but its grille is one of the few bright spots. Not only is it reasonably sized (for such a big vehicle) but it’s also shaped like a BMW kidney grille. So when you use it to replace the monster beaver teeth that are the grilles on cars like the 7 Series and M3, it actually looks better.
Of course, it doesn’t work on all cars. For instance, it looks far worse on the BMW 2 Series, which has a great looking grille design from the factory. Changing it to the XM’s is certainly a downgrade. However, it actually looks pretty good on the 3 Series. Now, it doesn’t look better than the standard 3 Series grille, which has the best looking BMW grille, but it looks better than the M3’s grille. So you can imagine it 3 Series/XM grille render with the flared fenders of the M3 and it looks quite a bit better than the stock M3.
On the BMW X6, it looks fine and maybe a bit sportier than the standard grille. But I’m not quite so sure it looks better. However, it does show that if BMW goes the the XM route for other SUVs, it certainly won’t look horrible.
Why does the BMW XM grille look better than the massive grilles of other BMWs? I’m no design expert but it seems to be because it’s a relatively normal shape and its size is horizontal, not vertical like it is on the M3/M4. Because it’s horizontal, it seems more like a proper BMW grille. Which proves that it’s not the size of BMW’s new grilles that’s the problem, it’s the implementation. So BMW proved its own problem, and created its own solution.
[See the renders here at Car Scoops]
