The Kidney Grille Debate

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The Kidney Grille Debate

Friday, 25 June 2021 | Kushan Mitra

The Kidney Grille Debate

BMW’s signature feature has been the cause of many divided opinions among automotive journalists, enthusiasts and buyers

While driving the lifecycle update on the BMW 5-series, I noted that BMW designers had made some subtle modifications to the car’s kidney grille, but unlike when BMW updated the 7-series, they had not gone overboard. The updated G30 5-series maintained its relatively sleek kidney grilles and stands out against many of BMW’s other new vehicles where these are getting larger and larger and larger. And this has resulted in divided opinions among many automotive journalists, enthusiasts and buyers. I, for one, am not a huge fan of the larger grilles.

Truth be told, at a level this is good for BMW, because this keeps their cars in conversation. We all talk about this, unlike say design updates on BMW’s rivals, thus keeping the brand at the top of mind. But why is this becoming such a major talking point? Well, BMW cars had three key design elements for years that made them recognisable to even casual car drivers, other than of course the signature blue-and-white logo, which is not a spinning propeller, as many believe, but borrowed from the flag of Bavaria, the southern German province of which Munich is the capital and where BMW is based and indeed takes its name from. The other two design elements are the ‘Hoffmeister Kink’, which is the slight reversal the window line takes at the very end of the car, giving an illusion of speed, and the signature ‘Corona Lights’. The kink is not unique to BMW and you can notice that on the new Skoda Octavia as well, for example. And Corona headlights are a thing of the past, not just because of the current pandemic, but were phased out well before that. Why? Well, LED technology has given designers the ability to play around with design and make the headlights three-dimensional. The inner light on the cars has a slight ‘wall’, making the Corona impossible. You can clearly see that on the updated headlights on this refreshed 5-series as well. New BMW cars still retain twin LED lights, but the round Corona lights are a thing of the past.

So BMW designers needed to do something with the one signature feature they had left, the grilles, and as has been explained to me over various BMW drive events all across the world, the Chinese consumer played a major role. Today, China accounts for almost a third of BMW sales and the average well-to-do Chinese car buyer wants his or her car to be noticed from afar, and well, the BMW kidney grilles are noticeable from a distance. So when you take a look at the new 4-series, or the updated 7-series and the new X7, you see massive grilles. True, when you see these huge grilles, on the 7-series and X7, these might not look so large given the gargantuan proportions of those vehicles, but on the new 4-series and M4, that snout looks strange. I’m very sure the new M4 will be a beast to drive, but it really does look odd on an otherwise excellent-looking vehicle.

As for the updated 5-series, it remains an excellent car although it is now a lot more pricey. I drove the 530i M Sport that is priced at Rs 62.9 lakh ex-showroom all-India, which is by far the best driving car in its class. The 520d Luxury Line costs a lakh more and the excellent 530d M Sport is quite pricey at Rs 71.9 lakh. If you are looking for a bit more space and a different look, the BMW 6-series is also an attractive bet, but if you drive your executive sedan yourself, the 530i remains the best vehicle you can buy. If you’re sitting at the back though, BMW’s long-wheelbase 3-series, the ‘Gran Limousine’ is quite a bit cheaper with all the same features and other than the 30d engine option, all the other toys there can save some of the driving assistance features. Honestly, I didn’t play around with those during this short drive but do check in this column soon.

You can watch my views on this issue, on my channel on YouTube and if you reading this online, by clicking this link - https://youtu.be/8b5MqJsPlFw there is a lot of other cool automotive, aviation and history content all across that channel.

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