German Car Forum

Take a look at this BMW X6, it basically breaks my heart. The car has not even been released yet and we already see a damaged one. Apparently the incident was caused by a deer during a test drive this past week. What strikes me though is that the fender seems to be made out of plastic?!
http://www.bmwblog.com/2008/04/13/heartbreaking-a-new-bmw-x6-being-damaged/

Of course the fender is made out of plastic!

What do they expect it to be made of? Plutonium?

Metal?

Doesn't make sense on new cars. These bumpers go back to their original shape in a low speed collision (during parking for example) while being lighter than their metal counterparts.

I mean, a collision is a collision, but I'd rather get hit by a plastic bumper too

fair enough I just figured most new vehicles still utilized metal fenders, I knew most had plastic bumpers.

Serves the car right. Poor deer!!!

The front fender is, on the X5, made of plastic. And this is one of the things the designer is very proud of on the X5 (like the X6): normally you have a front bumper (plastic), a shutline and then the front fender (metal or plastic like on Renault or an A-Class).

But on the X5, (and X6 it seems)...you have no shutline there because the bumper and the front fender are the same piece!

Ι cant think of any modern car that the front bumper is made from medal...

How did they manage to damage the car like that?? It looks like the have reversed into some thing because the damage is going forward

We're speaking of the fender here, so the wheel arch, not the bumper. Of course a modern bumper is always made of plastic. But the fenders usually are made of steel or alumminium, only in certain models is it plastic.

And here it's plastic, and in fact it's the same piece that is bumper and fender, a huge piece of plastic so that there is no shutline in the front area.
But it may cost more because you replace the whole in case of a problem...

^^
There is a shut line but it's very small.

That's right Luw, on the X6 there is a shutline (partly hidden by the side indicator).

However, if you look at the X5, there is none. Absolutely no shutline. It's one piece. Must be expensive, if you scratch the bumper you have to replace the whole plastic thing, bumper and fenders...

^^ the front bumper is not a whole bumper, it goes a little bit past the lights then stops. So theres no need to make it a seperat panel

I am all for plastic body panels, it forces the insurance companies to replace the whole part than send it off to some body shop to beat it back into shape like with metal.