Re: 7er really has a nice butt... 7er pic thread..
w had a siilar discussion osna and i on the GCF forums back when the FL was released and when i still had time on my hands
my take was and still is:
there was one basic design flaw with the older 7, it was a rear that was a bit too empty for its size, if you look at the car 3/4rear, you have a fealing fo emptiness, besides that, no car could be mistaken for 7 , it was a clearly distinctive car with a whole set of design philosophy in, it that quickly spread to al other cars in the range.
the FL is a hackjob in the sense of " goog God Mr bangle, ever car mag has been bashing you, what the shit did we think when we acepted this design it won't sell, quickly cut it up and make somthing human out of it"
which was a normal reaction
the fornt was toned up a lot, the new headlights are "normal" ish, the do not have the same striking power asthe pre FL, but it seems that the influence of those lights carried on in the other models, who all now have one circular arc and a straight line (something grossly emulated by new VWs)
my take on the FL rear has always been positive, it doesn't seem as much as an afteryhought as the front, but it does the job of filling up the space nicely and as appeared was a design cue to stay (think E92 coupe)
the FL was no tone down, but if it weren't for the original reaction we would ahve something completely new
the preFL 7 was a full car, with a very organic and coherent design, it wasn't made to be messed up by some FL, it can't be retouched and stay unscathed, simply because it was meant to be showcase of a full philosphy and thus incorporated all design elements that were later to appear, can we still dig up threads from the old GCF forums?
as for the S, its dsign is beautiful, but hardly impressive, flagships always usher in something new, design and idrive for BMW, 8speeds for lexus, etc.. this S in this respect fails, the interior layout as great as it is, as high quality as it is, is a clear 7er "inspiration"
the exterior clearly is an "amalgame" of a thousand mercedes design cues, but mroe energized and revitalized,
the design si simplistic is that it has no groundbreaking curves, with autocad 101 at uni i can render a very realistic outline of the S, something i can't do of the 7,
i've seen about a dozen S's in lebanon, once even an S right in front of a prefacelift E65
what strikes you is that the S is simple, it strikes your eye first, seeming
better designe, but you don't tarry on it, the 7 quicky takes your eyesight back, since there is always ome new hidden line, you can figure ut the S almost instantly, smething i haven't yet been able to do of the 7
. Besides, my dealer told me that after the facelift he sold more than 40 7ers in 8 months and that's not small for such expensive car. So, yes, definitely yes to FL... And it obviously helped 7er.
