1 Series [Official] New BMW 1-series Sportstourer (F20)

[Zafiro]

Front lights are too large in real life too?

 

[bombardier01]

For me, it's still ugly, nothing change!

 

[EnI]

bmw blog has some live pics of F20 as well

 

[Centurion]

Pictures of the F20 at Unter Den Linden in Berlin attached.

Oh and you can see the Brandenburg Tor in the background. Exciting stuff.

Check out Golf Kombi in the back, looks absolutely pedestrian. Hatchbacks are incredibly hard to design, especially 5 door ones. Making one look visually thrilling is near impossible given the zero flexibility in the body design.

For a manufacturer like BMW there are two approach to take:

1. Take the favourite cues for the high end bimmers and bake them into a small shape. The down side is that the car will look like a "poor man's BMW" because it's clearly trying to look expensive on a string shoe budget but don't possess the body shape to make a fully convincing impression.

2. Just design a pedestrian looking hatchback, slap on the company logo and hope customers will buy it because regardless of how good it is.

BMW took the non obvious approach, the third one. The created a one-series. It's not trying to be resemble any of the other cars, and successfully the car has turned out to have it's own image, and remarkably, a distinctive one. The BMW 1er coupe is being bought because of what it is, and not because it resembles a 3-series.

 

[bombardier01]

Even in different colour and real life pictures, still doesn't help this car. The headlights are too big and disproportional with the size of its body. The only thing i like about this car is just its interior, pretty nice for its segment.

 

[Will]

I think it looks ok.. 5GT's twin brother

 

[Gene]

Front lights are too large in real life too?

The car is actually looks really good in the flesh. The design just kind of melds together despite its strange individual components, and it just works. I'm sure some will say that it looks ugly in the flesh too, but my geniune opinion is that it looks really good. I had a friend with me who knows nothing about cars and he even added that it was quite a good looking car.

The lights themselves are oversized on a 2D format like pictures, but in real life, the lights actually wraparound so actually are smaller than they look. I can see this car being very popular everywhere - like the current 1-series which is everywhere in Berlin and Munich.

 

[K-A]

Oh.... my. I just want to squeeze both sides of the bumper together, and pop out that pressed in "I smell a stink" look. The F.L will probably do to this what it did to BMW's masterpiece of front end fail: The legend of frontal area that is the E65.

 

[Osnabrueck]

Hi all - Long time no rant. This news broke just as I was going on vacation... almost made my head explode.

After seeing much more of this car under various conditions I'm starting to feel glad that we've finally been presented with a BMW that isn't wholly understood at first look.

There's something very obtuse about the massive 'eyes' coupled with the conservatively proportioned grille. It's definitely something that will take getting used to, and while I'm still on the fence about this car - I'm kinda happy to be on the fence.

Brings me back to the good ol' days of debating the E60.

 

[Padi]

This really has grown on me, I tried out the configurator on the British BMW site and it ended up to be quite a looker.

 

[klier]

Very ugly Damn that front!!!

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

Lol Klier, you were one of the only ones to defend the F20 when it arrived. Now you don't like it. It usually works the other way!

I still think it will somehow work in person.

 

[klier]

I liked it initially but it went downhill fast sadly.

But there's hope, because those real life shots do look better than I expected. Though it still looks pretty ugly sadly.

 

[LaArtist]

real life pix made it look even worse if possible..
It ranks now in top 25 ugly cars in production..

 

[mini_cooper4]

M pack will help a lot!

Overall - BMW what have you done ????

 

[Human]

LOL There are days when the front does not quite add up, yet I like the car.

Let's be honest the interior / dash is class leading

 

[klier]

Well actually the interior is nice, but also pretty much like a VW IMO, completed with BMW parts like the gear shifter and iDrive knob...
I mean, the console is unlike any BMW, and again, much like a Polo or something. Very VAG-like.

And the rear of a Polo looks better than the rear of the new 1er. How wrong is that??

 

[Human]

I truly do not see VAG (IMO) in the interior nor dash layout. But the similarity of the tail light clusters with those on the Polo is ridiculous, sad and disturbing! Making BMW a VAG copycat.

 

[martinbo]

Any word yet on when we ought to be hearing about the 128i?

 

[SKY]

I still think it´s a big fail from BMW. The original 1er surprised me much more when released, and still has a nicer front end and rear end too. The interior looks fine, but it´s true the central console look a bit un-BMW. Which is terrible since it´s the same console we will fin on the new F30 3er.

Anyway guys, BMW better design crap on the lower end models, and please us with marvels like the M5.