Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
I think you must have clicked on another link ///M-Spec.
That A6 looks absolutely nothing like a 5 series BMW. It lacks his pug-ugly face, and his clumsy boot layering. It also lacks the fussiness, the lines around the sills that he requires, and also the rippling on the wing mirrors that's needed to tidy up an airflow trashed by the "flame surfaces".
Not at all, Gils. I'm talking about one styling cue, not the entire car. Take a closer look at the doors..
Now, compare them to the 5.
Notice that in both cars, the traditional plastic bumper that runs along the sides from bumper to bumper, is missing. This styling cue is ubiquitous and appears on almost every car made in the last 3 decades. It is there to break up the upper half and lower half of the car visually, so tall cars don't look so slab sided.
Bangle decided to eliminate this time-honoured element because the convex/concave styling of the doors on the new 7 and 5 performs the same function, but much more elgantly. The door bows out at the top, then curves inward as you go lower, then bows out again when you reach the bottom of the door frame. This allows a single door panel element to show a light side and a dark side, implying complexity. Its part of his flame surface idea. Audi has adopted this exact approach on the new A6.
I'm not saying that the new A6 looks like the new 5. I'm saying Audi took a page from Bangle's design vocabulary (one of the best ones, actually). And, he
should be flattered. Audis are very good looking cars.
///M-Spec
