It's really close. It might not even be a photoshop....
I'm not seeing -- at all -- why BMW is held in such high regard these days, design-wise. The 7 looks flabby and the rump is bumpy. The 5 looks like carved obsidian, with the swoopy, sharp-edged curves. The 3, coupe or sedan, is hit and miss. The front of the coupe with the rear of the sedan works far better...or do I have that backwards? The coupe looks way too long in profile anyway. The Z is okay, so long as I don't have to look at the headlights. Actually, I hate all of BMW's headlights.
And I'm all for an Audi coupe. How long has it been since Audi's had a truly sports-oriented 2-door? Twenty years, with the ur-Quattro?
I'd say the car looks fine for the most part, as I have become someone immune to the "shock" that BMW has had with their Bangle designs and overuse of flame-surfacing.
Nothing will ever match the clean looks of the E36 M3 however...
Exactly why I'm never getting anything but the E46 unless they can modernize the E46 design without totally changing it's appereance and individuality.
Im still not big on the new TT, but it is an Audi, so that shouldn't be a surprise.
The E46 was one of the worst looking BMW's in my opinion, because it was so damn bland, ironic that it's the one everyone loves the most, but it was TOO boring, TOO average, TOO normal, I'll not lament it's passing.
The E46 was a great car, and it will be missed. But I still long for the BMWs of the late '80s and '90s when they still were trying to prove that they were one of the best car companies in the world. They were a bit daring, ocasionally avant-garde with cars like the 318, M-Coupe and Z8.
Today, they can pretty much do as they please because they are BMW. Granted, their products are great, and are argueably the standards in every situation. But I'll miss the days of the "crude" BMW.
While I could afford an E36 car, the only one I'd even consider getting is the 318ti, the rest showed too many signs of BMW trying to appease people with bland styling.
Since when was the 5 or 6 series good looking? They finially fixed the 7 series, and the Z4 only looks good with a roof, thus far IMO the 1 and 3 series models are really the only naturally good looking cars in the Bimmer line.
