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Comment by beedogs | Hacker News Reader

To me, the E46 body was the last good-looking 3 series BMW made. I haven't seen one since that made me feel the same way.

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Have you seen an i8 - they are one of the best looking cars I've seen in the last few years. They look much nicer than they do in pictures.

Agreed, although once you’ve had the back of the i8 described to you as trying to give birth to a 911 it’s difficult to unsee it: https://d37nk263jfz2p8.cloudfront.net/image/1/700/0/uploads/...

That's hysterical.

I've seen one almost daily for a while now when I walk past either of the two BMW centers in close proximity to where I live and I can't say that I agree with you.

To me the i8 (and even more so the i3) looks like some sort of weird Japanese spaceship from the future and not at all the subtle luxurious classy design that I expect from a German Premium wagon. In short it's to much attention, screaming "I'm here, look at me". I'm not a rapper I want timeless class not flashy bling.

"weird Japanese spaceship from the future"

I must like that look then - i rather like the looks of i3 as well!

NB And I'm not even a huge fan of BMWs after owning an X5 for a while....

i3??? That's so ugly, that I wondered, what stuff were the designers smoking and how they managed to persuade the higher-ups to actually produce that.

But I understand you after owning X5 ;)

Just goes to show!

Mind you when I first saw a Tesla (I've only seen one) I did think "That new Ford Mondeo looks really nice"... :-)

Yeah I have to agree with you, Tesla is missing distinction and brand characteristics, it's a good first attempt at premium but not quite there. However they are heading along the right track so I think that if they persist they'll mature and develop brand character over time.

I've seen a few on the road and they definitely aren't timeless. They will be considered tacky when people look back on them. But I suspect the purpose of them is very similar to the iMac. Designed to be distinctive, talked about and just a tad polarising.

The first picture I saw of the i8 was unlabeled and I thought someone had done a new car for Shadowrun. It looks like I imagine the car of the future should look.

I dunno, for me the thing which stands out when you look at the profiles is that the design of E21 screams "late seventies model", the E30 is very much an eighties design, whereas the more recent models' designs just say "designed in the nineties or some time since then", and I think that slowing in the evolution of design trends is the case for most marques.

If you hid the badges on the side profile of the F30 and told me it was a Japanese car from 1998, I'd probably believe you, but conversely if a rebadged E46 were launched tomorrow, nobody would accuse it of looking "dated".

I agree, especially E9x just doesn't seem right to me. The F3x is getting closer, though.

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