BMW has been making waves for all the wrong reasons. Or, just one, actually—it’s been building awkward-looking cars with giant nostrils. However, there is light on the horizon, quite literally. I’m here to tell you that the Bavarians have turned a corner, and their new grilles have won me over. Why? Because now, they light up!
Call me juvenile, call me a philistine, I don’t care. Glowing grilles are awesome, they’re useful, and they’re exactly what the car world needs right now.
Outraged? I’m sure. Let me explain.
Here’s the thing. We’re not living in 1957 anymore. Sealed beam headlights are over, combustion’s kind of on the way out, and wallpaper hasn’t been an appropriate choice for home decor for well over half a century now. Cars aren’t supposed to look the same forever. We’re living in the gosh-darned future, and it’s high time we started acting like it!
We got a taste for this in the late nineties. Manufacturers rejoiced at the invention of the blue LED, and stuck them on every appliance in our lives. Meanwhile, the tuning scene fell in love with neons, and started the underglow craze. For a minute there, we were on the cutting edge.
But then we all went too hard with silver-this and millennium-that, and designers revolted. Everything got toned down. Culture ricocheted and backfired, and we went back to plaid shirts and punk rock, before we tripped over vaporwave and ended up spat out back into the present day.
Now, the EV transition is here and automakers want to make things look modern again. Lighting is the way to do. We have magical LEDs that put out tons of light in a tiny package for very little power usage. You can stick them on anything and behind anything and make it glow, and you can do it in all kinds of cool colors.
BMW started with its backlit “Iconic Glow” grille and it’s only gotten better since then.
Luxury automakers didn’t miss the memo. They went ham on ambient lighting for interiors, and it’s showing up in exterior design too. Mercedes-Benz started putting glowing badges on its cars, and BMW’s gone one further. It’s started illuminating grilles, and it ought to be celebrated for it.
BMW started with a backlit glow on the X6 back in 2019, and that was kind of cool. But it was the XM Concept in 2021 that really nailed the format, with the glowing outline of its snout drawing eyes from a mile away. Today, you can get the illuminated kidney grille on much of the modern BMW range, including the new X3, on which it looks particularly badass.
While the large BMW grilles can look foolish at times, they’re ultimately much less offensive when they’re glowing in the dead of night. They give the vehicle an amazing visual signature in the dark, and highlight one of the most potent pieces of BMW’s design language. Plus, they look like something out of a sci-fi movie, and I’m tired of pretending that isn’t cool.
The glowing grilles can also serve as a useful safety feature by serving as running lights, particularly during intermediate lighting periods like dawn and dusk. This isn’t critical in a world where daytime running lights are mandatory, but they certainly don’t hurt.
Now, you might hate glowing grilles. You might think they’re ugly and that they have no place on a modern BMW. But that’s okay—they’re not hurting you, and you don’t have to have one!
Meanwhile, those of us that like them will continue to enjoy them. We’ll keep driving around making “pew pew” sounds as we pretend to shoot lasers from our roadgoing starships, with the ambient lighting set to red because we’re in a dire combat situation! Okay, maybe that’s just me, but still. They’re fun.
It bears noting this isn’t even a new idea. Car companies—even the conservative ones like Ford—have been experimenting with glowing badges and similar accoutrements for decades. For a certain type of enthusiast, they make a cool car even more special.
The one criticism I have is that BMW doesn’t do a good enough job showing them off. It has a handful of pictures of glowing grilles laying around, but they’re not exactly easy to find. Sometimes, that’s the way with controversial features, but it makes it more difficult to celebrate them!
Honestly, though, that’s my take, and I stand by it. Automakers have the technology to make bits of our cars glow. It’s not expensive to do, and it can look really cool. Plus, when OEMs do it, it tends to look a lot less tacky compared to slapping on aftermarket gear from AliExpress and the like.
I’m all for more illuminated badges, more illuminated grilles, and yes, factory underglow. I’m still waiting on that last one, but it can’t be far away, right?
Image credits: BMW
Glowing grille? Fine. Big grille? Fine. Tall, ridiculous, hog nose grille? Vomit, everywhere.
I would love the effect if the grills weren’t so god damn hideous. Now they’re calling attention to the ugly? Nah, I’m good.
BMW: < releases new grille design >
Entire world responds: “That is ugly AF!”
BMW: “Halt mien beir”
I would love the effect if the grills weren’t so god damn hideous. Now they’re calling attention to the ugly? Nah, I’m good.
BMW: < releases new grille design >
Entire world responds: “That is ugly AF!”
BMW: “Halt mien beir”
BMW’s don’t look good in the daylight, why would you want to draw more attention to that grill? We should let darkness hide some of that butter-face.
BMW’s don’t look good in the daylight, why would you want to draw more attention to that grill? We should let darkness hide some of that butter-face.
I love light as an art medium. Backlit, glowing, accented, however. I attribute this to my early experimentation with psychedelics back in high school and college. I still love the aesthetic of a perfectly clear headlight housing with a pinpoint- accurate spot of light from a projector. So satisfying.
But this, no. It’s gaudy, it’s tacky, it’s literally made for the people you’d loathe to have a beer with. The influencers aren’t getting on board, they *are* the ones this kind of thing is geared to. New money materialism. Your stealth wealth isn’t going for this because they have too much taste.
Having said that, the execution of BMW’s lighted grill perimeter is much more ‘finished’ looking than the shitty lighted grill stern Mercedes will sell you. They’re almost exclusively on the entry CLA models, which are almost exclusively driven by that one girl in your friends group who got a nursing job with a decent, not great, salary, and all of your broke friends think she’s rolling in it now by comparison. The lighted badge yells out “I just know it’s a Mercedes”.
The really funny thing with the M-B lighted emblem is that means the purchaser chose to have the lighted star instead of the sonar system that could otherwise be in the emblem. They’re showing off that they spent less and have fewer features than they could have.
I love light as an art medium. Backlit, glowing, accented, however. I attribute this to my early experimentation with psychedelics back in high school and college. I still love the aesthetic of a perfectly clear headlight housing with a pinpoint- accurate spot of light from a projector. So satisfying.
But this, no. It’s gaudy, it’s tacky, it’s literally made for the people you’d loathe to have a beer with. The influencers aren’t getting on board, they *are* the ones this kind of thing is geared to. New money materialism. Your stealth wealth isn’t going for this because they have too much taste.
Having said that, the execution of BMW’s lighted grill perimeter is much more ‘finished’ looking than the shitty lighted grill stern Mercedes will sell you. They’re almost exclusively on the entry CLA models, which are almost exclusively driven by that one girl in your friends group who got a nursing job with a decent, not great, salary, and all of your broke friends think she’s rolling in it now by comparison. The lighted badge yells out “I just know it’s a Mercedes”.
The really funny thing with the M-B lighted emblem is that means the purchaser chose to have the lighted star instead of the sonar system that could otherwise be in the emblem. They’re showing off that they spent less and have fewer features than they could have.
WOW, so much hate in the comments for someone’s personal preferences. Lewin, keep on doing you and don’t mind the haters.
WOW, so much hate in the comments for someone’s personal preferences. Lewin, keep on doing you and don’t mind the haters.
No.
No.
A cure for which there’s no disease.
A cure for which there’s no disease.
I’m a little disappointed in the comments claiming that this is clickbait.
I 100% believe Lewin likes these glowing grilles. Why? Because everyone has at least SOME terrible opinions, it’s what makes us unique. And I feel like this site was partially founded as the safe space to let those unhinged, potentially awful opinions fly. I even believe DT’s timing belt article, which nearly made my brain explode.
Remember, this is supposed to be a collection of weirdos writing about cars for weirdos. Ya weirdos.
I mean, is it that hard to believe someone likes these glowing grilles? I mean, in general, things that glow, are good. Unfortunately in this case the glow is highlighting an abysmal BMW grille.
I’m a little disappointed in the comments claiming that this is clickbait.
I 100% believe Lewin likes these glowing grilles. Why? Because everyone has at least SOME terrible opinions, it’s what makes us unique. And I feel like this site was partially founded as the safe space to let those unhinged, potentially awful opinions fly. I even believe DT’s timing belt article, which nearly made my brain explode.
Remember, this is supposed to be a collection of weirdos writing about cars for weirdos. Ya weirdos.
I mean, is it that hard to believe someone likes these glowing grilles? I mean, in general, things that glow, are good. Unfortunately in this case the glow is highlighting an abysmal BMW grille.
A-grade trolling there, Lad.
A-grade trolling there, Lad.
“But that’s okay—they’re not hurting you”
But the industrial strength eye bleach I NEED to use afterwards does sting quite a bit.
“But that’s okay—they’re not hurting you”
But the industrial strength eye bleach I NEED to use afterwards does sting quite a bit.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51b3dc8ee4b051b96ceb10de/3c6414ed-8531-463d-9a05-15581b055d87/new-fallout-series-details-offer-insight-on-walton-goggins-character-the-ghoul.jpg?format=2500w
I’m fairly certain the grill to face ratio is worse on BMWs.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51b3dc8ee4b051b96ceb10de/3c6414ed-8531-463d-9a05-15581b055d87/new-fallout-series-details-offer-insight-on-walton-goggins-character-the-ghoul.jpg?format=2500w
I’m fairly certain the grill to face ratio is worse on BMWs.
Wow, I could not disagree more.
Wow, I could not disagree more.
Those grilles look like big ol’ beaver teeth to me.
Those grilles look like big ol’ beaver teeth to me.