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
Fuck no,it’s stupid and I hate it. Just needed to say that.
I’m with you in theory, but…execution of glowing grilles has been atrocious. I’m one of those people with RGB LED fans in my computer. I like LEDs on just about anything.
But most of the front light strips I’ve seen look hideous. I think a lot of them might be the shitty aftermarket ones you stick under your hood, which is probably a lot of the problem, but it’s kind of ruined the aesthetic for me. Something that used to excite me has become such a disappointment that I kind of wish it would just go away.
I’m with you in theory, but…execution of glowing grilles has been atrocious. I’m one of those people with RGB LED fans in my computer. I like LEDs on just about anything.
But most of the front light strips I’ve seen look hideous. I think a lot of them might be the shitty aftermarket ones you stick under your hood, which is probably a lot of the problem, but it’s kind of ruined the aesthetic for me. Something that used to excite me has become such a disappointment that I kind of wish it would just go away.
I wholly embrace the lighted nostril as a symbol of the post-colonial embrace of rapper culture and late stage capitalism’s ephemeral but ultimately destructive influencer phenomenon.
And, ooooo, shiny.
I wholly embrace the lighted nostril as a symbol of the post-colonial embrace of rapper culture and late stage capitalism’s ephemeral but ultimately destructive influencer phenomenon.
And, ooooo, shiny.
To my eyes massive illuminated kidneys scream of desperation and insecurity. It’s an extension of the ‘make logo bigger’ mantra. A great design imo shouldn’t rely so much on those brand icons, they’re there not to take attention away from the rest. Look at an e31! The xm and x3 aren’t too awful but the twisted, disconnected graphics on the i5 and i7 are laughable, they scream of compromise and ostentatiousness at the same time, truly an achievement.
To my eyes massive illuminated kidneys scream of desperation and insecurity. It’s an extension of the ‘make logo bigger’ mantra. A great design imo shouldn’t rely so much on those brand icons, they’re there not to take attention away from the rest. Look at an e31! The xm and x3 aren’t too awful but the twisted, disconnected graphics on the i5 and i7 are laughable, they scream of compromise and ostentatiousness at the same time, truly an achievement.
Yeah, at first I thought they were stupid too but the first time I saw one in real life (on a new 7), they looked bad-ass, in a Tron kind of way. It’s also like a modern version of the Mercury Sable’s front light bar, which I thought looked cool too at the time.
The Mercedes lit up three pointed star still looks gauche though.
Yeah, at first I thought they were stupid too but the first time I saw one in real life (on a new 7), they looked bad-ass, in a Tron kind of way. It’s also like a modern version of the Mercury Sable’s front light bar, which I thought looked cool too at the time.
The Mercedes lit up three pointed star still looks gauche though.
IMHO, the last proper use of the kidney grille was the E28 series. I lost interest in BMW after 1988.
IMHO, the last proper use of the kidney grille was the E28 series. I lost interest in BMW after 1988.
Glowing nostrils are something you should see your doctor about, not have on your car.
Glowing nostrils are something you should see your doctor about, not have on your car.
Glowing grille? Fine. Big grille? Fine. Tall, ridiculous, hog nose grille? Vomit, everywhere.