Sometimes as a journalist, you have to fall on your sword and admit that you were too harsh, and that’s what I’m doing today. Back when BMW debuted its iX, I initially kept my stance on its rather polarizing looks (giant grille, squinty headlights) rather neutral, realizing that I should give the car a chance. But then BMW did some bizarre marketing, as the brand is wont to do, and I let ’em have it (well, a little, at least). Now it’s time for me to just say: I was a bit harsh. The BMW iX flagship electric SUV is quite stunning in person.
Look at how fairly I covered the BMW iX when it debuted in November of 2020. I didn’t even mention that face in my headline!:
Hell, my conclusion paragraph was rather mild, too!:
This is a big deal for BMW. As the world transitions over to EVs, brands like Tesla, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Jaguar and Audi have put lots of focus on offering a compelling crossover SUV option. It’s an important segment to be in, and based on the little information BMW has given about this new iX—set to hit the U.S. market in 2022—it seems the brand is going to have a genuine competitor.
I’d just like to point out at that readers were not so kind. Here are the first few comments on my article:
Wow those are hilarious. My favorite is “Bangle looking like Michelangelo right now.” So good!
Anyway, I was fairly nice on that initial article, but then came a weird marketing campaign, and I just had to land a little jab:
Here’s one of my main points in that article about BMW’s seemingly-defensive new catchphrase “What’s your reason not to change?” and specifically its use of “OK Boomer”:
BMW is so keen on defending its iX that the brand tweeted the marketing slogan preceded by the expression “OK, Boomer” (see below). This seems like an even more questionable move than simply trying to convince people who find the design ugly that they’re being too narrow-minded. After all, despite their copious flaws as a group, Baby Boomers do have one thing that younger generations don’t: Money. And lots of it.
Dismissing that demographic with the phrase “OK, Boomer” seems like a questionable call to make, especially for a luxury automaker
Someone on Twitter answered BMW’s new catchphrase with pure comedic genius:
And BMW responded! “In order to go new ways you sometimes have to try new looks” was the brand’s response to “Because I don’t want to drive a slit eyed Allegro with squirrel teeth.”
Bold on BMW for responding, there. The right move? I don’t know. I did write about it, so perhaps!
Here’s a bit more from that article in which I criticized BMW’s defensive marketing/PR strategy:
It’s worth mentioning that the campaign “What’s your reason not to change?” isn’t just about the iX’s appearance, it’s actually focused on folks’ reluctance to adopt electric cars. On the campaign’s main webpage, you’ll find BMW’s answers to a number of questions that people have about EVs and their limitations. But of course, there’s still plenty about the iX’s design. Here’s a quote:
You will always have plenty of reasons to change.
But the truth is: It’s always easier to find a reason not to. It might not be the best time for you right now, or perhaps you find yourself in the wrong place. You might think that technology still hasn’t reached its peak, or that the design looks strange.
Here’s another:
The monolithic design with few, very precise lines demonstrates character and gives the car a modern appearance. The BMW iX is bold and yet clean and elegant.
Domagoj Dukec
Head of BMW Design
And another:
The BMW iX shows how we can give new technologies a very modern and emotional design.
[…]
Adrian van Hooydonk
Senior Vice President BMW Group Design
After all of that — after the vicious criticism and BMW’s many attempts to stop the bleeding — time, the decider of many controversies on this earth, has seemingly sided with…BMW!
Obviously, this is not an opinion shared by everyone, but as someone who was initially critical, I’m perhaps less inclined to admit this than others: The iX looks quite nice in person. I didn’t think this could be possible, even after a businessman at the German Car of the Year event in Germany told me this after having purchased his own — but it turns out that he was right.
You know who else was right? Autopian cofounder Jason Torchinsky, who wrote this way back in September of 2021:
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[Editor’s Note: I stand by this still. This is one of those cars that just works better in person than in pictures. None of the critiques are really wrong, they just don’t seem to matter as much when you’re standing next to the thing. – JT]
I say this because I recently spotted an iX in the Ace Hardware parking lot, and I thought it looked great in person — sharp, futuristic, sleek. I’m into it, especially in this color:
I’d initially planned to toss this article into the trash, as our very own expert designer, Adrian Clarke, threatened me with things too diabolical to even mention, but I recently spotted this tweet from a car photographer I follow in Twitter, and now I feel like I’m less alone, here. Plus, I’m hoping Adrian doesn’t see this article:
Looking less weird to me these days as well🤷♂️🤣 (also props to the A6 owner keeping that alive 😉
— JC (@jcorriv35) January 17, 2023
Is the world coming around to the iX? To those of you who’ve seen one in person — how are you feeling these days about Munich’s flagship electric SUV?
[Designer’s Note: Hi, it’s Adrian Clarke, The Autopian’s in-house car designer. Nice try, David. No way you were publishing this without me noticing.
Readers, I think all this worrying about moving has reformatted David’s head, rewriting the bit that controls the eyesight. I mean, I know he wears glasses but I had assumed as he can drive his optical cortex was functioning somewhat, but it appears not. There’s so much wrong with the appearance of the iX it’s hard to know where to direct the spleen juice first. Remember when you were little and tried on your dad’s suit? That’s what the body of the iX is like. Flabby and oversized and creased in all the wrong places. There’s competing shapes fighting each other all over the place, the wheel arch flats are stolen from a completely different car making it look under wheeled and the C pillar is all wrong. There’s corners where there should be curves and the whole thing shrieks of inconsistency inside and out. The color ways are bad, the wheels are terrible and there is not one thing I can find about this eyesore that I like. Put the entire production run into a burlap sack and chuck it into the Danube so no-one should ever have to gaze upon the horror ever again. -AC].
I’m worried about the environmental impact of these cars. If you park several of these in a wooded area they may start chewing down trees to build a dam. Think of all the McMansions that will be flooded!
No.
I have hated the massive grille trend for nearly 20 years. Audis, full size pickups, Lexuses for the past decade, recent BMWs, I’m probably forgetting a few for my own sanity. If these maws are actually necessary for cooling, that’s fine I guess, but I refuse to believe there wasn’t a better way.
As for the rest of this thing, once I see the anonymous blob shape that defines crossovers and their virtually non-existent color palettes, my eyes start to glaze over and my brain starts desperately searching for something, anything more interesting.
In short, not a fan.
Ever since they launched the new 7-Series/X7, the iX looks BEAUTIFUL
I don’t hate it. But I laugh (outloud sometimes) every time I see those grills. Kind of like wtf is that that I just saw?
It’s like GRILLZ (is that still a thing?) I just don’t understand some things.
I agree, I thought it looked terrible initially, but now I don’t hate it… its not as though its had a chance to grow on me, unlike the bangle 7series
The Bangle 7er honestly sort of works for me. It doesn’t look GOOD, but it looks like a high-priced bodyguard that took too many hits to the face. And that’s kind of a good concept for a top end luxury car.
exactly, the Bangle (really Hooydonk) 7er works because it’s such a bruiser of a car that it totally owns the pug-face look. This just looks like an embarrassed beaver in the front and a GMC Terrain in the back, the exact opposite of ‘upscale’ and ‘intimidating’.
I’ve many times wondered about this. How is it that over time we get used to something that just felt so wrong in the beginning. The iX, or the Bavarian Peugeot 3008 as it should be called, still feels very wrong. The best angle is from behind, with the slender taillights, but, by god, does it go downhill as soon as you see the body sides. Pre-dented panels is apparently a thing, as the surfaces twists and turn in all ways uncomfortable.There’s nothing remotely progressive and advanced about this exterior design, this is just about being different purely for the sake of being different. I’d never thought I’d see a poorly executed design as the Peugeot 3008, but I was wrong. May we never get used to the iX.
That’s rude to the 3008! To my North American eyes it looks most like a GMC Terrain, to its detriment.
To me it looks like a GMC Terrain, but manages to make *both* vehicles look worse.
I think those who are softening on the iX are just getting used to the teeth now that BMW has stuck them on multiple cars over a period of time now. You can get used to anything after a while. But similar to the BMW grill, just because I got used to seeing myself with braces on in the 6th grade, doesn’t mean they looked good.
There are a surprising number of car designs that don’t photograph well. You’d think they would have figured out what to avoid when it comes to that, but apparently not.
That said, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a car that is ugly in press photos and actually looked good in person. Less bad, perhaps, but never good. I strongly suspect these will fall into that category when I start seeing them in the metal. I also suspect the oversized grille will work better on a crossover sized vehicle than a car, but we’ll see.
The iX isn’t that bad. I want to know where the X8 is? It’s supposed to be a 2023 model so shouldn’t be we be seeing more press around now?
It’s been almost 2 years since anybody has written about it. I’ve seen many driving around Phoenix during that time.
The X8 became the iX: https://www.bmwblog.com/2021/12/14/why-bmw-xm-not-called-m/
Sorry — the X8 became the XM.
I’ve seen it in person. It’s not heinous in that it doesn’t make me want to look away. In fact it makes me want to look at it, which I suppose in a way is a victory in design. However, I want to keep looking at it because it is bland, fussy, unfocused and trying to hard all at the same time.
I’m sorry David, I’m not going anywhere near “stunning” on this thing.
@AC, in most US states, once you pass your initial eye test for your learner’s permit when you are 15, you never have to take another eye test again. That is how DT is able to maintain his license despite his apparent degradation of ocular facilities.
Holy shit that’s so ugly. How is this even debatable?
I’ve said this a few times about modern BMW, but it looks like a beaver going through a messy divorce.
I’ve seen it in real life and wish I hadn’t. It reminds me of the time I felt genuinely assaulted by a Karaoke singer intensely over-performing a certain Whitney Houston song.
Aaaaaannnnndddd IIIIIIIIIeeeeIIIIIIIIIeeeeeeIIIIIIIIiiiIIIiIiIiI,
will always love,
YoooooooooouuuuooououououououoooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
I had to scroll all the way to opposite lock for that.
Oh the humanity.
It’s like a Chinese knock-off of a BMW.
Well, I guess herpes is better than gonorrhea, but still.
Nope, definitely still ugly.
I haven’t seen one in person.. honestly I’m thankful for that.
Well I recently did and it is a look to remember. Not unlike something my grandson would design for Minecraft. This thing is as ugly as an Edsel
I’ve seen a lot of iX’s and talked to a lot of engineers at BMW. Somehow they are proud of it, but I’m not sure if it was so they wouldn’t get fired.
Hey, now. The Edsel aged well, IMHO. The grille was A Choice back then, but it doesn’t seem that garish to modern eyes in the context of everything else the 1950s were doing to cars. Heck, the Edsels are almost subtle compared to some of the Caddies of the day.
BMW’s swoopy, overstyled hot mess of conflicting elements definitely won’t age well, IMHO. Just another crossover, but uglier.
You take that back, Edsels look great!
I think the giant grill looks marginally better on a SUV than it does on the 4-series or M3.
But that is like saying it is a 3 out of 10 instead of a 2. Still not great.
I simply can’t form an opinion on this or any vehicle like it, actually. It’s like food from Applebee’s or most Disney films. Other people like them, apparently. I don’t hate them; they’re just scenery. This might as well be a Rav4 for all I care.
BMW lost the plot sometime around the first Gulf War anyway, so I don’t spend much time caring about what they’re doing now.
Thank you, Adrian Clarke for so succinctly summarizing everything wrong with the appearance of the iX. Every time I tried to put it to words, I just wound up shouting incoherently and throwing things.
First, why all the snarky rhetoric in ads and on-line forums towards Baby Boomers from Oklahoma? I mean, alright, they’re Oklahomans (Oklahomeys?), but that’s no reason to pile on their misery.
Now to the styling of the BMW iX: when will they finish it? This looks like someone started carving a bar of soap, then needed it for a wash up before it started to look like anything. On the plus side, it makes a Pontiac Aztek look like a gullwing Mercedes 300SL.
I do like the bug zapper on the front. That’ll be handy for picnics
If snark is ever a concern, best steer clear of automotive site comment sections.
Having seen one in person – yep, still looks like dogshit.
It’s bad.
I have seen several in person and driving around. Just doesn’t look premium or like a cohesive design.
I finally got a chance to drive the Ioniq 5 and was very impressed. That style, while probably hard to update for the next version, is wholly thought out and every detail works with the design.
The BMW just doesn’t do that. I definitely don’t want plastic wheel arches but the muted GM style truck arches just don’t work for me. The car version, the i4, looks so much better at pulling off a new look while retaining the design history. They went from the X3 or X5, which honestly set the bar for premium 5 seat suvs in terms of design, especially the X5, for well over a decade, and just pisses it away.