I was hoping it wouldn’t be this bad. I saw the spy videos of the new BMW 4 Series running around the Nürburgring, and though the car was heavily camouflaged, it seemed like maybe the gigantic nose from the BMW Concept 4 had been dialed down significantly. Perhaps, I figured, somebody had come to their senses.
If this spy photo is any indication, that is... not the case.
We know very little about this photo from Instagram user WilcoBlok, but it’s pretty clearly a new, gray BMW coming off an assembly line. And it definitely has the nose from the concept.
What’s not clear is even what this car is. Some suspect it’s the new BMW M3; I personally think it’s more likely to be the 4 Series, because it feels unlikely the 3 Series would get such a radical new face so soon into its run. And we all know BMW often hews pretty close to its concepts—see also the i8.
Here’s the 4 Series at the ‘Ring, you be the judge:
We also know BMW’s design boss Adrian van Hooydonk has defended the concept’s controversial looks, saying the brand’s fans always have strong opinions but that it has to move forward with new designs.
It moved forward, all right. And up and down and left and right.
I’ll withhold judgment until I see the final 4 Series in production—or M3 or whatever this is—but I’m not loving it so far.