It’s fun to look back on BMW’s history through rose colored glasses and remember how great they were. The video focuses mostly on the E38-generation 7-series and the E39-generation 5-series, both great cars in their own time. There are also short discussions with BMW higher-ups; perhaps most interesting of those is conducted with BMW Design Chief Chris Bangle. If you want to relive the radness of the late 1990s through the BMW looking glass, just press play.
BMW apparently produced this half-hour special on VHS cassette in 1999, but there is no indication as to whether this was intended for new hires or for potential clients. While we can look back on the late 1990s BMW lineup wistfully today, we can’t imagine this video drumming up a whole lot of enthusiasm for its contemporary dealership offerings. It’s quite dry, in traditional German fashion, and paints BMW as particularly conceited, perhaps.
The short section with morphing grilles (gif’d above) particularly reminded me of the ending to Michael Jackson’s 1992 worldwide smash hit video for ‘Black or White’. You know, the part with the morphing faces? I probably shouldn’t admit that part scared me as a child.
Hat Tip to Meister-of-None