E30 Zone

Just spotted a twelve plate 320d and the leading front edge of the bonnet and the headlights looked very low down.. Squashed even! It was only a quick glance but looked bad IMHO! I guess it will help the drag coefficient though.

Discuss.

That doesn't look like the new 3 that I saw at john Clarks last week. The grille is even weirder on the one I saw.
TBH the whole car looks better in the flesh than on the pics someone posted on here, it was a sport model though so maybe that helped.

indicators on the mirrors look gash, the bonnet looks like an afterthought. The way it covers the grill make it look hashed on.
Overall it looks too mercedes-esque.

Is that really the finished product?

they look allright, i still think the ugliest 3 series has gotta be the e36 in my humble opinion

mattrs wrote:http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/upload/777 ... iesF34.jpg

That's a facelifted E90 saloon, not the new F30.

BMW F30 335i M-Sport saloon.

I quite like the new 3, it's quite a bit more aggressive than he last few, and the lights linking to the grill hint back to the full width grille of older bmws.

..it's a shame they based the new one series on the pig from Angry Birds

Yep, the new 1 is disgusting, and it's not getting any better the more I see then. Rear end looks like a squashed vw polo too.

I think part of the reason for the front end of the 3 is for the pedestrian safety rules where you have to have a pop up bonnet hence the raised looking bonnet and at the same time they have tried to keep it looking sporty by giving it a low front. I must admit I like it all things considered

I haven't been a huge fan of much of BMWs styling since about the E39/E46 generation, and even those I'm pretty lukewarm about. I like this though, and the 7 in this style looks epic...

bmpaul wrote:I think part of the reason for the front end of the 3 is for the pedestrian safety rules

Pretty much spot on, low bonnets are a thing of the past now and most new stuff will be coming out looking similar.

Headlight mounts etc tend to be hard points as do rad mounts and bonnet latches, so by pinching the front of the car down you can put a big squashy bonnet above them.

Seen a couple on the road and at first glance they look ok, on a second look they look bloody awful.