2023 7-Series - is this really happening?

the EQS imo is underdone on the outside and overdone on the inside, like a badly poached egg :joy:

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2023-BMW-i7-live-7

Why BMW? Why?

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Why does an electric car need a grill?

And why wouldn’t they integrate the screen into the dash instead of having that garbage float?

And worst of all, what trash is it that they run the screens using fire tv. A high end bmw model runs an os found on low end tv devices. Brilliant.

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Watching BMW design falling slowly off a cliff is painful. It’s almost like self sabotage at this point.

Well. If it doesn’t sell, you may just see flagship money come back to the 7er.

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The designers for the MB EQs have said that the “grilles” on the current gen there to help ease the transition to grille-less designs. Maybe the grille-less original Infiniti Q (and it’s failure to make much of an impact on the market) have scared them?

I don’t think people are buying these cars because they love the looks. Someone badge and performance are more important than how a car looks on the outside.

Jeep Wranglers are a great example of this.

It just feels like a foot in each camp and not really committing at best. And I can’t imagine how the interior screens can be done but the grill removal is considered too big a jump.

7500 EV, strong discount, loaner cash, and flagship just might make this hackable :heart_eyes:

Not gonna be a strong discount until these start languishing on the lots. As it is I’m already seeing pushback on discounting remaining 2022’s, lol.

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A lot of people love how the Wrangler looks, precisely because it hasn’t changed much in decades. It’s iconic and practically an American institution. In a sea of bland, rounded-out, forgettable cross-overs and SUVs…it’s a refreshingly angular design.

Meanwhile, BMW design language has drifted so far from the design peak of the 80/s90s that it has become almost a parody, with comically distorted elements like the front grilles.

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Yeah I don’t see Jeep alienating current and potential Wrangler customers with their looks.

BMW and Lexus OTOH…

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Oh I never said people don’t love the look, just that it’s ugly. Drives like it looks, as well. Can’t accuse everyone of having good taste.

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Customer perception of software is very different than hardware. I have never associated Fire TV with low end products and I don’t think it is fair either. Fire TV OS is arguably the second best after Apple’s. Certainly far far better than what BMW could do by itself and I am sure people will at least won’t mind it.

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Superior to apple bc it can be jailbroken!

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I have always thought new designs grow on people over time but BMW keeps trying my limits with its exteriors. Imagine if BMW brings back E38 and E39 bodies with current interiors. It would be awesome.

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I think that’s part of the “problem.” Many people, as you mention, don’t care what a car looks like (esp for strong-selling, affordable mid-sized sedans). But I think a lot of people actually think these current designs look good enough that they then use the badge or whatever (esp “tech”) to make the decision

I think those were apex BMW, but I do have to say that I agreed w/ Bangle and/or Van Hooydonk that there was not really any place to take those designs into the future. I think the last few BMW sedans (after the initial Bangle’d ones) have been a return to the E38 and E39, and, just as we’re seeing now, there’s not an easy way to modernize the design language.

Having said that, if there were going to break w/ the past entirely, I think they could’ve come up w/ something better than the stuff they’re putting out (see Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis for examples of how to do it well).

Agreed - given how integrated this tech is, it’s wise to go with a widely used OS that will have updates/support for a long time, instead of some proprietary system built by BMW developers (or worse, outsourced to some firm that might disappear and leave future owners SOL).

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You can only really experience fire tv if you buy that low end hardware though.

I am more than willing to bet that a person who buys a high end bmw likely owns a more expensive tv (which means Sony, lg, Samsung that don’t use fire os) or an Apple TV (ie tvOS) and not an Insignia tv (which runs fire os). That means a) some people will associate Amazon’s budget brand (frugality is literally one of their leadership principles) now with bmw’s luxury brand and b) consumers will be pushed into an experience that isn’t as native as apple/google.

I am more than willing to bet that apple wouldn’t license out the OS and Amazon’s BD team wrote BMW a large check because that’s how they operate. I know for sure Alexa wrote a nice check to them to install in the car.

On a subjective level, Apple’s UX is miles ahead of Amazon’s and google is actually better in my experience. I use Apple TV mostly but on a sony which doesn’t have it, the google tv os is still quite nice.

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