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It’s interesting that Porsche can continuing selling the 911, which has changed quite a bit over 50+ years of existence, but all the changes are evolutionary. And the 911 doesn’t sell in incredible numbers over the years, either. Even the Boxster and Cayman have changed in an evolutionary way, although they have been around for a much shorter time.
Compare that to BMW, which does evolve some designs (E21 to E30, E36 to E46, E34-E39, etc.). But between those evolutions, sometimes major changes take place, such as the Bangle butt, the current gigantic grilles (7-series, X7, G80, etc), and the new taillight designs, that seem to propagate across the model lines, in the interest of refreshing the products, and perhaps attracting new buyers. For the earlier generations, the major changes were generally well accepted from the beginning. I’m just not a fan of the current trend in styling for BMW.
Personally, as a BMW owner since 1988, I believe that if they are willing to continue selling so many different car and SAV models, perhaps they should maintain a line of ‘classic’ BMWs that retain evolutionary looks that have long time appeal, and then another line of trendier styles, so they can continue to appeal to their long time customers as well as attract a new audience.
An example: the previous 3-series (F30) and 4-series grande coupe (F36). Both were four door vehicles, and I gotta believe that BMW designers produced both, with the intention to be the next generation 3-series. But the decision makers liked them both, so rather than choose one design and dump the other, they decided to sell them both.
Obviously it wouldn’t make sense to sell a ‘classic’ and a ‘trendy’ version of every model, but the bread and butter models (3-series, X3, X5) maybe it would be possible.
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