BMW M2

The grill is certainly smaller than they like, I wonder why?

Looks like a Barry Boy special now.

I did, but my expectations of BMW are so low that it doesn’t shock me. It’ll probably look less bad in the composite.

Front looks good to my eyes .

The back … shit.

This can't be the finished article surely?
The front reminds me of those Warranty Direct cars where they've mucked about with the grille to remove brand identity (albeit this has a BMW badge on it!).
The odd bits on the rear bumper reminds me of those 1970s silhouette racers. Modsports?

I'm sure it'll look less bad in a darker colour though and the angles of the pictures probably don't help.

That must be a spoof? Surely?

The new X1 suggests the first image may well be the right one.

That is absolutely awful.

If you parked that new X1 next to the very first X1 it would be apparent that the new one is actually quite nice. I remember following an original one in Milford when they came out and it was hideous.

BMW appear to be hell bent on destroying their history of producing good looking driver's cars. From my drive of the new M3 at Silverstone, it is a very capable driver's car but from the outside there are way too many odd angles and plain ugly bits.

My car is just over 3 1/2 years old and normally I would have been looking at the newer cars with a view to changing - there is nothing in the BMW line up (especially when you consider £90K + for a decent spec M3/M4) that even remotely excites me. There is a new 840i discounted to £49,995 which caught my eye but I far prefer mine so no change is imminent. With the looks of that M2 though BMW have just closed the door for any potential replacement as far as I am concerned - what's with the horizontal bars on the small grill: they look awful?

I read that the photos which were leaked i.e. the photos of the ugly one, were taken at a testing session and that they are likely to be a fair reflection of what the real car will look like. The Russian fake car looks much better but I would still have vertical grill slats instead of horizontal especially when the grill is wide.

Could be change for change sake but BMW do have the vent close off function and horizontal slats might make that easier to do.

I believe most BMWs do have an automatic vertical shutter system (Active grille). Mine most often opens when stationary after a run and the engine has reached a certain temp, with the fan continuing after you've parked and gone inside. 

Just read the first drive in from CAR mag a couple of months ago. This small thing weighs over 1800kg.

And it's not even 4wd.

Ridiculous.

However despite the car being wrapped in some splinter pattern its clear there's a vertical line in the bumper before the rear reflectors, i.e. towards the front of the car.