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2021 BMW 4 Series: What's Up with the Ginormous Grille?

I'm sure many of you remember the 2021 BMW 4 Series leak we discussed earlier this week. After all, the super-sized kidney grilles turned this into one of the hottest topics of the year, even though the massive nose of the coupe initially showed up on the BMW Concept 4 that showed up last year. So, what can we make of this design element?
2021 BMW 4 Series 37 photos
Photo: foorum.bmwclub.ee
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The Bavarian automotive producer obviously has arguments in favor of the said design direction, and I'll list one of them below.

"This [the bold styling direction under design boss Adrian van Hooydonk, not necessarily the big kidney grilles] is crucial for success. BMW customers are demanding. They want to express something and are not afraid of vehicles with strong characters. They are looking for it. So, we have decided to focus even more on strong characters and bold designs," Peter Henrich, BMW's senior vice president of product management told Autocar last December.

As for the evolution of the company's trademark kidney grilles, the G07 X7 and facelifted G11 7 Series introduced this larger-than-life approach - at least to these eyes, the grille on the upcoming 4 Series makes a bit more sense than the ones on the 7-seater SUV and the luxury sedan, simply because this seems to go better with the sportier look of the 4er.

And while the German automotive producer's history does involve models with similarly-large noses (think: the 328 sportscar built between 1936 and 1940), the design of such retro heroes was coherent, while these new-age models simply seem like they had the ginormous grilles added for the sake of starting conversations.

And we might have to discuss a new visual adventure of the sort soon, one that will probably be even more controversial than the 2021 4 Series - the rumor mill talks about the upcoming G80 M3 sporting the same kind of front end styling. Meanwhile, you can take a better look at the nose of the 4er thanks to the mirror image above, which a forum member created based on the leak mentioned in the intro.
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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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