BMW executives apparently decided to double down on the brand's design and engineering ethos of the past few years. As the firm loses fans left and right who lament the loss of lightweight, nimble driving dynamics in favor of massive, torque-monster engines that provide great quarter-mile launches, models like the newly revived 8 Series continue in that trend. And now, despite the new M3 and M4 with the most powerful engines ever mounted in the vaunted models and a stick-shift on offer despite an overall market departure, BMW's struggles continue because reviewers like Matt Farah can't even look past the horrible styling that hides the performance potential within. The situation has gotten so bad that today, for April Fool's, the parts supplier ECS Tuning revealed a faux set of G80-inspired grille conversions for BMW competitors like Audi, Volkswagen, and even the Toyota Supra.
The Supra Now Kind Of Looks Like A Z4
In a series of renderings accompanying the funny, fake fit kits, the Supra probably looks the worst. The two massive intakes look more like a set of nostrils than ever—though, of course, the irony here is that the A90 Supra itself was developed by Toyota in partnership with BMW and is built at a Magna Steyr plant in Austria. The heavy snout of the rendering completely loses the Supra's swooping intakes, making it looks all the more like the unfortunate Z4 that is, after all, its sibling.
Like VAG And BMW Had Babies
The grilles look slightly more becoming on VAG products like the Audi S4 and Volkswagen Golf, though only because of their more angular lines when compared to the futuristic, sleek look of the Supra. Still, it's hard to fathom what BMW's executives were thinking when this design went through the R&D phase—how on earth did the concept make it past the hand-sketch stage. The only question here on April Fool's Day is whether this is worse for BMW than the early-2000s when the company was last the "Bangle Butt" of everyone's jokes.
Sources: blog.ecstuning.com and bmwblog.com