BMW Actively Worked to Differentiate the New 3 Series from the 5 Series
The all-new G20 3 Series
has been unveiled for less than a week at the time of writing and there has been both praise and criticisms with its design.
For BMW, however, it was important that among the criticisms, none would be that the G20 3 Series was too similar in design to the G30 5 Series.
In an interview at the 2018 Paris Motor Show with
motoring.com.au, the Product Manager of the G20 3 Series, Stephan Horn, cites past criticism, such as complaints of the F30 3 Series being too similar in design to the F10 5 Series, as a motivating factor in the conscious effort to differentiate the new G20 from the G30.
“There was some criticism in the past generations, looking for example from the rear at the 3 Series and 5 Series,” says Horn.
“They looked quite similar so we said this car had to look completely different from every angle compared to the predecessor and the 5 Series.”
“It has to be recognizable as a 3 Series sports sedan.”
Horn mentions the reactions stemming from such similarity from both 3 Series and 5 Series owners in the past.
“Sure, we do market research and some of the 3 Series buyers, they were flattered a little bit, because people were thinking they were driving the 5 Series.”
“Some of the 5 Series drivers were not so flattered…”
“But we just want to keep each model as independent as possible.”
Although the new G20 3 Series has grown in size compared to its predecessor, Horn explains that efforts were made to keep this increase to a minimal, so as to represent the 3 Series' as a sports sedan and not as a mini-5 Series.
“Our overall goal was to make the car as compact as possible,” says Horn. “We were really fighting about every millimeter in terms of extension."
“We are the ultimate sports sedan, we are not a small 5 Series and for having a sports sedan you don’t want to have big, long car whatsoever.”
“I think in the last generation the criticism of 3 and 5 Series was right, but we believe in this generation we won’t have this discussion. The whole design language is totally different to the 5 Series.”
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BMW Development Chief Has Had Enough of 3 Series Critics