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Comment by durnygbur | Hacker News Reader

I remember reading an interview with BMW designer that the obnoxiously huge front grills are a nod to the Chinese customers. Chinese customers wanted the drivers in front of them to feel intimidated, as if the car and driver behind wanted to eat them. Other premium brands like Lexus followed with this trend.

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I've never understood this intimidation strategy/mentality. "ooh big/mean/fast/close car behind me - I had better speed up/get out of the way or..." or what, precisely?

Ram me off of the road? Crash into the back of me? Try and eat me?

I don't know what things are like in China, but there is a saying in the UK: "all mouth and no trousers".

I was curious so looked up "all mouth and no trousers". It's corrupted from the expression "all mouth and trousers", and means the same thing!

Whatever it is it works.

I swapped a front clip on an old shitbox because the meaner looking newer front clip was cheaper than shipping a replacement bumper cover and it reduced the number of people who camp in the left lane in front of me by a solid 10% (pulling that number out of my ass but whatever it is it's a noticeable amount).

Makes sense seeing more and more companies taking china’s market more seriously given opportunity. In 10 years or less China will be the next global hegemony, especially if USD looses its reserve status.

Tangentially related to the comment, but seeing more evidence of companies positioning themselves for such a transition.

Yes, we’re in the midst of some ghastly thrashing that seems unrecoverable. A paranoid person might think that what we are doing to ourselves is being encouraged by some sort of outside force that has a lot to gain if the US implodes. But that can’t be, can it? No, no. Not possible.

Makes me want to get a trailer hitch and do some brake checks.

A nice old Range Rover or even better, a Lada Niva are probably great for that

Germans tell me that they also want intimidating cars for the left lane of the Autobahn.

Please send me the address of that interview and I'll post it on Weibo and see how the Chinese react to it...

There is no interview, GP pulled it out of his ass.

I think it was around the premiere of BMW 7 facelift in 2019. I don't care about or follow automotive news but this was so ridiculous that it imprinted in my memory, it could be one of the awful British tabloids though. All I can find in G search right now are modest claims that indeed some design choices of the 2019 facelift were on request of Chinese customers as they are the major client base of this segment.

Lexus was first with the absurdly large grills with their "Spindle Grill" design around 2014. BMW was next with the 7-Series and X7, followed quickly by Mercedes.

You don't have a source for this. Quit racebaiting.

I’m tired of trashy Chinese tastes gaining so much influence in the world.

Now you understand the objection to American influence.

Oddly, the same adjective is frequently used.

Hmm, never thought of it that way.

Sure thing, Chinese amd American tastes are trashy but European tastes are ohhhh so sophisticated!/s If a European company designs an ugly car it can't possibly be because the enlightened European designers have bad taste, it must be because of those savages in the overseas markets and their nefarious influence.

So basically everything is Chinese' fault, oh how important we are...

Not at all Chinese fault other than China being a huge market and companies tailoring one size fits all in order to profit more. This is a bad strategy and will likely please neither market in the end

Anyway plz don't blame the customers.

Wish you read what I said. I'm not blaming the customers, it's the companies that make unsound compromises to 'kill two birds with one stone'. Short term it works but likely to cost them in the long term

I'm tired of whiny Europeans blaming everything on us. If one of your companies designs a shitty car that's your fault.

I'm no fan of the design, but BMW has considered their "kidney grille" to be an iconic design element since 1933. https://www.bmw.com/en/design/the-bmw-kidney-grille-through-...

In general, sentences of the form "(I heard from (?P<authority figure>.* ) that )?(?P<bogeyman of the year>.* ) is (?P<influencing us in unseen ways>.* )" should be treated with a great deal of suspicion.

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I think they're objecting to the increasing size, not the design element entirely.

It's fine to object to the increasing size, but the comment claimed that a BMW designer said that the big grilles are because Chinese customers want the driver in front "to feel intimidated, as if the car and driver behind wanted to eat them".

Without a source, this comes across as racist. So far I haven't been able to find such a source. The closest I've found is a quote from the lead designer saying that in Europe people want to blend in, but in the rest of the world they want to stand out, and the design follows that. The China connection seems to be extrapolation by journalists and bloggers (because cars with big grilles are popular in China), and the bit about intimidation seems to be fabricated entirely.

Look through that list, many of those kidney grills are modest deign elements with several of them including separate grills for air intakes. The silly giant kidney grills that most people agree look stupid are really an aberration.

Their US market share peaked in 2014 and their total sales peaked in 2015. I am not going to say their a declining brand, but their 2019 market share is only up to 2010 levels.

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