By now, you’ve surely seen all the hatred plastered across the internet over the Concept 4’s big, ridiculous grille. And, it’s not surprising since BMW has already said that this concept previews its design language for the next-gen 4 Series and, potentially, other models as well. Despite all the negativity after the Concept 4’s debut, BMW refuses to step back and will instead move forward with it regardless of what you, I, or even its most loyal fans and customers think.

BMW’s Design Boss Apparently Knows Best

Autocar managed to catch up with BMW Design Boss, Adrian van Hooydonk, after the Concept 4’s debut and asked him few things that all of us probably wanted the answers to. One of the most important questions was about that big massive grille.

“It is a sporty coupé, and by definition, it has to have a very expressive design, and you see that all around the car, not just the front. But there are not that many lines or elements – it’s not a complex design.”

He went on to say that all of the brand's future cars need to have fewer elements that play a bigger role. Hence, the massive grille on the next-gen 4 Series and who knows what will happen with the rest of the lineup over the next decade.

For those of you wondering how all of this started, it all falls back to the 7 Series:

“People liked the car , but they said by and large it looks quite similar to the previous one, so why should they buy the new one? Now everyone has noticed, and production has ramped up considerably.”

On that note, Hooydonk does have one viable piece of information that does really make sense:

“As a company, you have to keep moving,” he continued. “The minute you start standing still, you become an easy target. The market is very competitive now, more than ever. But the hardest thing to do is make changes while you are successful. If you are no longer successful, people will immediately start saying you need to make changes, but then you are in panic mode.”

This is something I sincerely agree with. However, that doesn’t mean you put the most ridiculous and gaudy grille on the planet on every one of your newest models. Sure, the vertical grille design isn’t new – all the old-school Bimmers had them – but they were never this damn big. And, rightfully so, there are cars out there with much larger grilles (Lexus, I’m looking at you), but that doesn’t mean that big grilles will work for BMW.

Oh well. What can you do? Welcome to the future of BMW, folks.

Further reading

Read our full review on the 2019 BMW Concept 4.

The BMW Concept 4 Makes It Clear That BMW Has a Grille Problem

Read our full speculative review on the 2020 BMW 4 Series Convertible.

Read our full review on the 2018 BMW 4 Series Coupe.

Read our full review on the 2018 BMW 4 Series Convertible.