[DarkstarZero]

James picks the iX as his ideal daily driver. Thomas disagrees. Entertaining as always.

[Young04]

They are vicious. I love my M60 and I agree its looks aren't a strong suit but I don't think it's THAT bad. Decent from the back especially with the wider tires (22s).

[deutsch100]

I don't know if they could have said UGLY one more time talking about the iX :-O

I will be honest, before the iX arrived at dealers, I massively hated it. The first one I saw driving with NJ manufacturer plates....hated it.

Then we saw it in person, test drove it...and we are on iX #4 I still think the side looks like a mini van and the rear shape is "ok", but I now think the front end looks amazingly cool and even hot!

[Road Trip]

Over time count my wife and I in as liking the front end. As to what others’ think, got over that a long time ago. They can buy and think as they wish.

[FultonMDUSA]

Originally Posted by deutsch100

but I now think the front end looks amazingly cool and even hot!

Small kidney grills just look outdated to me now!

[ggalanis]

Originally Posted by DarkstarZero

James picks the iX as his ideal daily driver. Thomas disagrees. Entertaining as always.

Not sure, but I think they might think the iX is ugly?


Kidding aside, speaks to how good the iX really is that he would pick it even if he completely hates how it looks on the outside. So of course, if you are someone who either likes the exterior or just doesn't mind it, the iX is really hard to beat right now.

[Paladin1]

Liked the looks from the beginning, still do. Looks like a BMW. Which it is.

[Protocol_10]

I’m on iX #2 at this point (2024 iX M60)

People stop me on the road every day (seriously, every single day) to tell me how cool it looks & how much they love it.

The “but it’s so ugly” comments are definitely understandable, but getting a bit stale at this point. The models with the “ugly” designs actually sell MORE than their normal looking predecessors, and BMW keeps breaking sales records. Go figure

[NomoTesla]

The iX actually looks quite intimidating in the rear view mirror as it pulls up behind. Very aggressive and beautiful!

[shoot_the_goalie]

I think the iX is just not photogenic. The car looks so much better in person than in pics for some reason. Including the grille.

[NomoTesla]

Originally Posted by shoot_the_goalie

I think the iX is just not photogenic. The car looks so much better in person than in pics for some reason. Including the grille.

I find that to also be true. Much better in person than in photos.

[ggalanis]

Originally Posted by shoot_the_goalie

I think the iX is just not photogenic. The car looks so much better in person than in pics for some reason. Including the grille.

I think it is also about the look moving away from people's favorite old BMWs. A lot of reviewers have a thing for some old BMWs (as do I, hence why I still have an E30) and this is moving in a different direction than that and they are resisting the change. As others have said, plenty of comments from random people about how good it looks. I never got any random people commenting like that on my X5.

Sure, the look is not for everyone and even though I do like it, it isn't my favorite either, but it is not as bad as reviewers make it out to be.

Just like I deeply disliked the Lexus spindle grill when it first came out and people compared it to a predator face, over time we got used to it and it isn't that bad.

[x5mad]

So many similar experiences like others here.

I did not like the iX at first either. Not photogenic at all. Then we test drove one and fell in love with it.

I’ve had so many people come up and look all around the car as well as talk to me about it.

Real world vs motoring journalists views have been polar opposites.

The front end is my favourite too, very futuristic and aggressive looking.

[LowerEast]

I don’t doubt that some people genuinely dislike the looks of the iX, but at the same time, I’m convinced a lot of the negative comments are largely because it looks different from BMWs of the past. Yes it has a big grill, especially relative to older BMWs, but its grill is smaller than a lot of Audis, Lexus, Mercedes, Cadillacs etc., and there are far fewer negative comments on the size of those grills.

I personally think it’s a good looking car. Most people I’ve spoken to have said they like the looks of it, and the fact that some people don’t like it is fine by me.

A quick story about someone who doesn’t think the iX is a good looking car - I was waiting for a parking spot to open up a couple of months ago on a busy street with a ton of people looking for parking. I saw someone about to pull out of their spot so I put my turn signal on, stopped and then pulled into the spot when the car I was waiting for pulled out. I got out of my car and this woman in an x3 on the other side of the road starts screaming and cursing at me, calling me an @sshole and yelling that I stole her spot. I genuinely didn’t see her on the other side of the road. There was a ton of traffic and I didn’t notice her there. Maybe she was telling the truth that she was waiting for the spot or maybe she was lying. Either way, if she hadn’t cursed me out, I probably would have given her the benefit of the doubt and pulled out of the spot to let he have it. No way that was happening after the way she behaved though. I mostly ignored her and as I was walking away from my car, she screamed at me “….and your car is f@cking ugly too!” I stopped, walked back to her car and let her know that while my car may be ugly, at least I could turn it in after 3 years, but she’d be stuck with that face forever

[DarkstarZero]

I don't own an iX but I was given the opportunity to drive the iX M60 on a long road trip along the east coast.

As a comparison, my daily family car is a loaded X7 M50. The iX was very comfortable but I was missing my massaging seats that I have in the X7. The iX at $150k sticker, I would expect to have them as standard. I do not like the new infotainment where every vehicle function is its own "app" on the touch screen. I can see what they were thinking, "people know how to use phones, so we'll just make the car like a phone." There's a reason why you can't use your phone while driving, making the car like a phone doesn't help. However, I did LOVE the augmented reality navigation, it's just the coolest thing ever.

On to the looks: When we arrived at our 5 star hotel in New York City, everyone stopped. People were taking pictures, the valet was getting people to move, make way for the iX! I was surprised by how often people stopped to ask if they could take a picture of the car. No one has ever taken a picture of my X7. There's no question that the iX invokes wonder and desire in the average person.

It looks new and different, no one has seen anything like it before, it's not pretty, it's hot! But we all know that what's hot one day is not the next, it is what's pretty that maintains desire.

As Jay Leno once said, "If a woman was cute 20 years ago, she's cute today. The same is true for cars."

[deutsch100]

Originally Posted by DarkstarZero

The iX at $150k sticker, I would expect to have them as standard.

$150,000 iX in Washington D.C.? I do not think I have seen an iX over $120k.

[bmwix1]

I don't think the grill is ugly otherwise I wouldn't buy iX. When I first saw it in picture, I immediately liked the self-healing and shy-tech feature.
I think the piano black border is too thick, they could embed some LED around the border like the i5 or XM. I kinda wish BMW coated the self-healing material on top the glass roof too. It seems the glass roof is more fragile than the grill.

[LeeInCT]

Regarding the front, I was neutral in the beginning, now I really like it. It gives a very clean look and much better than the new M3/M4 grille.
If anything, I wish they could have put some back lighting to the front grille, that could really make it look futuristic.

[shoot_the_goalie]

I took a good look at the grille again after all these posts, and I think the reason the iX doesn't photo well is cause the "grille" in photos looks very flat and plastic-ky. In reality is has a whole lot of depth and sheen which makes it look much more sophisticated and appealing.

[Paladin1]

BMW grilles (size-wise) have ranged from this:



To this:



https://www.motor1.com/news/414634/b...ign-evolution/

And everything in between.

The almost overwhelming reason for the "I'll-gnaw-off-my-foot-if-I-have-to-drive-a-car-with-this-grille" crowd, is that here are a lot more years - and owners - behind the former rather than the latter, having nothing to do with esthetics, and more to do with inertia. "I got used to it." IMO. "Beauty" is always in the very personal eye of the beholder, but the question remains - if you had never seen another BMW. Ever. Or any other car. What would the iX (or any modern, "oversized" BMW front-end vehicle) look like to you in isolation? Hideous? Lovely? Futuristic? Bland? It is a puzzlement....

[ggalanis]

Originally Posted by Paladin1

The almost overwhelming reason for the "I'll-gnaw-off-my-foot-if-I-have-to-drive-a-car-with-this-grille" crowd, is that here are a lot more years - and owners - behind the former rather than the latter, having nothing to do with esthetics, and more to do with inertia. "I got used to it." IMO. "Beauty" is always in the very personal eye of the beholder, but the question remains - if you had never seen another BMW. Ever. Or any other car. What would the iX (or any modern, "oversized" BMW front-end vehicle) look like to you in isolation? Hideous? Lovely? Futuristic? Bland? It is a puzzlement....

I have mentioned it before in other posts but when i was buying my 3 series in 2013 and started on forums back then, tons of people were up in arms about the new F30 grille and how the headlights now touched them.



The horror.... I'm sure there were some people who disliked it, that's normal, but it honestly felt a lot more like people were looking for reasons to justify not getting a new one. As if there was something wrong about saying the new one looks ok but there's nothing wrong with my current e90 or whatever and I'm going to just keep it. Same with the X5/X7 back in 2019 with the HUUUUUGE grills.... you had journalists like Jason Cammisa making a big deal about it and comparing it to an E30 grille.... as if that comparison made any sense given the size difference between the vehicles


When you look back on all these cars, they look just fine in real life. The proportions make sense, they just looked a little odd at first in flat pics online.

Once again yesterday, I was out with my brother chatting in a parking lot next to his car before we each headed back home and the person parked closest to me came around did a 360 degree walk around the iX turned and asked if it was one of ours, and then complimented it's looks saying it looks really nice and cool. So when we get those "featured on bimmerpost" posts that get flooded with complaints about the looks, I just ignore them. Besides, it only matters to me if I like it.

[exxxviii]

I think the current crop of oversized grills is just a design error like the Bangle Butt that will be rectumfied in the next generation of designs. BMW's whole tradition of the dual kidney grill is kind of doesn't make sense with BEV designs, but they are committed to absurd proportions. I am used to it, but it still looks odd to me. It is better than the totally plain noses with no feaux grill.