The first official product photos of the new generation 2012 BMW 1-Series have found their way onto the internet.
It actually reminds me of a modernized E46 ti compact, with a peculiar choice of styling at the front end, mostly because of the decision to make the lower edge of the headlamps slope sharply upwards towards the kidney grilles.
As a result, there seems to be lots of body surface in between the headlamps and the kidney grille – a trait not usually found on any other modern BMW other than the BMW 5-Series GT. If you recall, the E46 ti also had weird headlamps.
At the rear, the design is an evolution of the current 1-Series hatchback. The car pictured here is the 120d, which has a single round chrome tipped exhaust pipe.
The side character lines of the body no longer features that droopy slope found on the current 1-er, which in my opinion looks much better.
Now, the lower character line only slopes up towards the rear wheel arch – before this the line sloped up towards both front and rear wheel arches giving the impression that the car was sagging under its weight.
The interior features a similar iDrive display panel design as first seen on the new 6-series. The instrumentation cluster is of a dual meter design, with the fuel gauge integrated into the lower half of the speedometer.
There seems to be a black panel style multi-info display at the bottom of the RPM meter.
Look after the jump for the rest of the leaked pix.
[zenphotopress number=999 album=2272]
[zenphotopress number=999 album=2280]
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some how looks it looks like the car below this post *myvi*
=.=
are you POLO enough???
haha thumb up
wow headlight looks like new myVi ! vely nize !!
Zzzzzz……..
Yes, especially the rear lights!!
Yeah, from the back…
BMW is selling its BRAND, not products. This look similar to POLO!
No..No..POLO much more handsome rather than this fugly…
BRAND only for name…even though this UGLY product comes from this BRAND… For me, i may prefer not appreciate it at all..
open your eyes big enough guys before u spend your big money on this crappy design…Wake up Adrian van Hooydonk, u miss out the legacy of BMW flaming surfacing…
Hmm..is it just me or is there a hint of vw’s polo from the rear? overall..it looks kinda weird if I’m honest..not really my cuppa tea
Exactly what I was thinking when I first saw this. This is an achievement though, they made it look worse than the outgoing model. Would still rather the current Audi A3. Then again I wouldn’t waste money on “premium” small cars.
eeeew….that look will take a long time to take in!
i love everything about this car, except for the red lines in the interior.
If you notice those red lines are even on the key near the cupholder
Hmm i like the fact they have removed the average FC needle and replaced it with a LCD display of some sort, i found it quite distracting to have the needle constantly jumping around while driving
The average FC needle has been replaced with a digital black panel display for all the new cars so far – X3, 5, 5GT, 6, 7.
That’s good, hopefully they get rid of it also on the new 3
audi had already been using digital long time ago
The previous gen Audi is known to have problem on the digital, few lines will be missing…
The shape of the car, interior, and rear all look great, but those headlamps are just so ugly! Just make the inner light the same size as the outer one and it will look great, but right now, it’s just so bad.
Better wait for the LCI version. The LCI E90 looks much better then the ori E90
I bet they’ll change the headlamps for the LCI.
To be honest, I kinda like the design so far, at first when I woke up this morning, I saw, I thought it looked ugly, but now it grew one me. =)
With the upturned corners for the headlamps and that kidney grille….it really looks like the pigs from Angry Birds…
signal lamp on the side mirror?…the merc has influence the beamer designers…
sorry, cannot digest the face as for now,..others are fine,..
Man..1 Series is getting worse..fugly
ugly exterior design..why such a cool entry level car for young executives turns into a old car for retired execs? whats up with those sad headlights? those overweight grills? and that poloish rear? duh…
audi a1 sure wins alot here ^_^
U guys are difficult to please. Mazda 3 gave u a big smile u complaint, now this 1 gave u a sad face u complaint. I think car designer soon have to design car that can change face expression. Change face according to their mood like Disney animation Cars. Driving will never be boring again..
yeah designers do research about people faces on cars, fun car to drive need to ave a quite fun face rather than boring bold stingy face like some jaguar have before, its all about taste n characteristic. some ppl do buy cars because of its aesthetic value rather than usage/practicality. who buys a total supercar for practicality rather than just to go fast n being bling2 in a crowd :P
Wallstreet…U mean u just buy anything doesn’t care abt the looks? I wonder what clothes u wear, what car u drive & what wife u have???
Sigh..please la..have a bit of sense of humor…..pathetic…
F30 front and inside will look like this probably…
i wonder wat happen to bmw nowadays?those design is regressing instead of progressing, feels like its targeting on uncles and aunties.but anyway, in malaysia there are still a lot of ah beng & a lian will still stick to the brand BMW BLINDLY, they will come out and defend their favourite brand without study the overall quality..guess wat?surely a lot of dislike for this comment, but who cares?i will go for AUDI for sure!!
Bash what ever you like hairdresser, the fact will remain unchanged, that is BMW will sell much more than Audi.
pls go and study for correct figure..typical malaysian…if u look for global sales figure u will be ashamed of wat u juz said..no hard feelings..cheers
That is because Audi is SO much cheaper than both BMWs and Mercs. Why dont you compare the sales with honda or toyota then?
Also stated by BeemerFreak, most sales figures comes from china due to some political reasons. BUT now everything has changed. Time will tell, just wait and see.
“Audi sold 312,600 vehicles worldwide between Jan 1 and March 31, an increase of 18.4 percent compared to the same period last year. In overall sales volume Audi was just beaten by arch rival BMW, which sold 321,175 vehicles for a 20.8 percent increase. Mercedes-Benz did not set any sales records and now lies in third place behind Audi and BMW with sales of 280,552 cars and SUVs.” – Road and Track, April 2011
So is a 2.74% difference in sales volume between Audi and BMW a lot? That is pretty much neck and neck. Most people assume BMW sells a lot more just from what they see in our small market without taking into consideration the other markets in Europe and China.
well said Chun..this is wat i said intellectual ppl with deep knowledge
Did you read the sentance “n overall sales volume Audi was just beaten by arch rival BMW” . May be hairdresser is not “intellectual ppl with deep knowledge”.
of course i do noe ‘n overall sales volume Audi was just beaten by arch rival BMW’, wat i mean here is tht u guys tot audi is far frm behind..maybe u are the one who is helpless seeing ur loved brand falling..can i juz call u ah beng lover?or ah long tasted?or lala boy?
By the way, big bulk of audi sales is from China, which is use by communist, but the trend has change, more China people now buy Merc and BMW, Audi will be in trouble these coming years.
AUDI’s daytime running light made a lot of followers, MERC’s side mirror indicator lights made a lot too, wat kinda of follower did BMW make?juz wonder
One word, “nothing”. Sad but true.
see, the thing about bmw is that all their unique design features are so well integrated into the brand’s models that it would be extremely hard for any other car manufacturer to emulate bmw without being accused of being a rip off.
audi’s daytime running lights itself are actually a lame attempt at emulating bmw’s corona rings creating audi’s own DRL identity, while bmw has been having DRL In the form of corona rings
horizontal bar DRL is so common now… and its no longer associated with audi. merc has it, ford has it, so many manufacturers have it. its just a regular typical daytime running light feature.
but no one will even dare to put corona rings/angel eyes on their car…. except those myvi and vios out there la with those CCFL tubes in their headlamps.
btw, chris bangle’s flame surfacing has been ripped off by many carmakers… he was the first to create lots of character lines for light play on the body of the car.
hahahaha, still dare to say so, but how come nowadays so many ppl complaining bout the design?since the brand is so hard for anyone to copy so they tend to make it so ugly so no one dare to copy?haha, and another thing, i would still respect BMW if they do not copy the merc side mirror indicator lights, but now….sigh, they did it after all..poor choice
Audi daytime running light, what a joke, our government already introduced this for motorcycle and truck long long ago, and come this hairdresser audi copy our government idea.
What most significant audi copy from BMW is the i-drive, and some ignorant say ‘One word, “nothing”.
haha, beemerfreak, u are the one who is ignorant, u don even noe the tech difference used btw audi and motor bike & truck, these statement made by u has already telling the world how ignorant u are..its juz like bmw run flat tyre is copying those kids who put grass in their bikes’ tyre so tht it still can go even if its puntured?sounds ignorant?hahahahaha
Actually daytime running lights function have been used way back in the ’80s maybe earlier, because due to the climate and weather of the Western countries. Nowadays, the function is stylized and brought up to date by using high intensity super bright LEDs, but the concept is still the same. Audi is not the inventor of the oh so glorious Day Running lights, they’re are the innovator. And they also serves a purpose of so called “light graphics”, to let everybody know that an Audi is coming.
“Face” brings to mind the image of an irritated pug.
Can’t prevent the words “pug” and “bulldog” from conjuring themselves in my mind.
i still prefer the current gen over this.i want my bangle back! somehow bmw can’t shake off the bangle effect from their upcoming line up.
I’ll buy BMW motorcycles over these 1 Series hatchbacks.
We guarantee Malaysians don’t buy this. They prefer sedans.
Epic fail. WTF were they thinking??
Better pray hard F30 will not look this fugly.
Waiting patiently for the sneak preview
of the i3 in September !! Sweet !!
at first glance i tot its all new MYvi
Hang punya mata tersumbat tahi.
fuglish!
1 improvement is that now it looks the price , inside and out, i like to to see the contrast between the dark blue with chrome grill and red ( I’ll assume its the sporty one) coloured with black grill ….
BUT , the rear design and the rear tailamps is a major disappointment , it looks very very very similar to VW’s Golf MK 4 ……, (the current one is MK6 btw….)
The Rear is a copy of the VW Polo! This is a poor effort. Interior looks okay, but this is not a desirable car.
The first picture looks like a poor photoshop to me…..yuks……
Cantiq; brilliant.
Aston Martin face intepreted in another way, without losing the kidney.
And I thought the current 1-Series is the ugliest BMW…
some ppl called audi hair dresser, some ppl called bmw ah long car..i prefer hairdresser coz at least got a better taste than ah long..who will ”chng” their cars into a lala car
Ah long is manly and gutsy, spend most of their time with money. Hair dressers are just tiny and gay and spend most of their time with women magazine. Your choice gay man.
Epic failure design again from BMW…just like the previous Bangle butt series…a total flop!
what happened to BMW design? this looks terrible. ugly front, VW Polo tail lights and ugly oversized headlights. Just plain ugly
These hairdressers like to come here and bark, sign of no confident and tried very hard to associate with BMW what a pity.
its those ah beng lover barking la macha..see the majority comments and compare lar, accept the fact lar lala boy
I’ve just vomited.
when i see the tail light, i thought it was VW polo…
i’d like to hear wat the beemer fan boys have to say about this epic failure model
It’s official. BMW has completely lost it. This is one fugly car!
seems like got hot debate here, to be honest, bmw had really losing there share market globally, hope they can really improve in their design like 8 yrs ago..and their quality also becoming poor..not so special any more and not so prestige..
what the hell is this?
lampu depan nampak macam dipasang upside down. lol
Paul, is this a prank??
I mean …. Its unbelievably ugly …
I am now starting to appreciate what Bangle did for BMW ….
The front is awful…..and the back is taken from polo….BMW what no idea already….
wow! the headlights are quite ugly. will take a while to get used to it
It just looks moody or the so called ’emo-looks’. Imaging getting into this car every monday for your work, it simply makes your Monday blues ‘bluer’…
Looks like dead fish.
Bring back Bangle!
You know what BMW? If it ain’t broke, don’t bother fixing it….!
The original 1-series already look so good….! perfect balance for the rear hatch graphic, perfect balance of the front end, the whole car is already in harmony with lines and curves.
This one doesn’t even need to exist…..!
of all bmw model this is truly looks like a pig oink.. oink!!!
i actually quite like it.
so audi.
after seeing the side profile, BMW should seriously consider a sportback/aeroback/fastback version of the 1 series, ala A7 , it’ll look way way cool….
Simple… holy crap shit!
headlamp looks like new myvi and rearlamp looks like vw polo
Some how the BMW 1-Series is never as good looking as the rest of the BMW…
The ugly duckling…