When working out a new version of an existing car you have to take into account a number of things that will have changed, writes Brian Byrne.
"We try to find out what the market is like now, how the environment has changed, and perhaps the customers have changed," says Ulrich Stroehle of the design team for the interior of the new generation BMW X3, pictured above.
"We try to bring the new model into exactly the position where the old model had been in its environment. It is a case of creating a new level of modernity to show the buyers that it is an all-new car."
It's important is that somebody who has been driving the previous X3 for several years must feel at home in the new version, so that they are not alienated by the new version. So there is a balance which must be found. In fairness, that's not always easy. But Ulrich Stroehle says it helps that there is a full team of people involved from the beginning. "Everybody can come up with different proposals, and these can all be examined, and at the end we can figure them all out and come up with a final model."
Is there a difficulty in that the car the team is designing won't appear for maybe three or four years? That they have to, as it were, 'design forward'?
"I think the best thing is to try and make the car perfect for now. You can't try too much to think what would be beautiful in three years, so the best way to do it is to make it beautiful now."
Ulrich compares the process to architecture, where, although the timescale is much longer, the process is similar. Like cars, buildings will date. But both mark where they were in the design language of the time.
In the case of regenerating the X3, the goalposts had shifted because the new car would not be, as its predecessor had been at launch, the only 'small brother' to the X5 SUV. The smaller X1 had come along, the X5 had become bigger itself, and there was also the X6 large SUV Coupe, so there is now a more extended 'X family'.
"For the X3 owner who wants to stay with the car, their own needs will also have changed. So they want something that says they are getting a little more. In this new X3's case we tried to make it more functional, with more storage space, for instance.
"And as we have done with all BMWs, we wanted to improve the driver's area, and we improved the room for the passengers."
The project benefited from the high level of feedback from owners of the previous car, something which Ulrich says happens right across the brand's range. Among the criticisms were that interior surfaces looked too hard, and the car lacked the kind of warmth which the designers try to achieve.
That said, it was essentially a very good car, evidenced by the fact that it sold some 600,000 copies over its lifetime.
Ulrich has worked with BMW for seven years. This followed internships during his college years with both Audi and BMW. But BMW was always where he wanted to go.
"In my class in Munich, there were five guys who really wanted to do car design. For me it was from before that, a childhood dream, and all my friends in school were tired of hearing me say I was going to work for BMW."
Just shows, childhood dreams do come true, sometimes.
"We try to bring the new model into exactly the position where the old model had been in its environment. It is a case of creating a new level of modernity to show the buyers that it is an all-new car."
It's important is that somebody who has been driving the previous X3 for several years must feel at home in the new version, so that they are not alienated by the new version. So there is a balance which must be found. In fairness, that's not always easy. But Ulrich Stroehle says it helps that there is a full team of people involved from the beginning. "Everybody can come up with different proposals, and these can all be examined, and at the end we can figure them all out and come up with a final model."
"I think the best thing is to try and make the car perfect for now. You can't try too much to think what would be beautiful in three years, so the best way to do it is to make it beautiful now."
Ulrich compares the process to architecture, where, although the timescale is much longer, the process is similar. Like cars, buildings will date. But both mark where they were in the design language of the time.
In the case of regenerating the X3, the goalposts had shifted because the new car would not be, as its predecessor had been at launch, the only 'small brother' to the X5 SUV. The smaller X1 had come along, the X5 had become bigger itself, and there was also the X6 large SUV Coupe, so there is now a more extended 'X family'.
"And as we have done with all BMWs, we wanted to improve the driver's area, and we improved the room for the passengers."
The project benefited from the high level of feedback from owners of the previous car, something which Ulrich says happens right across the brand's range. Among the criticisms were that interior surfaces looked too hard, and the car lacked the kind of warmth which the designers try to achieve.
That said, it was essentially a very good car, evidenced by the fact that it sold some 600,000 copies over its lifetime.
"In my class in Munich, there were five guys who really wanted to do car design. For me it was from before that, a childhood dream, and all my friends in school were tired of hearing me say I was going to work for BMW."
Just shows, childhood dreams do come true, sometimes.
