H*nda

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Inline_6

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Some of you people already know this. The H*nda Accord is a copy of this E30. Girlfiend owned a '88 Accord. Side-by-side compairison, roof, doors, quarters, trunk lid, tail lights. There should be some kind of law to prevent such "exact" duplications.

For me, the biggest attraction is the rear wheel drive. My first car back in '77 was a 1965 Chevelle SS 396 4-speed 4:56 posi. 12 bolt. I've come a long ways [B)] since owning that car. They were very rare. Drag racing local is more like camping out then making runs. I switched to Kart racing, second year won the National. Now that was fun racing. Driving the E30 brings back some of that "corner speed" feeling. It's not a drag racer [burnout] but that's ok. There's a lot more traffic now then back then. If I want raw speed I'll get out one of the motorcycles & wring it out, one has 250hp on the dyno. One of my "today" hobbies is modifying turbochargers. It's extensive work and the thought of modifying the BMW engine to accept a turbo has crossed my mind. But then old age wisdom creaps up and I realize this car is already a well balanced car just the way it is. It's not like me to leave anything alone so my plan has always been aimed at the suspension. Must keep the car an every-day driver.....
 
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Pink_Floyd

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The new Lincoln sedan (LS?) looks just like the BMW 5 series. They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery but I don't think that matters when your business is designing cars and then someone tries to copy the look just because they can't come up with a good design on their own.
 
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epj3

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Huh??



I dont see how they are copies, but I agree with what you are saying. I used to like the dsm cars (eclipse, talon, laser, etc.) and thought they were great...until i rode in my friends 88 325is..what a fun car. Fun to push through corners [driving]
 
Ryan Stewart

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Yeah I dont see the resemblence but I have not paid much attention to them. I do know that the Lincoln LS is exactly like a smaller version of the E38. I thought they were cool until I saw the interior.
 
junglestylz

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I can see what he is saying. Short of the front ends the 1996 Accord is the same as the % series. The contour of the hood, the tailights, the quarter panels, etc. The same with the E36's and honda civics.
 
Ryan Stewart

Ryan Stewart

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maybe BMW copied somone else. Just look at the crap they are putting out now. Following trends set by the japanese and american markets. Cars from each era have similarities because they are selling to the same people of that era.

All of those designs pictured are pretty simple, just a box with a crease down the side. If that is the case then my Johnston Murphy shoeboxes are copies for the E30. [;)]
 
brahtw8

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The original premise of this thread is somewhat flawed.

If you want to talk about BMW design, you need to go back several decades. The E30 was derivative of the E21 3 series, which was derivative of the E12 fiver and 2002, and those cars owe their design to the E9 coupes and the E3 sedans. Now we are in the late 60s, and you have to go back to the original BMW sport sedan, the 1500, back in 1959. (And no, I have not forgotten the pre-war cars, but they were different enough to not be included in the discussion, IMHO) If I knew enough about the econobox european cars of the late 50s, I could probably find a fiat (perhaps a 500 sedan) or some other marque that the 1500 owes some lines to.

In any event, BMW design was not considered revolutionary until recently, and those designs have met with much opposition on this board and other places. Before that, the designs were evolutionary, not revolutionary. (Take the E32 7 and the E38 7, for example, or the E12 and E28 fives for an even more obvious connection).

As for the japanese influence, I don't see the E30 as japanese and find the comparison to the 1986-1989 Accord to be without merit. The E36 is very japanese, and was criticized as such back at its european debut in 1990. The E46 is even more japanese, if you ask me. Many of my peers have remarked that it is 'civic-like' in appearance.

These days, all of the cars look the same. Autoweek or some other magazine did an article a few years back where they compared the sillhouettes of numerous sedans. It was nearly impossible to tell the difference, and I would put my automobile pattern recognition skills up against the best of 'em.
 
brahtw8

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junglestylz said:
So what you are saying is that BMW's new cars are getting more and more of a Japanese appearance¿ So that's why they are starting to get ugly!!!!!!!![?|] [rofl] [???1] [mad] [:(!] [}:)] [:(]
Click to expand...
What I was trying to say is that there are design similarities between the 80s and 90s BMWs and japanese cars of similar vintage, that BMW design (until recently) has not been considered all that revolutionary, and that revolutionary BMW design may not be what people want, given the reaction to Bangle's latest.

As far as the Bangle designs being Japanese, most sources see the front end (5/7) as becoming Pontiac-like, and the rear of the Seven as a Chrysler Cirrus. The E60 fiver rear looks japanese, but where that design originally came from I don't know.

FWIW, a lot of these designs are coming out of California, both the japanese and german, so that may have something to do with the perceived similarity.
 
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OreoGaborio

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epj3 said:
I think the new bmw's bodies are just too big. If i could find the picture of all generations of the 5 series, you would see what i mean.
Click to expand...
well, it doesn't show the size differences between them, but hey... you didn't ask for that [;)]

e12 - original 5er

e28 - 2nd gen 5er

e34 - 3rd gen 5er

e39 - 4th gen 5er


sorry... couldn't find any pics of the e60 on short notice [;)]

(scary thing is i remembered all those chassis codes w/o looking [^] )
 
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