BMW CS1 Concept - Is This the Future 1-Series?
While BMW AG continues to move up the feeding chain with the British built Rolls-Royce brand and products like the sensational Z8 and audacious all-new 7-Series, the market below $35,000 remains untouchable. Is the cute little CS1 a clear vision of the Munich based automaker's smaller and more affordable future?
To be clear BMW also owns and builds the fabulous MINI Cooper that starts at a very attainable $25,200. But that said those in charge of the blue and white propeller badge want to see something closer in spirit to the much loved 2002 model of the early 70s, small, practical, sporty and of course rear-wheel drive - something the MINI isn't.
It's hard not to like the CS1. To me, it's one of Chris Bangle's better designs, pulling in an element or two from the current 3-Series up front, while its crisp shoulder lines and slightly concave side panels pay direct homage to the 2002. Of course, despite the respect paid to heritage, the CS1 is altogether new. From the rear quarter view, starting at the crisp E36-style rear deck lid that very same shoulder line plunges forward toward the front fenders melding seamlessly into what seems from this angle to be thin air. In actual fact the line blends into the eye-shaped clear bi-xenon headlights, and from these across the top of the car's traditional twin-kidney grille. The rear lights are double rings of light-emitting diodes, brighter than conventional bulbs. An unconventional side-sill cut line begins just aft of the front wheel well and then bends down before arcing up to meet the rear wheel well, both of which incorporate flares that seem sliced clean by a cleaver. Odd yes, but it's wonderfully fresh and entirely cohesive.