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The designer of the new BMW 7-series, Karim Habib, has been lured to Mercedes-Benz, where he will head up the firm’s advanced design studio located on the outskirts of Stuttgart. Habib will work under Mercedes-Benz's new design boss, Gorden Wagener.

Canadian-born Habib will be responsible for the F series cars, the concepts and experimental cars that Mercedes uses to develop its future design themes. Recent F cars include the F700 and F400.

These are cars that will influence not ...Read the full article

I'd imagined that hiring anyone from BMW's design department was something you kept very quiet about

Friday 13th unlucky for some- most notably Mercedes. As if the last few months haven't been bad enough for them, what with the downturn in car sales and more stringent emissions laws, it has all culminated in them hiring a BMW designer. I can't wait to see the coupe version of the R-class or how about maybe the already hideous looking GLK been given an X2 rear romp! But bad luck for some means good luck for others- Audi must be cracking open the champagne corkscrews in Ingolstadt, this move today along with the leaked pictures of the BMW Z10, guarantees them a clean sweep over their now fromer rivals for the forseeable future.

Oh dear, just when Mercedes was starting to get back on track.

Could have been worse - they could have recruited Bangle himself... Why couldn't they employ the guy that designed the Quattroporte?

Yes, could have been a lot worse. But Habib penned the current 7-series and the CS Concept (the stillborn 8 series). So I am comfortable with his appointment.

But Mercedes should try to hire the entire Audi interior design team. The Audi guys are really something special. They have been churning out excellent interiors for a few years now. Come to think of it, if my memory is not failing me, the current Head of Audi (VW) Interior Design Team - Romulus Rost - did work for Mercedes for a while.............................Rost designed the highly acclaimed original Audi TT of course.

He designed the CS Concept and the Z8, all BMW's best work under Banger, sorry, I meant Bangle. New 7 seems alright.

North Borneo

I think you have to wait and see what he does, he has had time to refine his art at BMW and wait and see what he does; there is no point making assumptions on what he will produce; we just have to wait and see.

If all the reports are to be believed, he will be reunited at BMW soon anyway!.....go Daimler!

Driving:

New 7 seems alright.

 

If you happen to like cars that look like a shaved spaniel.

Chunkster:

But Mercedes should try to hire the entire Audi interior design team. The Audi guys are really something special

The Audi guys may be something special but they also are not immune to adverse influences such as "Bangleism";  I've noticed with dismay that some Audis are getting ugly and fussy, especially the A5 and Q7: big and sprawling with too many swage lines and horrors of horrors, hints of that dreaded "flame surfacing". 

BMW: Profits down 90%, 2 key designers leave, sales overtaken by Audi in their home market. What's going on there?