New BMW 4-Series Spy Shots Confirm Our Fears Over Its Huge Grille

You may remember the BMW Concept 4 from a few months ago. More likely your nightmares are still haunted by its needlessly immense and one-volume kidney grille, which we ‘fixed’ in a couple of renders you guys liked.

Since then, when BMW described that gargantu-o-grille as indicating the styling direction earmarked for the next 4er, there has been a general air of nervousness about whether they would follow through on it. The Concept 4 won huge media coverage, but the grille was pretty much blasted out of a cannon everywhere other than China, so surely BMW would reconsider?

Alas, the first impressions from these spy shots do little to calm our fears. The top of the grille can be seen, just as broad and just as one-volume as in the concept. The line down the middle? Pure camouflage.

The lower bumper section isn’t the finished deal, either. It’s simply a makeshift housing for all the electronics during testing. However, the position of the most obvious piece of electronics on the test mule would suggest a mounting point behind the bottom of a truly behemoth snout, potentially identical to the concept’s.

We won’t know for sure until the final reveal at or just before the Geneva Motor Show in March. We’re still crossing our fingers that BMW has seen those renders and changed their minds…