The BMW 3 Series is the last of the BMW automotive family to fall prey to the marque's new-Bangled design vocabulary. As such, given that the design has encountered something significantly less than universal acclaim, the 3 Series is the least radicalized, leaving it the best looking, most cohesively styled and visually balanced BMW of the current lot.

Up front, the new 3 Series easily passes what some automotive stylists call the rearview mirror test, whether a driver can recognize a car's brand from a quick glance in the mirror. The traditional, twin-kidney grille is braced by deep-set, organic-shaped, compound headlamps that so far have been spared the drooping eyelid-look of many of its brand mates. A broad, multi-faceted bumper tops a three-segment, sharply edged, lower air intake with fog lights parked at the extremes. The outline of a low-profile power bulge traces back across the hood from the upper corners of the grille to the base of the A-pillars (the side frames of the windshield). The wide track (distance between the tires side to side) pushes the tires to the outer limits of the body, giving the '07 a solid, planted stance.

Side view shows a silhouette that keeps the faith with the traditional overall proportions of the 3 Series coupes in its long hood and short deck topped by an expansive greenhouse. Short front and rear overhangs (distance between the tires and the ends of the car's body) bear eyewitness to the car's standard-setting handling. Picking up on the seam between the hood and the front fender, the beltline flows rearward with the slightest suggestion of a wedge. The character line running the length of the car from just aft of the front wheel well to the taillight follows the prevailing BMW styling cue of a crease above compound-curve (as in, part concave and part convex) body panels; it's not the traditional 3 Series' slender groove in convex panels, but the look is close enough.

Drivers who didn't recognize the new convertible in the mirror will have more difficulty as it disappears into the distance after flashing by in a quick overtaking. The once-distinctive rear fascia suffers from the housing demands imposed by the retractable hardtop and associated hardware. The boot, or trunk lid, is lengthened, for instance, and the fenders upper flanks are widened and more vertically aligned with the lower fender panels. The final result mixes both good and not so good. That the back end looks somewhat bland, even generic, to the point some Pacific-rim cars look more like a BMW than this 3 Series, is the not so good. The good, at least to long-time, die-hard BMW fans, is that this saves the convertible from the rounded fenders with proud trunk lid of the current 7 Series and 6 Series and to a lesser extent the 5 Series.