'Lose The Bustle' - BMW finally gets the message

Sing it to the tune of ""Do The Hustle" [click on #27].

When BMW's new flagship 7 Series (above) came out three years ago, with its ridiculous-looking humped trunk which appeared as if someone had stuck it on as an afterthought, I wasn't the only one who couldn't believe this company could have made so major a mistake.

The howls of dismay over the simultaneous introduction of the i-Drive, a fiendishly difficult-to-master central single control wheel for the tricked-out car's myriad complicated functions, were even louder.

BMW then dumbed-down the i-Drive a bit, after a continuing crescendo of criticism that even the Teutonic masters of the company, safely ensconced in their corporate castle in Munich, could no longer ignore.

After U.S. sales of the 7 Series fell 21% last year, the company finally decided it was time to stop the bleeding.

Earlier this week, at the North American Auto Show in Detroit, BMW CEO Helmut Panke said a "face-lift" of the 7 Series is on the way, with the first photos to be released January 27.

Panke said BMW is not "walking away" from its new design philosophy.

Rather, it's making adjustments in its look.

Bet one of them is losing the bustle.

[via Neal E. Boudette and the Wall Street Journal]