BMW's Head of Design Rumored to Resign for a Second Time

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

BMW Head of Design Karim Habib is reportedly leaving the German automaker for the second time in roughly a decade, making him the third major departure from the group’s styling division in the last ten months.

Official confirmation from BMW is pending, but information from Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport suggests that Habib may have already made his exit. This widens an already gaping hole in the group’s creative landscape. The company has yet to replace Anders Warming, the design boss for Mini, and Benoit Jacob, who styled BMW’s i-division. Both men departed the company in 2016, lured away by Chinese-financed companies.

This leaves BMW Group’s design chief, Adrian van Hooydonk, without a creative frontman for every brand but Rolls-Royce.

Habib joined BMW in 1998 but left for Mercedes-Benz from 2008 to 2010 — just long enough to design the F800 concept car. Since 2012, Karim Habib has been responsible for the interior and exterior direction of the brand, working off the design language developed by former design head Chris Bangle while undoing some of his more controversial styling cues.

Karim Habib studied engineering at Canada’s McGill University before moving on to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He joined BMW as an interior designer immediately afterward.

[Image: BMW Group]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Jan 20, 2017

    "Adrian van Hooydonk" I just found a new pseudonym.

  • EX35 EX35 on Jan 20, 2017

    It's not the styling that's lacking, it's the engineering.

  • SPPPP SPPPP on Jan 20, 2017

    I think Bangle did much better than people gave him credit for. I think the E90, E65, E60, and E85, while maybe not the best looking BMWs ever, were better designs than their successors. (The E85 was fairly awkward, though, compared to the Z3.) Trying to "undo the Bangle damage" may have caused more problems than it fixed.

    • See 3 previous
    • Bd2 Bd2 on Jan 22, 2017

      @SoCalMikester Hyundai and Mercedes have also used it to varying effect.

  • SoCalMikester SoCalMikester on Jan 22, 2017

    so no more bangle-butt, but this guy invented the tear ducts. and yeah, jacob made the i-cars a lot more "interesting" than they should have been.

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