we judge an appearance of a car just like we judge an appearance of a person... some people are attractive visually, some are not, has nothing to do with the person's character - just visual appeal...
With the cars, they appeal to the same standards we use - a car can look lilke a sheep, like a cat, like a bird... I personally have always been partial to carnivores, raptors, birds of prey, sharks... (no wonder, the USA has chosen a bald eagle as its symbol over a turkey - nobody wants to be a prey!! lol)...
Old bimmers had the notion of shark - look at E24 from a side, you will see a profile of marine predator...
the next generation went with feline theme, prawling in ambush to unsuspecting "vanilla" cars... lol...
Chris Bangle generation... well... not really sure what it was... lol...
i consider headlights to be the "eyes" of a car, and the eyes are "windows" to the soul... when i look at the new 1-series, their oversized headlights remind me of an owl whose eyes are wide open, as if surprized - Who??!!! Who??!!... lol...
these headlights have some interesting technical features, like the ellipsoids (projectors) for the highbeam lights, which supposed to throw a better light pattern, the top unibrow that is executed in solid lighted bar without the little LEDs visible (a la CELIS vs LED strips on the MBs)...
But unfortunately, smaller halos would give an impression of smaller "eyes", and with projector "pupils" your rings ("iris") would be smaller... Smaller eyes in my personal opinion, would be associated with a sly animal, like a hyena (where those eyes are appropriate, as nature designed), but those same "eyes" transposed on a larger beast, would give unfavorable impression - hyena eyes on a wolf would make the wolf look funny... same applies to the E53 - these smaller headlights would give a totally different, less favorable look to the car...
you can see how the facelifted euro headlights improved a look of an E39, giving it a more "aggressive", large feline look... E53 is a beast in appearance, from the basic 3.0 to the mean "is" and should stay in the "noble carnivore" corral...
besides the fact that the manufacturer is less known (even though "OEM approved" - does it mean, they supply directly to BMW???)
However, beauty is always in the eye of a beholder!!!...
