on my jaunt to and from brighton (see other thread) i had the oportunity to study the form of bmw's 5 series a couple of times and marvel how when some get behind the wheel of a german car (usually a bimmer, audi or vw) they instantly seem to turn into a git.

anyway the 5 series, still a bit of a swampdonkey but it's been nagging me that it reminds me of another car on the road... turns out it's the lexus is200, but stretched and boy racerized, the wheelarches are flared in a similar way, there is the bizzarre mix of curves and edges (although they seem to sit better on the lexus for some reason) and the boot lines (although softer and without that 'boot lid from a completely different car look' on the is200) are very similar too. now with this and bmw's copying of the rear lights on the compact perhaps bmw aren;t as aventgarde as they like to think they are.

cheers

julian