I already thought BMW was losing it, now this

[G.Irish]

For the same reason people don't care about $ to HP ratio, they aren't gonna care about this grille. You buy an M cause you want an M. It has very little to do with things car people nitpick over. I feel like the M4 is a bigger bastardization ofthe name than anything this grill can do... but they sell.

That's the thing, non-car people care about looks.  Car people get spun up over things like M-Sport BMW's and turbo vs n/a.  Those things are invisible to the average customer.

But an ugly car absolutely turns off average buyers.  Some people will buy it for the M badge anyway, but the M badge is not nearly so strong a brand that it will make people ignore an in-your-face ugly grill.  If it was a prancing horse badge or raging bull badge, ok.  But an M on the trunk is not gonna get someone in any doors that would otherwise be closed.  At least not in any major metro area.

And like I said, M cars are already a bit overpriced as is.  BMW already failed hard on the CS and GTS trims, and both of those are decent looking but overpriced cars.  Now BMW wants people to buy these pig-faced M-cars with a middling performance/dollar ratio, and I just don't think they're going to do too well there.