I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: There’s a lack of whimsy in cars today. Luckily for us — and those who are about to shell out like $80,000 for a 2027 BMW If you’re interested, you can see five different BMW Art Cars displayed on its dashboard. I’m not sure about you, but it’s amazing to me.
This is only possible because of the Panoramic Vision Display of the X5 and iX5. It spans the length of every vehicle’s windshield in keeping with BMW’s Neue Klasse design language, and if you’re not interested in displaying lame information like a trip computer, outside temperature, media information, a compass or widgets for your AI personal assistant, and many other things, there’s plenty of room for important things like a handful of art cars.
BMW gives you six slots for your Panoramic Vision display widgets. While 18 of the 19 different widgets available are information-based, the last one is not, as this art is for cars.
full disclosure: BMW flew me to Spartanburg, South Carolina, put me up in a very nice hotel and fed me food, so I could see the new X5 in person.
art cars are art in a car
While it would have been nice for BMW to give us a full half-dozen art cars to choose from, we had to make do with only five, meaning one slot Sure Be open to other widgets. (There’s also always a speed readout, odometer, and battery charge section right in front of the driver.) In any case, the five art cars you get are pretty sweet. Here are the ones you can choose from:
Sure, you can only put one or two in there, but really, all five should be displayed at all times. This is a great list, but I won’t lie to you, I would have loved to see Andy Warhol’s M1, one of the early 3.0 CSLs, or one of the later race cars on this list. Perhaps more over-the-air updates will come. We can definitely keep our fingers crossed.
So, if you’re someone who hates technology but have somehow been tricked into buying a tech-packed X5, just throw art cars in there and you’ll feel a lot better. Of course, you can always leave that space empty, but who wants to do that? Plus, you get to see five authentic pieces of art, and considering how much people have complained about BMW’s styling over the past decade, it’s a win.
