The comments here on Bangle really do drive home the "elephant in the room" problem that no one is talking about: If a car is conservatively styled to appeal to the most peopel possible, it's considered bland and derivative, and hated on by enthusiasts. if it is designed to step outside the box and NOT be conservative, it's roundly criticized as ugly and overstyled. Bangle was tasked (remember, he had been head of BMW's design center since '92) with breaking the mold and going in an etirely new direction. His team did so, coming up with design languages that were neither conservative, nor derivative. And he was roundly criticized for it.
So to you guys wanting something different and unique and moving design forward, are you willing to risk accepting designs that the mainstream finds ugly in order to do it? Why does it have to be ugly, you say? Because automotive design is a leanred process, not a natural one. We have to learn what looks good and that changes as we see more. And we also equate good looks with the vehicle role. A Ferrari 458 looks considearably different than a Range Rover Sport, but both are usually considered good looking vehicles. A BMW M3 looks considerably different than a '30 Deusenberg SJ, but both are considered attractive cars. A CRX looks pretty decent, as does a last gen Honda odessey. But juggle the features around only slightly and you end up with the Aztek, a fully functional vehicle that is universally panned for being too ugly to own, or the Bangle version, the Fiat Multipla.
And since designers have to live in a world that is 5-10 years in the future, they have to try and figure out what we, teh bying public, is going to accept 5 years before the buying public even knows about it. That's why it's so desirable to do retro. While it's harder to make a good retro design (not a reproduction, but a design that borrows from older cues while still being modern in detail), at least the designers already know the core styling was acceptable to the public. And what the designer thinks is radical, and acceptable, and even fun, the general public can say is horrendously ugly and unbuyable.