After considering becoming a Methodist minister,[1] Bangle attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, earning a Bachelor of Science degree.

On February 3, 2009, Bangle announced that he was to quit both his position at BMW and the auto industry altogether, to focus on his own design-related endeavours.

[6] His styling themes have generated intense controversy among automotive designers, and have had a polarizing effect with respect to their visual cues.

Bangle himself did not (as is commonly believed) coin the phrase "flame surfacing" to describe his work; this can be attributed to a motoring journalist, and is probably the first time Deconstructivism has been adapted to automotive design.

Arguably the most controversial of Bangle and van Hooydonk's work was the E65 7 Series, a sharp contrast to the preceding E38 generation which was conservatively styled.

In fact, van Hooydonk's original 1998 sketch for the E65 was a much more radical sleek fastback, but the final design was toned down considerably to resemble a more conventional three-box sedan.