Since buying a 2014 381i BMW Sports Touring, I've been looking a lot at
the styles of the BMW's I see on the street. It seems that the kidney
grill changed in 2014, slightly, but importantly.

The front of the car slopes down slightly, making the kidney grills look
more like nostrils, sniffing the road. I think this is a big improvement
over the previous years, where the kidney grill is just kind of boring,
though not as huge as it was during the bad styling years.

The most obvious way to recognize 2014 BMW is the headlights are
hexagonal and no longer round, but the difference in the grill is a
subtle, more attractive change.