New Year's is a magical time of the year where everyone gets a pass to reflect on their errs of the past year and relieve themselves of guilt by hitting the reset button, promising to change their flawed ways by the same time next year. For automakers the process takes a bit longer, about once for every model's product cycle, which takes an average of seven years. BMW was widely reprimanded for building the ugly as heck 5 Series GT, but now that it's killed the hatchback off in favor of a 6 Series GT, it has the opportunity to fix things.

Rendering artist X-Tomi Design takes a crack at it and we like the result. There wasn't anything inherently wrong with the 5 Series GT, especially given the fact that it kept many of the 5er's best features while adding to its utility with the obvious storage space in the back. The only problem with the enlarged hatchback rear end is that rather than integrate it seamlessly into the sleek lines of the 5 Series sedan, BMW attached a boxy SUV-like opening at the rear, making the stern of the 5er look like a tumor that's grown to worrisome proportions. While it doesn't sell too hotly in the US, Chinese buyers gobble up the current 5 Series GT. Still, the opportunity remains.

The 6 Series GT is slated for release in 2018, and with the aesthetic bar set high by the 6 Series Gran Coupe, we expect to see a good-looking and functional hatchback that properly replaces the 5 Series GT and ends BMW's streak of making highly questionable design decisions. X-Tomi Design took inspiration from the new 5 Series, which is likely telling of the direction that BMW's design is heading, but also played with hope that there will be a 6 Series GT from the M division. If the spiritual successor to the 5 Series GT looks like this and goes like it has a rocket hidden under the hatch, then BMW will be taking a massive evolutionary step forward. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like BMW went this direction.