seven car facelifts that actually made them worse usually facelifts are a great thing for a car to have done everyone loves an updated and a new version of the car they already love and quite often a series of small changes can transform a car from good to great there are some facelifts however that appear to have gone so wrong that you wonder how they pass testing here are seven facelifts that made the car worse in my opinion of course.
1 number one I owned I’d tip Iran
first launched in 1996 the Hyundai
Tiburon was a sporty if slightly bland
coupe a it’s front-wheel drive
underpinnings are hardly a recipe for
driving pleasure but you can’t deny that
this generation is a good-looking car
surprisingly it’s younger facelifted
version didn’t follow in his footsteps
instead transforming from a sleek coupe
a to a bug-eyed mess underneath both tip
neurons are based on the rather dull
Elantra platform but the are deep su
generation gained a set of headlights
only a mother could love while some
people thought that it looked like a
fish others thought it was like an
insect there aren’t many people around
who thought this was a good thing in
either case clearly this refresh didn’t
make sales history either with a Ando
going back to a more traditional design
for the generation 2 car launched in
2001.
2 number two Fiat Multipla it’s one
thing for a car to be weird and another
for it to be boring famously thought of
as one of the ugliest cars in existence
the 1998 to 2003 Fiat Multipla was a
quirky if slightly misunderstood car its
looks were never designed to wow people
however it had cut an interesting shape
among the other boring boxes it was in
competition with unfortunately in 2004
Fiat execs must have realized that weird
doesn’t tend to sell very well and
backed out of the interesting design
completely what was left in the
generation 2 car was a boring box that
lacked any redeeming features which
funnily even fewer people seemed to want.
3 number three Subaru Impreza
the first generation impress serve walls
and remains somewhat of a style icon
with its famous rally wins and nineties
box types styling
it’s no wonder it’s gone down in history
books is a great car believe it or not
so the first generation was launched in
1992 a whopping 25 years ago when the
second generation car was launched
despite having superior driving dynamics
and technology it failed to capture some
of the magic of the original commonly
nicknamed the bug eye and then below by
this generation lacked some of the
aggression and ruggedness that the first
did so well fortunately there was a
third facelift in 2005 which brought
back the mean look that we all love
nicknamed the Hawkeye.
4 number four Honda NSX
the NSX wasn’t exactly ruined by
this facelift as luckily it still looks
good but for the sake of regulation
Honda were forced to change the
distinctive pop-up headlights on their
famous NSX T a box standard fixed units
whilst they could have made them look a
lot worse the new lights failed to
capture some of the magic that made the
old one great the facelift does make the
car look more up-to-date rather than
being stuck in the early 90s but which
would you rather have the old ones or
the new I don’t think I’d turn down
either to be honest.
5 number five Ford Scorpio if you’re American
you may have never even heard of this
car for the rest of us however the
Scorpio was a large comfortable saloon
and estate car designed for cruising up
and down the motorway whilst the first
generation car could never exactly be
called handsome it’s Ordinary features
were attractive enough and hardly
offensive to anyone who likes cars when
the second generation came out however
it caused quite a stir for motoring
journalists and customers alike although
Harvey the voice of reason
Jeremy Clarkson wrote in the times at
the time that this car had village idiot
features and a loopy face not exactly a
compliment also from the top gear lineup
Richard Hammond and James May described
it as gopping board realize that they
had perhaps gone too far and release an
updated version in 1997 didn’t exactly
help that much and the Scorpio was to be
killed off a year later anyway.
6 number six Pontiac Sunfire the 1995 to 2001 Sunfire
could never be called a pretty car but
its looks were distinctive for sure and
really portrayed the sporting nature of
the vehicle the latest version once
fire was a good improvement although
with a slightly riced front bumper
generation 2 car was really a sign that
son files on its way out
the facelift model only lasted two years
largely due to market demands but also
the fact that the monoblock front
headlight design didn’t go down very
well with customers their futuristic
design language for this facelift was
really too much too late
marking the end of the Sun fire for good.
7 number seven saab 9-5 facelifts normally
improve the car often by changing a few
little things at a time that add up in a
big way the original saab 9-5 is a great
looking car that’s obviously a Saab the
saab 9-5 facelift in 2006 was downright
weird though although the car had some
positive changes such as the more
up-to-date from bumper and grills it
also gained what appeared to be a pair
of glasses the neat headlights were gone
and were replaced with a slightly tacky
chrome trim piece around headlights and
the grille the Saab gained a more
Germanic style to it but perhaps left
behind some other true Saab character
that we all loved so there you are
which cars did I missed let me know I
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