More often than not, a new-model-year facelift makes me say, “Yeah, that’s better.” And even more frequently than that, I think an all-new model drop is better looking than the “old” car of the same name. Like, that’s why they pay car designers the big bucks, right? To keep us looking, and keep us wanting the latest and greatest? “Cadillac is getting rid of tail fins!”
But a refreshed design or facelift doesn’t always achieve the desired result, beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that, and sometimes new or facelifted models seem to take a step backwards as well-intended designers try to move automobile styling forward.
As the topshot shows, one example that came to mind for me was how Acura took the perfectly handsome (though not exactly exciting) RL sedan and “upgraded” it for the 2009 model year with the “shield” grille design. Shield, right? If I’m not recalling that correctly, it’s because I always thought it looked like a beak. I didn’t love it when the look was grafted onto other Acura models, either.
When I asked the gang if any attractive-to-ugly situations came to mind for them, Thomas said all that needed to be said of the Hyundai Tiburon:
Indeed, its entire shit was fucked up. I didn’t love the first gen’s original look, but man, Hyundai really hold-my-beer’d that thing for the facelift.
Your turn: What Cars Went From Attractive To Uggo With A Bad Facelift Or New Model Year?
Top graphic images: Acura
This site DESPERATELY needs to enable pics in comments.
I’m surprised I’m the first to say this after 4 pages of comments:
The 2018 Aston Martin Vantage. Rightfully ridiculed upon release for unabashedly abandoning the hallmark Aston Martin grille and replacing it with a stretched version of the Mitsuoka Orochi catfish grille (itself called out by Matt Hardigree in 2009 as the ugliest grille) with Mazda Miata headlights.
Absolutely atrocious. If I remember correctly it was ‘adjusted’ the following model year and offered to purchasers of the 2018 model year.
Impala from the 7th to 8th gen. The 7th gen SS was a big RWD muscle car of it’s day with serious presence, the 8th gen, an also ran rental car.
Most of German premium, at some point in the last 15 years.
I don’t know if it’s as bad as the Acura grille debacle, but the 2015 S550 Mustang was a step backwards from the incredibly good looking 2014 model. Then the ‘25-‘26 cars kind of doubled down on the changes.
They aren’t bad looking cars, by any stretch, but they went from “oh, a Mustang!” to “oh, is that… oh, it’s a Mustang, okay.” Like, they look like the car you’d put in Grand Theft Auto with a name like “Stallyn” so as not to get sued. That sort of generic styling coupled with the blatty, raspy V8 sound from the Coyote’s altered firing order really turns me off of the newer cars.
1991-1997 Firebird. That beak that put on the 3rd gen and kept into early 4th gens was so ugly that the stank of it was in peoples minds when the gorgeous 98-02 refreshed/final firebirds corrected that blemish.
2025 Outback to 2026 Outback
Went from “oooh” to “uuck”
See, I am finding myself more to be in the camp of hating a new model, then when the new ones come out, liking the last one better. When I was younger, I especially felt that way about WRX’s. The bug eyes really dulled it. Then whatever you call the next ones came out and the bug eyes weren’t so bad. Rinse and repeat for a couple generations.
BMW has been the master of this since the turn of the century. The only car I prefer the new one over the old one is the e9X 3-series over the e46. Everybody professes love for the e46, but I always found them a little dumpy compared to the e36, and they were much worse mechanically than either the older or newer cars. The Bangle-mangle 5 and 7 completely lost the plot.
And let’s not even go down the road of discussing the bucky-beaver\naked mole rat BMWs of late. Mercedes has a few stinkers too. My S/W212 is not as good looking as the S/W211 was, though I will give them credit that the facelift in 2014 was definitely for the better both in appearance and in mechanicals. They could have about called it a new model rather than a facelift they changed so much.
2002 changeover from round tail lights to square in like 74ish was the first thing that came to mind… Does the Sprite’s change from bug/frog eye to not bug/frog eyed count as a facelift? If yes then that one too. I like the earlier 80’s Bronco with sealed beams a whole lot better than the later OJ spec with composites, but I wouldn’t say they ruined it…
The Acura beak was horrible. It ruined the TL, which I thought was a handsome car. We bought an MDX in ’18, once they got rid of it.
I think Lexus (and to a lesser degree, Toyota) made a huge mistake with their front-end styling when they went to the catfish grill treatment.
I liked the 2nd gen Honda CR-Vs (bought one). They kind of looked like a blocky Volvo wagon with the taillight treatment. I dislike the front-end treatment now.
All of the Germans have lost their way. And I really hope the new Jaguar doesn’t come to fruition.
But it’s not all awful. The new Prius and the Koreans (largely) are looking better than they used to.
The refreshed front clip of the 09-14 F-150. I thought the 04-08 models were clean and nice looking and a step back towards ‘truckish’ looks from the jellybean models without feeling overdone. But the 09 just looked forced and looking back on it, just looks like the beginning of the ‘Super Macho Muscular Gigantic Monstrosity’ front ends that all the full size trucks have these days
I thought Dodge/RAM were the first to do that. The bigger GMCs look awful now too.
I think you’re right, but this was Ford’s (IMHO) first foray into ugly front ends. All the trucks just look so busy and overdone
My ’92 Toyota pickup looked almost sleek without going to the jellybean extreme. The butch extreme that all of them, including Toyota, have gone to just inspire “compensating” jokes in my mind.
Can’t agree here, maybe it’s due to my buddies being a steaming pile of shit, but the 04-08’s always looked awkward. The 09-14 looked good, and more like the super handsome 09 Silverado.
Definitely agree with the ’92 Skylark and ’09 TL. I’m going to nominate the 2023 Outback. What was a beautiful, balanced new generation for 2020 went screwy with a refresh in ’23 – big, blocky wheel surround trim, dufus front end. The only thing worse is the new 2026…it’s no longer an Outback (lifted wagon) but an Ascent Jr.
Hyundai managed to fumble it twice on the same car, the facelift Genesis Coupe was a downgrade in every way, if not quite full fuggo. F-Type facelift was also a step in the wrong direction, but not quite ugly.
1992 Buick Skylark
The original Toyota Probox definitely got ruined by the 2022 facelift that was literally just that, a new face – one that looks like ass, but I guess some suit decided that the Probox needed to look modern.
The 2022 facelift makes it look like it ate a bad onion or something, the original is a handsome work truck.
The original was so basic, so zero-fucks-given, it could have been built in its original form for the next 2 decades and probably move the same amount of units every year. Pretty sure the facelift scored zero extra sales, and just meant spending money in tooling, training and whatnot (I’m not gonna say R&D, because I just don’t see any development, and I have serious doubts that any research went into this).
Any facelift that eschews popup headlights in favor of poorly-integrated fixed headlights. The worst offender is the Acura NSX. Second place goes to the Mitsubishi 3000GT.
C5 to C6 Corvette gets an honorable mention here, too
I thought about that, but that’s a generational change, not just a facelift. And the Corvette must be given credit for being the last model to finally surrender the popups. Well, tied with the Lotus Esprit anyway.
This is wrong, the C6 is pure automotive beauty to me. The C5 was trying to chase the Japanese look, and it turned out mediocre to me.
My comment was specifically around the headlights and the switch from popups. I like everything about the C6 except the headlights. To me, they look like GM decided at the last minute to remove the popups.
I mean, I love popups too, but the C6 has an iconic design. I can see what you’re saying with the last minute change, but it became an icon of a Vette even during its production. I’d say the C7 to C8, or C3 to C4, changes would be a good example of a downgrade if we are talking about downgrades from model year to model year
Thought of another one-
Any of the new Toyota 4×4’s look worse than the previous gen. I just traded in my 5th gen 4Runner, didn’t even consider a 6th gen for a replacement.
I also didn’t consider the Tacoma or Tundra, they’re both hideous as well. Definitely a big step backwards in the styling dept.
100% agree. Traded my ’93 pickup for a 3rd gen 4runner. When it was totaled I bought a 4th gen. Then my wife started having to make long commute on occasion for work so we sold it and bought a 5th gen… Every successive one has been a vastly better truck, but also slightly uglier that the one it replaced.
Off the top of my head, the Lexus “spindle” grille comes to mind. It looks hideous on everything, especially the big SUV’s. The GX460 in particular went from pretty good looking to “WTF??!!” in the span of a few model years. It started in 14, then they really doubled down on it for the 2020’s.
A buddy had a 2013 GX460 that was a good-looking vehicle, it started to go downhill after that.
Any time a company updates an existing design to fit a new corporate standard grill the result looks ungainly and awkward. The Acura RL is a great example. The Lexus GX refresh that added their predator grill is an even better example.
3rd gen S-Series, ’03 Cavalier/Sunfire gave exaggerated styling details or strange design touches to styling that didn’t really look bad – they were aging designs overall, but they probably could have left the exteriors alone like they did most of the other late 90s-era designs then.
Time has normalized them to me, but the heavy redesign for the 2008 Escape/Mariner/Tribute. I remember seeing the debut pics and didn’t think it was a serious design. The originals may have been between blandly attractive or inoffensive depending on your view, but the ’08 just looked cartoonish.
The 08 Escape made the thing look better IMO, but they were still huge pieces of shit.
Ford Scorpio .. .The Horror!!!