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
Chrysler 300.
While the original looked like a knock off Bentley, the refresh looked like a knock off 300.
I loved my 2000 VW Jetta (despite its sad, oil-burning 2.0 engine) and to this day I think it’s a good-looking car. Then came the 2005 revamp that made it look like a generic Japanese shitbox. In my opinion it never recovered.
1979 Firebird.
Legend has it, James (Rockford) Garner agrees. He got a new Firebird each season until the last, because he reportedly hated the nose of the ’79.
The Jag XJS went from perfection to “look what they did to my boy” (from the rear) in 1993.
Generation jump, not facelift, but Euro Ford Escort between 3rd and 4th gens. Very sad.
For a while in the 00’s I thought of the usual facelift designer over at Toyota thinking “can I make a taillight section clear and remove/add a slat in the grille?”
I probably like this one more than the average joe but still I thought the 6th generation Elantra’s facelift (the jack-o-lantern face) was a striking step down. I liked what they did with the era’s Sonata though, engines, immobilizer aside…
I’ll also shoutout the 2nd-gen Lexus GX’s second facelift for the 2020MY.
I liked the first two, the pre-facelift look (before the first facelift for 2014MY) is a smidge dopey in my eyes but it did have a better approach angle. I don’t think Lexus full-sending the spindle grille did it a lot of favors, but it sure fit into the lineup.
Ha, I should have scrolled down. We’re on the same page regarding the Elantra.
Cadillac Seville. ’76-’79 wasn’t inspired, but it was a clean design with a reserved style. Second generation ’80-’85 looked like the illegitimate offspring of a Chevy Citation and a 1950 Jaguar Mark V.
Mini (excuse me, MINI) Coopers after the R53.
Can we say Dodge Neon to Dodge Caliber?
The 04 Malibu took a bland but acceptable looking sedan and sharpened those curves into a dreadful looking pile. Then it got even worse when they punished our retinas with the Malibu Maxx a few years later. Woof.
The 04 Malibu was certainly not attractive but at least it didn’t make me nauseous. They replaced it with arguably the worst car of the 00’s, so you’re probably right that even though it was never attractive, the delta between 04 and 05 was so severe that it probably should win this award.
I honestly think the majority of facelifts look worse than the original vision. Even subtle changes like happened to my 2012 B7 Passat. It was a brand new design at the time and I thought that car looked pretty clean. Each iteration of Passat afterwards though, while still a fine looking car, looks worse (to me) than the one before it.
The modern Mustang. The 2007(?) looks the best to me.
I’m too tired to type out a bunch more, but there are a great many.
The second gen Durango.
First one was rugged and handsome. Next gen was was awkward with lines going nowhere except to a huge front underbite.
Mercedes post 2000 anything.
For me it was the ’91 Firebird beaklift. My reactions through the 3rd gen Firebird noses:
I think the were trying to evoke the Banshee show car (which I did love) but it just reminded me of someone making a face at a bad smell. The accompanying side cladding did not follow any body lines, and was oddly recessed/grooved on top to collect road grime and mud. I have seen more tastefully matching body kits from JC Whitney, Liberty Walk, and even Mansory.
Great comment. I thought the 1985 trans am convertible in white was peak gen 3. The 1991 left me feeling like it was a caricature, or something from the Cars movie. I never even considered they were trying to evoke the Banshee (which was awesome – I got to drive it once, about 100 yards from the door of the convention center to the Pontiac podium).
You know how when you’re like 16, and everyone’s trying the latest fashion trend, and your mother just looks at you, sadly shakes her head, and says “He’s such a handsome boy… why???”
The updated 2008 Ford Focus. Not only did it look like it got beaten with the ugly stick, Ford got rid of the best body styles… the hatchback and wagon. All that was left was a crappy looking sedan and they introduced the ugliest coupe in the market.
And yet they are cockroaches. I still see them everywhere, even in Corrosion Zone (no Powershift).
Jeep XJ Cherokee to KJ Liberty and then KL Cherokee.
I don’t see it yet, so how about the 3rd gen Mitsubishi Eclipse? Went from muscularly athletic to weirdly geo-mechanical (putting aside also ditching high-strung turbo 4s for sedate V6s of course).
It’s hard for me to describe, but the 3rd gen just looks… thicker than the 2nd gen. Just feels less sleek and sporty.
Drove that way too from what I recall. I had a boss in the 90s who would occasionally let me drive his second gen GSX, and I remember then later driving a third gen and thinking “what the hell happened to this car?!”
Man, I remember when that came out. The Eclipse was sleek turbo/AWD legend and they roll out that V6 powered bloated thing that looked like a 4/5th scale personal luxury coupe.
Who was it for? Did they think the Eclipse enthusiasts had aged out of the car already?
I remember thinking “this is a really odd choice for Mitsubishi…wonder if it means the lineup is going to be undergoing some sort of (bad) change?” Looking back, it’s kinda when Mitsubishi began its descent into the trough that it’s kinda just now climbing out of. I mean, it killed off the Lancer Evo almost without telling anybody!
I know most think the original was an abomination but I feel the PT Cruiser’s mid-cycle refresh didn’t do it any favors. The lower grille used to continue the upper grille to give the effect of the front bumper splitting it, in 2006 they revised the lower grille to be this big empty space under the bumper. Also scalloped the headlights which isn’t terrible but took away from the cleaner styling of the 1st gen where the headlights flowed with the fenders.
It just went from this fairly clean style with the prominent retro grille, to this discombobulated front end, changed for changes sake.
IIRC Michael Scott drove that version, right, after giving up his comparatively restrained Sebring.
TBH I never noticed any change. I always thought the last PT Cruiser off the assembly line was identical to the first.
Possibly every update to any BMW in the past 20 years. Except maybe a Z, not sure on those.
I’d go 30 years. The e36 was uglier than the e30, but the e30 was better looking than the e21, which was worse than the e9.
Actually, the e46 was better than the e36, and the e90 was about on par with the 46. The next one (f something?) had the shitty base motor but didn’t look too much different
And the e46 facelift improved on the original clip.
The E9 was an executive class car, you are looking for the 02, which is also better than the E21.
My comment was going to be, “Too many BMW models to list in one comment”.
I mean speaking of the Acura beak, the poor first gen RDX.
Just… ALL the Acura from that generation. They went from being handsome and somewhat desirable to being awkward and ugly, and since then they’ve morphed into anonymous lumps that look like they were taken from a low-polygon video game from 20+ years ago. Add in one of the most annoying gear selectors in the industry (was someone from the “Bop-It!” toy in charge of that development?) and they’re an easy pass.
The initial 2G MDX looked great with the dimpled shield that was framed in the grille. It tied beautifully as the SUV version of the 3rd Gen TL. The refresh gained the bucktooth and uncanny looks.
The split “plenum” that resembled a cheese grater didn’t look as bad as its brethren cars with the beak/eggtooth, true, and was an improvement over the surprised-robot look of the first gen. Parked next to a ZDX it was also much more palatable.
The successors since have become all the more bland and forgettable. Though I’ll give Honda kudos for the ultramarine blue they offer on them. Great color, though middling quality (in grand Honda fashion).
I’m not sure it qualifies since it had been out of production for a while before they brought back the name plate, but I’ll nominate the Alpha platform Camaro. The huge slab sided body and squished greenhouse on top were just never very appealing to me.
In 1996 Ford introduced a new F-150 that looked radically different than the previous generation. Which was great. It was sleek and modern whereas the old one was boxy and dated. But then, two years later, in 1998, they introduced a new Ranger and, for some reason, gave it a front fascia distinctly resembling that of the previous generation’s dated and boxy F-150!
You’re not wrong, but I’ll say they didn’t change the Ranger all that much for 1998. The amber front lights do indeed resemble the prior F-150, but also resembled the F-250+ Super Duty that came out, much to it’s credit. The 2001 model did bring in a bit more of the F-150’s look, and even showcased the 2004+ F-150’s design in its own way.
1973 GM Intermediates. All 4 of them went from beautiful Coke bottles to Baroque, overwrought barges with awkward greenhouses and monster bumpers.
Every Lexus when it got the spindle grille.
Every BMW when it got the stupid grille.
Except the LC500.
BMW X7 LCI. They did those stupid headlights.
I actually clicked the headline with the Tiburon in my head, and here it is. I thought the original 1st gen Tib was beautiful. Then they did THIS.
Yeah that mid-cycle facelift is rough. Fully redeemed by the 2nd generation which was and still is a beautiful car, especially with it’s own mid-cycle facelift the GK F/L2.
2020-2022 Outback. A relatively clean, handsome looking car for the 2020s. Then the 23-25 facelift added the crazy pinched zigzag headlights, an enormous gaping grille, and tiny beady bug-eye looking fog lights. It’s a hot mess. The new ‘26 is still an overwrought mess but it’s definitely an improvement over the ‘25.
Subaru’s design direction has been on a downhill course on Fugly Mountain hitting every bump, rock, and tree on the way since the “Hawkeye” Imprezas (not including the BRZ, which isn’t mainstream Subaru).
Lmao, you’re not wrong.
Subaru has always made sure to produce the ugliest vehicle lineup at any given point in time- It just so happens the entire automotive industry has been on a downward trajectory.
For what it’s worth I still have a soft spot for the first few years of the 3rd gen WRX STI. The base Impreza of that gen was god awful, but their intentions were in the right place.
https://transgold.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/SUBARU-IMPREZA-WRX-STi.jpg
Subaru expertly reacted to the accidentally attractive Outback and bludgeoned it for 2023, never losing sight of its Blindness 2026 Project and the return of the Outback to Subaru’s core ugliness values.
We see a similar thing unfortunately occur at various points with the Impreza and even the WRX, but Subaru is full of smart, capable people and the Forester and Ascent have been resolutely hideous throughout their commissions. The BRZ is left to the customer to uglify.
4th to 5th and then 7th to 8th BMW 5 series.
As I mentioned in Slack, Mazda never should have added a badge onto the front of the first-generation MX-5 Miata. It looks like a tiny stupid little nose.
Oh sorry man, I missed that
The “Eternal Flame” badge. Also known as the “Toilet Seat”. My ’95 must have gotten a new nose at some point because it didn’t have the badge and the front bumper wasn’t drilled for it. I wasn’t in any rush to install one!
I am hoping to replace my eternal flame with the Rev Limiter badge similar to the one in your profile pic (but in blue).
Yeah, I went for the badge and the matching keychain because I’m a dork. I’ve had the badge on the car for about five years now and it still looks perfect. Revlimiter makes good stuff… I’m kind of thinking about getting the “type RX-2” buttplate badge to replace the stock Mazda badge.
I’ve already done my gauges (Sterling), matching HVAC panel (Sterling), and the retro window switches. I want to do the front and rear badging, and a steering wheel badge once I get a Momo Prototipo.