Question of The Day: Do Facelifts Ruin Cars?

[cawimmer430]

This is a question which has been on my mind for some time now. I think it's obviously subjective as I tend to be a fan of the original designs but find myself put off by most (not all but most) facelifts.


Take for example the 1978-1979 Mitsubishi Galant Lambda / Sapporo Coupe. In its original 1978-1979 guise it looks pretty sharp, classy and elegant. The chrome applications really add elegance to it. Then in 1980 it received a makeover and ended up looking terrible, especially with the removal of the chrome and addition of plastic bumpers and so forth.





Mercedes in my opinion has a history of visually "ruining" cars with their facelifts. The worst offender is the R230 SL, which in its original form was inoffensive, elegant, sporty and handsome looking. The facelift... holy shit... when I first saw the pics I thought it was a joke!





What do you guys think?

[veeman]

Some facelifts make the car look a lot better.  The Lexus RX comes to mind.  IMHO each successive generation facelift has improved the looks of the car. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/1st.Lexus.RX.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/2022_Lexus_RX_450h%2B_AWD_%28Japan%29_front_view.jpg

[giant_mtb]

I think I actually prefer the facelifted version of that Mercedes.  Round, bubbly headlights didn't really age well, and they just remind me of the Jaguar X-Type.

Overall, I think there are good facelifts and bad facelifts, it's terribly subjective.

[giant_mtb]

Some facelifts make the car look a lot better.  The Lexus RX comes to mind.  IMHO each successive generation facelift has improved the looks of the car. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/1st.Lexus.RX.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/2022_Lexus_RX_450h%2B_AWD_%28Japan%29_front_view.jpg

Generational changes are different (and far more drastic) than mid-generational facelifts, though.  But, yeah, same thing...some are good, and some are bad. 

[veeman]

Probably a lot of facelifts look bad because of newer bumper and pedestrian safety standards.

[FoMoJo]

Regarding the SL, I do prefer the earlier version, the unique headlights, the more delicate grille and slightly rounded lines.  Also the unwrinkled hood.  I would say, as well, whenever a new attractive style emerges, the original Taurus or new edge design, subsequent facelifts are usually downhill from there.

[cawimmer430]

Some facelifts make the car look a lot better.  The Lexus RX comes to mind.  IMHO each successive generation facelift has improved the looks of the car. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/1st.Lexus.RX.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/2022_Lexus_RX_450h%2B_AWD_%28Japan%29_front_view.jpg

I think the RX facelifts did improve the looks big time, but overall I personally still feel that facelifts in general don't really improve the looks of a car. To me it feels like the designers are under stress to "change something" and come up with weird and sometimes silly/useless design changes.

[ChrisV]

Regarding the SL, I do prefer the earlier version, the unique headlights, the more delicate grille and slightly rounded lines.  Also the unwrinkled hood.  I would say, as well, whenever a new attractive style emerges, the original Taurus or new edge design, subsequent facelifts are usually downhill from there.

Taurus is an interesting case. Here's the ovoid version:





And the facelift of that same car (which I think looks MUCH better and less dated):

[ChrisV]

Regarding the SL, I do prefer the earlier version, the unique headlights, the more delicate grille and slightly rounded lines.  Also the unwrinkled hood.  I would say, as well, whenever a new attractive style emerges, the original Taurus or new edge design, subsequent facelifts are usually downhill from there.

Taurus is an interesting case. Here's the ovoid version:





And the facelift of that same car (which I think looks MUCH better and less dated):

[FoMoJo]

The design did recover somewhat after the Grouper stage.

[CaminoRacer]

Huh, never realized how many of the body lines stayed the same on those. The 4th gen looks a lot better

[r0tor]

I actually like the oval version better.  The refresh just looks completely bland vanilla

[GoCougs]

Modern facelifts/mid-cycle refreshes on models only ~5-6 years old are so slight I'm not sure they count.

It's when models linger for too long (10+ years) do the facelifts become notable - Mustang, Camaro, Corvette, (new) Challenge/Charger/300, pickups of yore - and then it's hit-n-miss for me (when it comes to styling):

Better:
1964 vs. 1969 Mustang (esp. fastback)
1979 vs. 1993 Mustang (esp. GT)
1984 vs. 1994 Corvette
2008 vs. 2023 Challenger/Charger/300

Worse:
1970 vs. 1981 Camaro (esp. Z28)
1993 vs. 2002 Camaro (esp. Z28)
1968 vs. 1982 Corvette
1970 vs. 1978 Nissan Z

[Eye of the Tiger]

I actually like the oval version better.  The refresh just looks completely bland vanilla

I always felt the original oval cars had better fit and finish, even if they were odd.