Successful facelifts

[Mrcento]

 I have another proper obscure 1, and it's from a company that often butchered facelifts 😂

Hyundai Terracan.

The early ones were full on Korean knock off of a Japanese design over the phone levels of fuss. The Grill in particular with the vertical slats was awful and somehow managed to make it look cross eyed as well as toothy, the bumper with the weird cutout and horizontal slat with a big pillar down the centre and large foglights that didn't even seem to fit the even larger holes for them didn't work, nor did the bulbous and dated rear lamps with random shaped gingercators (only ones on the car, every other indicator was clear) and afterthought reflectors at a weird position, and circular reverse light on what was a big flat squared off arse, making the back look crosseyed as well......

The facelift however, whist not making it pretty, at least made it 'work' in a less offensive way. Front got a de-toothed grille, and whilst it wasn't that nice, it was a big improvement, Front bumper is way more cohesive, squared off fogs, a deeper, mesh grille rather than slats and the sold bar across the top somehow added a bit more toughness look rather than just cheap. Became sort of a knock off Lexus crossed with a Land Cruiser Colorado, Rear sort of ended up a different type of Japanese knock off, looked very like an overgrown Subaru Forester, but much better for it. Reflectors moved to a place that lined up, an infill panel on the bootlid made it a touch less featureless etc.

And what it kinda looked like if you squinted hard enough....

[FakeConcern]

When I bought a Volvo C30 I was particularly looking for a facelift one as I think it does look even better than the original which looks great anyway...

 

[J-T]

I always though the facelift to the Shogun/Pajero where they added the box arches looked good

[LightBulbFun]

a relatively minor one but I have always found the TX4 looked better then the TX1/TX2 that came before it

 

TX1/TX2

and a TX4

later TX4's then this also had a round grill badge which I think works even better as seen on the left, I think certainly however the main thing is the deeper radiator grill and round indicators fit much better with the general FX4 style they where going for then what they did with the TX1/2 originally

also along similar lines, I have always felt the face lifted rear end of the 1969+ FX4's with ADO16 rear lights looked much better

then the original style they had with very dainty almost incomplete rear lights and amusing teddy bear indictor ears!

[goosey]

17 hours ago, J-T said:

I always though the facelift to the Shogun/Pajero where they added the box arches looked good

I used to get a lift to school occasionally in a Red over Silver SWB facelift shogun which was brand new at the time, one of the happiest memories of my school life 

[lesapandre]

3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

a relatively minor one but I have always found the TX4 looked better then the TX1/TX2 that came before it

 

TX1/TX2

and a TX4

later TX4's then this also had a round grill badge which I think works even better as seen on the left, I think certainly however the main thing is the deeper radiator grill and round indicators fit much better with the general FX4 style they where going for then what they did with the TX1/2 originally

also along similar lines, I have always felt the face lifted rear end of the 1969+ FX4's with ADO16 rear lights looked much better

then the original style they had with very dainty almost incomplete rear lights and amusing teddy bear indictor ears!

Those early FX4 had smoked-glass back windows too. They were badged as Austin up to 1982.

[hairnet]

mk2 cavalier

(sorry @Jon )

montego also

[egg]

Visa.

[hairnet]

Just now, egg said:

Visa.

Apart from the fucking engine /rant

[MiniMinorMk3]

The kindergarten look.

The evil twin

[Austin-Rover]

18 hours ago, hairnet said:

mk2 cavalier

(sorry @Jon )

montego also

The middle facelift of the Mk2 Cavalier with the chipcutter grille was the best of the three.

 

[egg]

Sad DAF

Happy Volvo

[Muniphobia]

10 hours ago, Austin-Rover said:

The middle facelift of the Mk2 Cavalier with the chipcutter grille was the best of the three.

 

The later facelift included a covering over the front valance, I can remember in the late 80s and early 90s a lot of the cars that had their front valances exposed used to get stonechipped and would start to look scabby where the rust took hold on the front and it was common to see a 5-6 year old Cavalier with the front valance bubbling up with rust.  This was true of other cars like the Nova and Mk3 Escort etc that also gained full depth bumpers with a facelift.

[New POD]

16 hours ago, Austin-Rover said:

The middle facelift of the Mk2 Cavalier with the chipcutter grille was the best of the three.

 

That yellow one looks like a very early SR without front spoiler. 

My pre-facelift Sri had one like the picture at the bottom, but the grill of the Yellow SR

On 03/07/2024 at 22:24, hairnet said:

mk2 cavalier

(sorry @Jon )

montego also

I also once had a preface lift CDi but the lower front valance was a later post face lift one (I assumed a front smash at some point) 

But the rear facelift that most people forget was the marmite calibre.  

Had one of those too.  My theory was that irmscher had over ordered on the bodykit so vauxhall agreed to let tickford glue them to a few CDi models with an SEH engine. I think 50% of the 500 built ended up with either an XE or an LET.  There's probably about 15 left. 

[adw1977]

12 hours ago, New POD said:

That yellow one looks like a very early SR without front spoiler. 

Yes, albeit without the SR badge (transfer?) on the front wing.

[warren t claim]

On 03/07/2024 at 20:14, lesapandre said:

Those early FX4 had smoked-glass back windows too. They were badged as Austin up to 1982.

And no interior rear view mirror.

[Unknownfnch]

I’m going to say the Alfa 147, I feel the facelift was miles better than the original. Just made it a sharper looking car

 

[caffeine]

Long time lurker/ first time poster here, er…hello 🙂

 Always found the whole ‘facelift’ trope quite interesting, in theory It should update/improve the appearance of ageing models…in theory. Of course in practice the changes are often …misguided, to say the least; change for the sake of change, heavy front end restyles that end up messing up the design cohesion with rest of the car or the ‘corporate face’ approach resulting in awkward attempts to graft styling cues from newer models onto older body styles that don’t suit them at all, or the main aim just being an opportunity to cut costs (See Rover’s ‘Project Drive’).

Certainly a hard disagree from me for some of the nominations here; The Discovery3 was a relatively handsome thing with a sort of purposeful utilitarianism, ruined in its transition to Discovery4 by layers of chintzy fussy-ness and ‘bling’ touches, not least the 'cheese-grater' grill - it went from something that wouldn’t look out of place at a country club to something more at home in a mid-2000s rap video, surprised they didn’t fit ‘spinners’ as standard.

Also much prefer the more taut, restrained original front end stying of the Volvo C30, to the one with ‘droopy’ restyled front end, which, to my eyes looks inelegant and mis-proportioned.

Probably a more controversial one, but I think the original Jaguar XF looks better than the facelift, much more distinct/ characterful - an interesting new design language that seemed to move on from ‘old-timey' pastiche while still seeming ‘on brand’ for Jaguar, sort of modern yet retro - the facelift while not disastrous was a definite step towards ‘blandification’ and I think the ‘fairy light’ style DRLs actually make it look more dated than the original.

Similar story with the Alfa 147 - the restyled headlights moved it from quirky/ characterful to bland and generic. I suppose the most infamous example of a ‘bottle out’ facelift might be the FIAT Multipla.

I’m actually struggling to think of a facelift, a substantial one at least, that wasn’t a step backwards or didn’t look in some way wrong, but I am resolved to have at least one nomination for this thread, although there’s plenty of material for the other one…

[adw1977]

55 minutes ago, caffeine said:

change for the sake of change

I think this is true of many facelifts.  It doesn't matter if the car looks better, as long as it looks different. 

Manufacturers can't have the owner of a three year old car visiting their dealer, considering trading it in for a new one, only to find that the current version looks the same!  They need the owner of the three year old car to feel that their car is obviously not the current model, their neighbours will all know it's not the current model, as will their colleagues in the work car park.

Edited to add, welcome to the forum caffeine.  Do introduce yourself in the new members thread!

 

[Blue 850]

Triumph 2000, the Mk1 styling  was perfect for the 1960s and the Mk2 just shouts 1970s

[adw1977]

Similarly the Triumph 1300, which originally bore a clear family resemblance to the original 2000, had an effective facelift to make the Toledo and Dolomite.

[ETCHY]

Triumph Herald is another, the revised nose on the 13/60 Herald works brilliantly.

Vitesse was a cool change/ facelift of the basic Herald shape too.

[High Jetter]

34 minutes ago, ETCHY said:

Triumph Herald is another, the revised nose on the 13/60 Herald works brilliantly.

Vitesse was a cool change/ facelift of the basic Herald shape too.

I agree the slanted bonnet is nice, but I like the 1200 look too, especially on the coupe

[ETCHY]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

I agree the slanted bonnet is nice, but I like the 1200 look too, especially on the coupe

Tbh I always thought a 13/60 coupe would've looked rather nice.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, ETCHY said:

Tbh I always thought a 13/60 coupe would've looked rather nice.

Never was tho, IIRC? Convertibles look great in either form.

[LightBulbFun]

13 hours ago, ETCHY said:

Triumph Herald is another, the revised nose on the 13/60 Herald works brilliantly.

Vitesse was a cool change/ facelift of the basic Herald shape too.

going to have to respectfully dissagree  I have always found the face lift of the Herald too aggressive  , to me the Herald is a cute/sedate little car, so giving it "angry eyes" just never sits right with me, the slant on the bonnet makes it look like its pulling an angry, but it looks so disingenuous with the rest of the car 

but I wonder if I am unique in that view point? during one of the zoom calls or Autoshite FoD gatherings, I mentioned that I did not like the angry face look of later Heralds and people looked at me funny LOL

[Nullzwei]

Facelift sacco panelled w201 190e's & d's a better looking car than the pre facelift cars imo. The pre facelifts had more interesting interior cloth trim though.

[caffeine]

Volkswagen possibly do this better than most;

The circa-2000 Passat B5-5.5 facelift, to my eyes, was pretty transformative. With a number of subtle changes, not at odds with the existing proportions, changed a rather slab-ish and dated thing into something much more distinguished that could enter the 21st century without embarrassment - a design that I still think looks good today.

B5


B5.5

[egg]

I think the RCZ one works as it takes it from 'generic Pug face' to something a little more suited to the model.

[egg]

On 28/06/2024 at 10:17, Metal Guru said:

Fiesta they got right first time then made it worse to the Mk4 before improving it again. 

agree