Unfortunate Facelifts.

[mattblack]

Argentinian Ford Falcon. Fom this:

 

 

To this:

 

[garycox]

I quite like that! Looks like a rubbish replica of a Mk2 Granada.

[Formula Autos]

De Tomaso Pantera.

 

From this:

 

Via a few facelifts.

 

To this:

[Wilko220]

From this...

 

...to this

[Rod/b]

 

[Rusty Pelican]

Bloke at work has one of these , What an ugly , rusty crock of shit it is too , Embarrassment to the Escort name .

 

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

 

[Pillock]

I like the big-bottomed Megane, and I thought it was a decent car (although not really on my radar)

My mum had an original P-plate Megane, a facelift W-plate and then the lardarse 03-reg one. The Mk2 was by far the best driving, most powerful and best specced but she realistically paid about the same for each. The original was typically french - bits fell off, electrical faults with the immobiliser, and random faults you wouldn't expect at sub-three years old.

 

I'd certainly consider one if it came up at the right price, a few more years they'll be firmly in shiter territory being french and funny looking.

[chaseracer]

 

Len, did you miss page 1...?

[Rod/b]

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Len, did you miss page 1...?

 

 

 

[chaseracer]

/\/\

 

Top comeback, sir!

 

[warren t claim]

 

 

Or is that the wrong way around?

[warren t claim]

 

[Renault18]

Oooops

 

Sorry - didn't expect to find fans of the Megane 2 on here! Seriously, after 40 or so Renaults, it is only the thought of the then new 03 plate that I bought in 2003 and put up with for 7 months of sheer hell that very nearly brought my Renault love to an end. When I bought it (and stupidly I had one with all the electrics) I can genuinely remember people stopping at looking at it, because they didn't exactly sell well to begin with and they were a really radical design. Suddenly, people who I knew bought one and just like me, every single one either switched the lights on in the driveway at night, set the alarm off, opened the sunroof automatically even with the switch off, wouldn't let them in, wouldn't start or was just generally useless. Plus the rear legroom and bootspace was just a joke. To make matters worse, the previously well mannered 1.6 16v was played around with and fuel consumption was a joke - providing that the dephaser pulley was working and the engine actually ran.

 

I've never known so many people who'd never had an opinion about Renault/never had a word said against them, state that they'd never buy another Renault. Sadly I know of a couple of people who gave the Megane a second chance, only to have those break as well!

 

Still. . .might one a go in a few years time

 

My entry for unfortunate facelifts?

 

Is actually the rearlift - backend of a Skoda Estelle after they updated the car.

[CIH]

Renault do seem to enjoy questionable facelifts;

 

 

[Wilko220]

 

[Wilko220]

 

 

They made things ok again with the 800 facelift though...

[ProgRocker]

Allright they changed the name as well but it was really a facelift.

 

Is it just me or does the Morris Ital look like the offspring of an unholy union between a Volvo 240 and a Marina?

 

During Citroen's 'bland phase' during the 1990s I thought the Saxo facelift looked crap (tacked on) but the Xsara one looked good. Mind, I thought the original Xsara looked OK anyways. Perhaps Citroen should have invested more in quality control than redesigning headlights and grilles.

[Pete-M]

 

 

They made things ok again with the 800 facelift though...

 

How can you even think that? 800s are crap on a monumental scale. They're awful things that should never have happened, like Vectras. Rover had the chance to put things right and they screwed up spectacularly by ever building an 800. Going to Honda for lessons on how to build cars was a good idea, letting Honda talk you into making a FWD barge with a torque-free 2.7 and very limited suspension travel was a baaaaad idea.

 

No amount of wood, leather, toys and chrome was ever going to put the 800 right as Rover proved with the late ones. Strangely enough, it never did put 'em right. Plod having loads of them doesn't mean they were any good - they were cheap. Tony Pond thrashing a modified (stiffer suspension, slicks, loud exhaust, no cat) one around the IoM doesn't prove a thing either, he'd have driven anything built in Britain. He'd probably have managed a 100 mph lap in a Metrocab.

 

Honestly, the 800 should have been examined by someone with a brain back in 1985 and chucked in the bucket of doom before being allowed to help ruin the Brit car industry for good. Unfortunately, brains were obviously in short supply at BLHQ as the Metro, Maestro, Montego etc all managed to be built as well.

 

How anyone can look at a late SD1 Vitesse and then think "Oooh, that'd be so much better with all the style taken out, FWD, and without the V8" is a mystery to me. Not that the SD1 was perfect, it was miles from perfection even at the end of its life when they'd ironed out most of the problems, but to replace it with the 800 is like going to the Sistine Chapel armed with a load of Artex to improve the ceiling.

[Negative Creep]

The Rover 800 isn't exactly a facelift of the SD1 either

[Pete-M]

The Rover 800 isn't exactly a facelift of the SD1 either

 

Indeed. It's worse than that, they replaced the SD1 with it. Honestly, they should have been rounded up and shot for that.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

 

Would.

[Wilko220]

How anyone can look at a late SD1 Vitesse and then think "Oooh, that'd be so much better with all the style taken out, FWD, and without the V8" is a mystery to me. Not that the SD1 was perfect, it was miles from perfection even at the end of its life when they'd ironed out most of the problems, but to replace it with the 800 is like going to the Sistine Chapel armed with a load of Artex to improve the ceiling.

 

Umm, that was kind of my point!

[Timewaster]

How can anybody think that THIS:

 

Is an improvement on THIS:

 

Another one I saw today

 

 

Became:

 

And to save all that image searching, copying and pasting..

 

Every FIAT facelift ever!

Can anyone come up with a Fiat facelift that didn't look worse than the original?

Anyone would think the cars were designed by Giugiaro and facelifted by Daewoo

[55bloke]

I thought a facelift was a minor tweaking of an existing design? Many of these are total redesigns that just happen to carry the same name in order to keep loyal buyers. And, in defense of the Rover 800, my brother has a few Stirling Coupes, and seems rather passionate about them! Aesthetically, they seem to be a match for the SD1 to me. Where's Lord Sterling?

[Vinylseats]

Not "unfortunate" as such, but I've always preferred the earlier Triumph Toledo/2000 mk2 rear to the later Dolomite/2000 mk2 rear.

 

 

 

vs.

 

 

[sprig]

 

[Lord Sterling]

 

 

They made things ok again with the 800 facelift though...

 

How can you even think that? 800s are crap on a monumental scale. They're awful things that should never have happened, like Vectras. Rover had the chance to put things right and they screwed up spectacularly by ever building an 800. Going to Honda for lessons on how to build cars was a good idea, letting Honda talk you into making a FWD barge with a torque-free 2.7 and very limited suspension travel was a baaaaad idea.

 

No amount of wood, leather, toys and chrome was ever going to put the 800 right as Rover proved with the late ones

 

Fair enough. Though I'd much rather have an 800 over a Jag. The later 800 felt much better to drive than the 1st, though I like the first better.

 

Not bad, I wouldnt mind.....

 

 

 

Driven several of these facelift Jags. One of the most unfeeling pieces of crap I've driven.

[Spottedlaurel]

Too many replacement models in this thread!

 

Pictureless nominations from me:

 

P11 Primera, circa 1999 when it became P11-144. I spoke to someone on the design team for this, before I saw it, and he was really enthusiastic about it. Then I saw it. In fairness, having owned one for two years it doesn’t end up looking that bad, but it’s still not great.

 

Datsun added sloping grilles and bigger bumpers to a few models about 1980, in an Ital-like manner. The N10 Cherry was probably the worst affected of these. Luckily they made the Laurel of the time (like I own) look more like a Cadillac, so that’s OK.