I’ll start with the Porsche 997, the 996 looked alright imo, but it looks “like a 90s Porsche”, the 997 made it look sleeker and more modern. Still looks good today.
As for cars that looked worse after a facelift? Maybe the facelifted 6th gen Camaro? The 6th gen looked great pre-facelift, but they did something weird with the headlights and now it looks so-so…
Lexus IS, the facelift is PERFECT
I think people are confusing facelift for generational changes.
For a mid-cycle update with a big improvement, I’d go with the 4th generation Firebird. Those 98-02 ones look so much better than the 93-96 ones.
For the worst “facelift”, I’d go with the 2nd generation Impreza. Bug-eye to blob-eye was okay, but the additional facelift to hawk-eye was… woof.
You don’t like the hawk eye impreza? How come?
The 2013 Chevy Malibu was given an immediate face-lift for 2014, which definitely improved its looks over its super drab original design.
The 2nd generation Saab 9-3. Pre facelift, facelift. IMO the facelift still looks pretty modern.
Ah, that’s a good one.
Fiat Multipla, Mk2, the facelift. Looks…almost standard then, but keeps the large windows. Nice side effect: The pre-FL design has caused the facelift to be almost forgotten, making them nice and cheap.
I’m biased but I greatly prefer the E38 facelift over prefacelift. That said, I love them both. E38 the world baby
Mk7 to Mk7.5 Golf. Especially the GTI and R, the taillights are really nice on the facelift. The LED headlights for both versions look equally good however.
The Aston Martin DB12 is essentially a facelifted DB11. I never loved the DB11’s front end, but I’ve finally grown used to it, and now they release the DB12, and my god, I can’t believe how the same person who designed both of those cars’ rear end (they look the same), and other models like the One-77 came up with THAT front end. It’s terrible.
And I know that what I’m about to say will be sacrilegious to a lot of people, but I often think cars that lose their pop up headlights look instantly better. For example, I always thought the original Honda NSX looked better with fixed headlights, even though the image of a pre-facelift model is undeniably legendary.
The 2013 civic was a huge upgrade from the 2012
Some companies like Audi and Mercedes don’t really do facelifts because they didn’t mess up the first time. Usually BMWs look worse after facelifts (eg. E46, 7 series when they slapped the big grille on), and some companies like Toyota always plan for very dramatic facelifts.
Corvette, in both ways. Some models looked better, current models look stupid af
i prefer the 14-15 silverados to the 16+. went from retro looking ish to too futuristic
tesla model S: looked better after facelift
997.1/987.1 -> 997.2/987.2: looked better after facelift but idk if its a subconscious bias knowing the .2s don’t have IMS & bearing
The lexus ls430 facelift looks a million times better. The pre facelift looks too blobby but I still kinda love it
