Automotive Facelifts - For Better or Worse

[RandomCarGuy17]

The blue helps a bit with its looks, but those headlights are still ruining it for me. It makes the front end look squished.

The facelift (for 2011MY I believe) became too similar to the lesser trim WRX to the point where plenty of people could disguise their WRXs as STIs. It certainly improved the looks of the lower trim WRX, but the STI felt less unique. The pre-facelift "narrow body" WRX looked terrible when it came out.

Can concur on this from my end, I remember that I would see WRXs and mistake them for STis until seeing the badge. Though on another note, I like the facelifted STi more than the pre-facelift as I just thought it looked mean.

 

[Centroid]

The facelift fixed the Visa's worst feature imho, its face.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

Okay, here's a French car that I think looked worse with its facelift, the Citroen Xsara.

The late 90s VTS here for instance looks pretty nice and clean.

and then the update came around in the early 2000s to ruin the front with the enlarged grill and vertical headlights. The styling choices on the front once again make it looks squished, like the front end was designed for a bigger car than it is. Plus I think the painted trim makes the side look a bit plain.

 

[05XR8]

Look like they updated it to combat this:

 

[VXR]

The Xsara facelift predates the C-Class sports hatch, I think.

 

[05XR8]

The Xsara facelift predates the C-Class sports hatch, I think.

Appears to be 2000 for the Citroen and 2001 for the Mercedes-Benz. Citroen would have known the Mercedes was coming to market and prepared accordingly.