I’m a bit of a contrarian when it comes to car
styling. I love 70’s cars, for example. I miss when a high length-to-height ratio was advertised as a positive trait. I prefer sedans and station wagons to sports cars. I wish cars still had
hood ornaments, chrome trim and whitewalls (btw, I’m 28 36, not 75). So I get frustrated a lot when car styling
changes sometimes.
In order to trim this list, I am only including
year-to-year changes, not revivals or continuations in other countries as
captive imports.
As much as I’m tempted to bitch about how
bland the
Holden Caprice was or how ugly the
2000 Impala was, how much I dislike the new
Camaro and
Challenger , or how the
Sable changed to look like a child's drawing of an Audi A6, after being known as something else, or how the
I30 didn't look as good as the
J30. I’m not going to
include them on the list.
So here comes
some independent thought and opinion!
NB: This is an old article that has awkward formatting and a couple obsolete rank numbers on a couple pictures.
The Civic was a nice looking car, but it became more generic and doughy, even if still decent. The
next model after that looks even worse in both ways.
DID GET BETTER?
See below.
27.
It had a good sports sedan look and the newer proportions make it look more pathetically small.
26.
I didn't think it was that good looking, but the newer model looks bad and it even seems to have a molestache.
DID IT GET BETTER?
The styling got even more
grotesque, but the
Prius C looks okay.
25.
The previous Q didn’t have the best fascia, but its shape
was sleek and stately with a C-Pillar that smoothly flowed into a generous
trunk. It’s what the 90’s Mercedes
should have looked like. Then it changed
into the more blob-like, generic, trendy Japanese sports sedan shape. Still, the fascia was improved greatly. The grill is aggressive and the headlights
look like rocket launchers, which is awesome.
DID IT GET BETTER?
N/A (Discontinued)
Unpopular opinion but I think 59 Cadillacs are overstyled monstrosities.
DID IT GET BETTER?
Definitely. It got progressively more tasteful.
23.
It went from decent-looking to fat and generic.
DID IT GET BETTER?
The
2005 was a big improvement, and distinctively futuristic. See below for what came afterwards.
22.
An under appreciated beauty turned actually bland as it continued in Australia.
DID IT GET BETTER?
No, last model.
21.
A graceful, underrated design that was "improved." I also rented one once and wasn't a big fan.
DID IT GET BETTER?
Slightly, but not as good as as the first.
20.
Still ok, but the newer Saabs looked bland until the
2010 9-5.
19.
This is kind of low on the list, because the 2000 Seville
isn’t a bad looking car.
It’s just that
it looks like a 92-00 Seville that got hit by the minimalism stick.
With car styling, a little goes a long way
for me.
It smoothed out the edges in a
way that looked bland, made it look slightly less sleek, and robbed the model
of the healthy amount of ornamentation needed on a Cadillac.
Still, it must have been worth it.
Despite the similar appearance, the 2000
Seville
passed the IIHS offset crash test where the previous model
failed miserably.
So it’s got it where it
counts.
DID IT GET BETTER?
If you count the pointless
2005 STS, which looked like a
larger, less edgy, CTS, then it got worse.
This car isn’t too bad-looking either. In fact, it’s actually much sleeker looking
that the previous model. Still, the
previous model is pretty much the beautiful iconic James Bond car with
different taillights. There’s not much
comparsion. Also the loss of the
signature grill hurts, too.
DID IT GET BETTER?
It kinda got worse (
a lot worse).
You can see why Bond stopped using them.
Then Astons became beautiful again with the
Vanquish.
This "improvement" robbed the Esprit of the edge, but it looks ok.
DID IT GET BETTER?
The
2010 concept looks good, but sadly came to nothing.
Although a lot of people complained that the Charger was
supposed to be a coupe like its namesake (maybe they should have named it the
Monaco or the Coronet, but that wouldn’t have had the mainstream nostalgic
appeal), I like large sedans.
One thing
I liked on the ’06 was how the body was raised up in the area between the rear
wheel and the C-Pillar (I call it the car’s “hip”).
It reminds me of the
pear-shaped styling on some classic Dodge sedans, and it’s a look that I absolutely love.
My (former) car had it, too.
In order to be more retro in the name of the
old Charger they unfortunately got rid of that.
I also like the ‘06’s taillights better.
DID IT GET BETTER?
N/A (Current Model)
The previous Accord was kinda fat and bulbous, but it has
a charm.
It was distinctive and
futuristic, with lines that where smooth. I may be old-school, but I like progressive styling when it's done well.
Oddly enough, the 2008 model looks like an attempt to make it looks more
mainstream and inoffensive, and succeeds in looking hideous. It's the automotive equivalent of bad Neo-eclectic architecture.
Not of the lines flow; it looks like it was
already in an accident.
In other words,
it looks like a BMW E60 (which I’ll get to).
I’ll take the opportunity to point out that I’m the only person who
actually loves the look of the
Accord Crosstour: it has a sleek front end, a
grill that’s aggressive without sloping down too much, and it’s one of the few
crossovers that actually look good to me.
Everyone else thinks it’s hideous, but since Obama got reelected, I’ve
officially given up any pretense of understanding how other people think.
DID IT GET BETTER?
The old one was generic, but the new one is fat. The 2000's saw companies making compacts that looked like bloated, formless blobs on wheels.
DID IT GET BETTER?
New new model is still chubby, but
looks better
13.
A nice smooth shape (the
J30 looked better) changed to a generic car with the back end chopped off.
DID IT GET BETTER?
Yes, the
2001 model was an improvement but not too well shaped. The 2006 model looks great, but more on that later...
12.
The 90’s Mercedes look ok, but they simply can’t hold a
candle next to the stately, sublime elegance of the previous models. The flowing lines and brightwork of the Mercedes
had been replaced by an amorphous, blob-like look.
DID IT GET BETTER?
A little.
Newer Mercedes look better (I actually like the
new S-Class; its wheel wells remind me
of 30’s cars), but unlike BMW, which has recovered beautifully from the Bangle
Era, Mercedes has mostly failed to recapture its former elegance.
11.
This is a recent disappointment considering that the 2016 Civic is on my shortlist of next cars to buy. It was a rare example of edgy futurism done right, and it is by far the shapeliest Civic. I also like the distinctive
taillights and
instrumentation. The new model is more "mature" and looks like a baby Accord. It's less svelte and blander
inside and out. It's like the opposite of what happened with the 2011 Camry except both redesigns suck. And I have to listen to all the NPC's talk about how it looks better. On the plus side, at least the 10th gen will be cheaper when I buy a used car.
I liked this redesign at first, but now I find it tacky. The previous model was more svelte and it looked even better
pre-facelift. Everyone rags on the old
interior but it has a lot of personality and I love the red lighting; the redesign is more
stilted.
DID IT GET BETTER?
(Last model)
9.
You know what I hate about the car industry?
Every time they actually come out with a car
I think looks good, everyone complains about how it looks bland or ugly,
because heaven forbid we actually make cars that
appeal to different tastes.
Then they “fix” the car to make it look generic, and I have to listen to
everyone talk about how much better it looks.
Case in point: the stately M45 adopting the ungainly, amorphous,
blob-like look of the generic trendy Japanese sports sedan that I hate.
DID IT GET BETTER?
Oh yeah. The new
model is quite lovely, with a more svelte shape, luscious curves and a good
grill angle.
The E38.
Trim,
athletic…the very essence of understated German styling.
It's also the second best Bond car.
Then, Chris Bangle happened.
All the German style of the the car
disappeared, and it looked like it spent more time in a Golden Corral than on
the Autobahn.
DID IT GET BETTER?
Big Time.
The
new7-Series is aggressive and athletic, and it looks like the natural evolution of
the E38.
A victim of crushing trends in gas prices, the C3
Corvette gets a lot of heat for its relative lack of performance in the series. Shame, because it was a great looking
car. Extremely aggressive, and
beautifully svelte and edgy, it was a work of art like the previous
generations. The blandly styled C4 is
iconic, but only as a symbol of 80’s decadence, rather than for any actual aesthetic value.
DID IT GET BETTER?
Yes, then No. I’ll
get to that.
The C5 Corvette looked like a beautiful version of the
C4. Its lines were smooth, and its svelte
figure ended with a noticeably large hind end.
In other words, it was shaped like a beautiful woman. It's also the only car I know of that looks better as a convertible than a hardtop. The C6 corvette muted those luscious curves
and added some ugly Ferrari-wannabe headlights, killing the flip-up lights that
had been a trademark of the model since the C2. It was like the beautiful woman lost weight and you had to pretend she didn't look better when she had some meat on her.
Yeah, I know flip-up headlights are impractical, but it’s a bloody
Corvette. It’s not supposed to be
practical. This redesign screams, "We didn't have any ideas, we just thought it was due."
DID IT GET BETTER?
N/A (Current model)
This is a rare example (in contrast with the 2011 Camry) in which I prefer a sporty look to a conservative look. The previous Altima had clean lines that flowed nicely into distinctive taillights. The new one went safe but ended up being bland and generic. It's like the opposite of what happened with the Camry. Also the older model had a Pontiac-like
interior that had personality that changed to a
generic semi-luxury look, albeit with a distinctive steering wheel. (
On a side note the earlier generation of Altima is on the top of my list of what to buy when it's time to replace the LeSabre.)
DID IT GET BETTER?
Yes, the
2019 model has a block-like shape that's slightly improved with a more aggressive front end and Nissan's distinctive C-Pillar design. Unfortunately the steering wheel was lost and the
interior is even more generic.
Once again another alleged “improvement.” Everyone says the previous model Avalon was “bland,”
but it actually had very distinct styling, especially the classy roofline. The new version is not only shaped like every
other car that’s coming out now, the grill is a fucking disaster area. I just don’t know what they were thinking
with it. Wait, I think I can guess: “We
can’t decide which grill to put on the car, so we put BOTH on them on the car.” If they kept one grill or the other, it
wouldn’t look so bad.
DID IT GET BETTER?
I'm not too fond of the
new one which looks tacky
I actually love the 2006 Camry.
It had a good looking grill at a good angle
with nicely integrated badge.
It kept
the graceful C-Pillar from
the previous generation (the only thing on it that looked good).
I like it because, unlike a lot of modern
cars, it didn’t look like someone took a picture of a car and used the “Skew”
effect on MS Paint.
Some nice chrome
trim, hubcaps and whitewalls actually wouldn’t look out of place on it.
My heart sank when I saw the new Camry.
Now it just looks like another modern car
that looks like everything else.
DID IT GET BETTER?
Barely.
I thought the E65 was bad. The previous 5-Series was a great-looking
sports sedan, and I love how the hood gently bent down to become the
grill. Then there’s the Bangle
version. I think the term “makeup on a
pig” applies, albeit more as a simile than a metaphor. It’s not someone trying to distract from
substantial weakness; it literally looks like swine with too much mascara. The good thing about the styling is that
fender-benders aren’t so bad when the whole car is shaped like it’s already
been in an accident. I don't know how it gets out of showing up on Ugly Cars list.
DID IT GET BETTER?
The previous deVille is beautiful and, in my opinion, the
last true Cadillac, even if I do like the
new CTS.
But this thing…It’s like they literally got
together and said, “All right, let’s identify everything that makes this a
pretty car
and get rid of it.”
It's like it was redesigned by
Richard Vosko. Of
course, it was probably because they didn’t want to make it look like an “old
man’s car.”
I’ve never understood how this
was a bad thing.
DID IT GET BETTER?
A little bit.
The
new
DTS (I hate Cadillac and Lincoln’s obnoxious alphanumeric foolishness.
What’s wrong with actually
naming cars?) has a little more edge and
the taillights certainly look better.
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