Hot to Not

by "Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius" (rex-imperator)
Published 04/28/2017 at 15:28

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What car started out good looking and then got worse as that generation reached extinction? Example:

1989, Hot to Trot supercharged XR7.

Smooth, clean, determined.

1997, hits the wall. No more leading roles. “5.0" for what that’s worth. Minus several ponies from the Mustang that gave it life.

Fussy. Add-ons for the sake of add-ons. Look at me chrome. But don’t look. It’s not attractive. And a front bumper that arrives a few moments before the grille and headlights get there.

What other car got uglier the longer it hung around?

Replies (17)

"Pixel" (Improbcat)
04/28/2017 at 15:30, STARS: 0

Oh god, I’d forgotten about that front end.

I knew two different people who owned these cougars and had the back window blow out due to driving on the highway with the windows open.

"Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius" (rex-imperator)
04/28/2017 at 15:32, STARS: 2

Never heard the window story.

"You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn)
04/28/2017 at 15:37, STARS: 0

I wouldn’t say that it started out as being particularly attractive, but the 4th gen Camaro went from sort of OK to an absolute monstrosity of a catfish. Can’t post images because Kinja.

"Tristan" (casselts)
04/28/2017 at 15:40, STARS: 0

‘94-’97 MN-12s received the wheezy 3.5 V6 or a slightly less wheezy 4.6 NPI 2-valve. The 5.0 went away after ‘93, and the Supercharged 3.8 died after ‘95.

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
04/28/2017 at 15:41, STARS: 2

Hot take: it wasn’t any good to start with.

"Bytemite" (bytemite)
04/28/2017 at 15:42, STARS: 1

Ford Focus ZX3

From this

to this

That whole facelift was a disaster of putting hard edges and straight lines on a good looking bubble shaped car.

"Laurence" (mrlaurence)
04/28/2017 at 15:43, STARS: 2

Jaguar E-Type?

"CobraJoe" (cobrajoe)
04/28/2017 at 15:44, STARS: 0

I wouldn’t call the 4.6 NPI wheezy, it just wasn’t very powerful. Did a decent job motivating the car if you don’t think of it as a performance vehicle.

"If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent" (essextee)
04/28/2017 at 16:01, STARS: 2

The related Thunderbird fell prey to a similar restyle. What started out as a clean cohesive front end turned into an ugly pinchy blob.

"Klaus Schmoll" (klausschmoll)
04/28/2017 at 16:02, STARS: 0

To be fair, this problem exists with the whole Focus lineup not just the sportier versions. Trying to put the front of the European gen 2 on the gen 1 in the US just didn’t work. As it rarely does, remember the “MK4” Golf convertible? Better but still not good.

"interstate366, now In The Industry" (interstate366)
04/28/2017 at 16:08, STARS: 0

This.

"Nothing" (nothingatalluseful)
04/28/2017 at 16:19, STARS: 0

My dad had a ‘90 Cougar, then traded it in on a ‘93 Tbird. Those were fun cars to bomb around in. Although I think I had the most fun in the 2 door Crown Vic.

I think the 4th gen Camaro got uglier. Not quite as bad as the Cougar/Tbird snout, but I wasn’t a fan of the grill/lights on the later models of that gen.

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
04/28/2017 at 16:41, STARS: 1

I liked the ’94-’95 models. Sportier design, without so much plastic cladding.

In fact, I’d say the same thing about the Cougar.

"Tristan" (casselts)
04/28/2017 at 16:56, STARS: 0

I had a ‘94 Thunderbird in high school... I thought it was fast at the time! lol

"CobraJoe" (cobrajoe)
04/28/2017 at 16:58, STARS: 1

I had an ‘84 Mustang with the 3.8L V6 when I was in high school, it felt fast compared to the ‘80's Grand Marquis my parents owned.

"Vicente Esteve" (vicente-esteve)
04/28/2017 at 19:38, STARS: 1

F-Type

"EricG" (mynameisgnarly)
07/19/2017 at 17:19, STARS: 0

To me it’s the Honda Civic USDM coupe and sedan. Not the hatchback. I love all hatches. They all seemed to get progressively worse looking with the newest seemingly becoming the ugliest. But I guess you could in theory insert the Corolla and Sentra in there as well.