Cars That Are Ageing Badly

[WJNB]

Any 3 Series BMW especially cabriolets & coupes. They quickly fall into the hands of the Barry Boy oiks & thus acquire loud exhausts & silly big non-BMW wheels.
Shame as the current 3 Series is actually quite a stylish thing.

[crostonian]

I think the new Jag XF already looks dated: the featureless side panels, heavy handed glazing surrounds, mismatched front and rear, the XE doesn't fare much better either.

[PartsMonkey]

I think anything where the facelift included switching from fresnel headlamp lenses to clear leses makes the pre-facelift model look far older. I will admit, however, that these aren't the best examples.

[bunglesprout]

MikeTFSI said:

bunglesprout said:

bobclayton said:

bunglesprout said:

Skoda Rapid notchback. Reminds me of a Chrysler Neon.

Pretty sure that's a previous generation Fabia Saloon.
The Rapid:

This is the previous generation Fabia Saloon -



Which is pretty dumpy and just as bad.

No that's the 1st generation Fabia. The top picture is the mk2 Fabia saloon and the blue one current gen Rapide, very similar to the current mk3 Fabia.

There was no mk2 Fabia saloon, they only made the saloon in the Mk1 version and then dropped it.

[Impasse]

To summarise, every car that has been on sale for over ten years looks at least a decade old if not more.

[carlove]

bunglesprout said:

There was no mk2 Fabia saloon, they only made the saloon in the Mk1 version and then dropped it.

No mk2 Fabia saloon in the U.K., they were sold elsewhere in the world. The light blue one says Rapid on the number plate.

[Nickbrapp]

crostonian said:

I think the new Jag XF already looks dated: the featureless side panels, heavy handed glazing surrounds, mismatched front and rear, the XE doesn't fare much better either.

Agreed, and that black strip between the lights looks awful.

The mk1 xf was s good looking think but this one is too square and the back looks like a skoda suburb

[Trabi601]

carlove said:

bunglesprout said:

There was no mk2 Fabia saloon, they only made the saloon in the Mk1 version and then dropped it.

No mk2 Fabia saloon in the U.K., they were sold elsewhere in the world. The light blue one says Rapid on the number plate.

No, definitely not a real model. There was no Mk2 saloon.

[anonymous-user]

Trabi601 said:

carlove said:

bunglesprout said:

There was no mk2 Fabia saloon, they only made the saloon in the Mk1 version and then dropped it.

No mk2 Fabia saloon in the U.K., they were sold elsewhere in the world. The light blue one says Rapid on the number plate.

No, definitely not a real model. There was no Mk2 saloon.

Agreed

[Hitch]

bazza white said:

McLarens newer cars are much sharper looking so the MP4 has aged quite quickly.

The longer that exists the better it looks to me. The design is very well balanced and will age very well I believe. I don't mind the new ones but they should have kept the dramatic face for the P1 and toned the others down a touch rather than using a very similar design for all of their cars.

[GappySmeg]

Impasse said:

To summarise, every car that has been on sale for over ten years looks at least a decade old if not more.

This thread in a nutshell

[carlove]

Trabi601 said:

No, definitely not a real model. There was no Mk2 saloon.

It seems in some countries, India seems to be the one coming up most, the Rapid was designed like the Mk2 Fabia.

India Rapid

UK Rapid


I can't decide which one looks most dull.

[ColonelKurtz]

ocrx8 said:

Proportions are ghastly. I think it's the awful C-window. It reminds me of a Granada.

Nooooooo! I just got an XF-S....I like them (obviously) but do think the rear overhang is a bit ungainly.

[Ian Geary]

carlove said:

UK Rapid


I can't decide which one looks most dull.

That shed in the background is quite interesting though...?

They've done a neat job with the felt, and it looks like there's plenty of bracings in the side walls.

[Trabi601]

carlove said:

Trabi601 said:

No, definitely not a real model. There was no Mk2 saloon.

It seems in some countries, India seems to be the one coming up most, the Rapid was designed like the Mk2 Fabia.

India Rapid

UK Rapid


I can't decide which one looks most dull.

Same car, but different lights and grille. Definitely not the car pictured up there, which I'm convinced is a mock-up of what a magazine thought it would look like.

[bunglesprout]

carlove said:

It seems in some countries, India seems to be the one coming up most, the Rapid was designed like the Mk2 Fabia.

India Rapid

UK Rapid


I can't decide which one looks most dull.

Well the tiny wheels against the slab sided body of the UK Rapid make it look terribly boring, but the fact that the photo of the Indian Rapid looks like the brochure "show it at its most bestestestest" photo, and it still looks a pile of dull st, wins it for me. Cocking the front wheels over a few degrees to show off the snazzy alloy wheel design isn't, in this case, helping at all.

[jakesmith]

David87 said:

Agreed that the gold is particularly unflattering, but the HST is a real model that was available in 2008, and came complete with the breathtakingly awful body kit. Even the RRS forum seem to dislike it. http://www.rrsport.co.uk/forum/topic13818.html

Every day = school day

[LordTwaddle]

I'd like to put forward:
Early 00s Alfa Romeos such as the GT, the later ones such as the Brera have aged far better.
The Mazda RX8, not a looker when new and even less so now, same with the MX5.
Older Volvos, Audis, Mercs, BMWs, Saabs, any big executive salons pretty much.
Early 00s Japanese cars such as Toyotas (minus the Celica)
Anything Korean (minus the Siii Hyundai Coupe/Tiburon)
You get the idea

[r11co]

carlove said:

Was beihnid a pre facelift e90 3 Series, was surprised just how dated it looks, the M-Sport still look good but the normal ones look very dated. I have to say though the rest of the car still looks ok, I think it's the rear lights that spoil it.

The rear light clusters on these were a bad design from the get-go. They should have looked like this...



And at a stroke the problem has gone!

[Trabi601]

r11co said:

carlove said:

Was beihnid a pre facelift e90 3 Series, was surprised just how dated it looks, the M-Sport still look good but the normal ones look very dated. I have to say though the rest of the car still looks ok, I think it's the rear lights that spoil it.

The rear light clusters on these were a bad design from the get-go. They should have looked like this...



And at a stroke the problem has gone!

No, because the OEM clusters were designed to a specific BMW styling trait. Look at all BMWs from the mid 2000s onwards and you'll see it in most of them.