Which are the cars the manufacturers RUINED by RE-DESIGN?

[Torqy]

When you see some cars, you feel that the OLD MODEL was BETTER. The old model was so proportionate and good looking, you wonder why the hell the manufacturer bothered to modify it. You feel that it's a case of "Fixing Something That was NOT BROKEN". They usually do it by changing the headlight / tail-light shape, adding stupid looking grills, air scoops, hopeless stickers.....and sometimes drastically by changing the body shape etc.

What are the cars you think the BRILLIANT designers/manufacturers RUINED by RE-DESIGN / MODIFYING? Modifying for the sake of modifying.

Here's my list....and NO OFFENSE meant to those who own them.
(I admit i never owned these cars. But that's not the reason they're listed here.)

Maruti 800 (I still feel the first ever 800 was the best looking one...then they killed it.)
Maruti ZEN (The first model. How could they even touch that PERFECT SHAPE?)
New Honda City (God, help the briliant designers who killed OHC and came up with the new body shape.)
Tata Indigo (You cannot ALWAYS make a 3 box car by welding a boot onto a 2 box.)

[esteem_lover]

I think your question should be 'Which are the cars that have seriously improved & been accepted ?'

[Car-Agey]

Originally Posted by Torqy

When you see some cars, you feel that the OLD MODEL was BETTER. The old model was so proportionate and good looking, you wonder why the hell the manufacturer bothered to modify it. You feel that it's a case of "Fixing Something That was NOT BROKEN". They usually do it by changing the headlight / tail-light shape, adding stupid looking grills, air scoops, hopeless stickers.....and sometimes drastically by changing the body shape etc.

What are the cars you think the BRILLIANT designers/manufacturers RUINED by RE-DESIGN / MODIFYING? Modifying for the sake of modifying.

Here's my list....and NO OFFENSE meant to those who own them.
(I admit i never owned these cars. But that's not the reason they're listed here.)

Maruti 800 (I still feel the first ever 800 was the best looking one...then they killed it.)
Maruti ZEN (The first model. How could they even touch that PERFECT SHAPE?)
New Honda City (God, help the briliant designers who killed OHC and came up with the new body shape.)
Tata Indigo (You cannot ALWAYS make a 3 box car by welding a boot onto a 2 box.)

You are very right. The first Maruti is still my fav.

[finneyp]

Honda City, Honda CRV, Maruti Zen for sure...!

[diabloo]

What I understood:
If old was better, then new is ruined?

How to decide whether old was better?

Originally Posted by Torqy

New Honda City (God, help the briliant designers who killed OHC and came up with the new body shape.)

OHC was 3rd Generation Honda City.
NHC is the 4th generation Honda City.
So NHC is not a redesign of OHC.

Note: NHC ZX is redesign of pre-ZX NHC.

[Gordon]

Past: Zen Classic!!!!
Present: Hmmm....The new 2007 MAHINDRA BOLERO!! It didn't get worse OR better. Its stillll bad.
Future: Swift 3-box?!

New Honda City is good. Its a different design altogether. I quite like it.

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by Gordon

Present: Hmmm....The new 2007 MAHINDRA BOLERO!! It didn't get worse OR better. Its stillll bad.

I own one. I didn't add it to the list. I knew somebody will.

[grvanand]

Palio in Stile avatar. The back looks absolutely disproportionate compared to the original Palio in terms of rear side shape and sharp lines as against rounded lines of the rest of the car.

Redesigned Zen. No flow of body lines, everything looks disjointed as compared to original.

Tata Safari original looks much better at the front compared to current ones.

[sbasak]

Zen must lead the pack. Estillo doesn't look inspiring at all.

Indigo - another lousy example, fitting a box on back of a hatchback doesn't make a car saloon

For Maruti 800, I actually liked the later model better over old shape (Japanese import) model.

For Honda City, I liked the old shape. Although new shape isn't too bad.

At the end, beauty is in the eyes of beholder

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by sbasak

Zen must lead the pack. Estillo doesn't look inspiring at all.

Estilo is not the redesign of the old Zen. Its a completely different car with different engine, gearbox etc. Only the name is same.

Originally Posted by sbasak

Indigo - another lousy example, fitting a box on back of a hatchback doesn't make a car saloon

Indigo is a redesign of what? There is hardly any difference in shape between the new Indigo and old Indigo, except for the lamps.

[diabloo]

Zen >>> Estillo . Aren't they 2 different models? Is Estillo a redesign of Zen?

What about these?
Accent >>> Verna
Lancer >>> Cedia
Baleno >>> SX4
Ikon >>> Fiesta
Octavia >>> Laura
M800 >>> Alto
(Jaguar) Sonata >>> (Accord) Sonata

Originally Posted by sbasak

Zen must lead the pack. Estillo doesn't look inspiring at all.

[anuragn]

New Wagon-R. The front grille with that Chrome Strip running across looked very Elegant ...now it is completely ruined.

[sbasak]

Estilo is not the redesign of the old Zen. Its a completely different car with different engine, gearbox etc. Only the name is same.

Then why did they not change the name?

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by DCEite

Estilo is not the redesign of the old Zen.

Indigo is a redesign of what?

Originally Posted by diabloo

Zen >>> Estillo . Aren't they 2 different models? Is Estillo a redesign of Zen?

You could consider Old Generation to New Generation model change as RE-DESIGN. So Accent --> Verna, Baleno --> SX4...etc are all valid.

Basically, why should a NEW generation product look worse than the OLD one?

-- Torqy

[anandpadhye]

Honda CR-V.
I hate the looks of the current version.
Previous version was awesome.