BMW

Few cars are as Marmite as the 2001 BMW 7 Series, the Bavarian flagship that unleashed the full fury of chief designer Chris Bangle's 'flame surfacing'. A true adjective generator, most of them negative, the car was nothing if not opinion dividing. Well, that's not quite true: it was unanimously regarded an ugly beast. Some, however, found beauty in its incoherence; others thought it a crime that BMW would create such a controversial look for a segment so conservative. Still, it was arguably better to gamble on a relatively low seller than, say, Bavarian bread and butter like the 3 Series.

2006 Acura TSX

Acura TSX - 2006 Review: When choosing an entry-level luxury car, some people want a car that exudes status like a Mercedes-Benz C230, others want the handling and performance a BMW 325i delivers, and then there are those who follow their heart and go for the looks of say, an Audi 2.0T or Lexus IS 250. But the secret is that Acura builds a car that meets all three criteria, while providing great value. It's the Acura TSX.

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50p worth of chrome 'accenting' around the headlamps was about it, and that was back in 2006; the 9-5 is still on sale today, nearly 12 years since it first replaced the old 9000. Plus, inexplicably, in 2007 Saab decided to give the much newer 9-3 junior executive a facelift too. The result? A very near copy of the 'new' 9-5, which, to continue our earlier analogy, is like waking up to find the surgeon has made you look like your granddad.

Saab 9-5, A chrome spectacle

The Saab 9-5 was already way over the hill by the time the Swedish maker got around to facelifting it, so you'd think it would give its flagship saloon a pretty comprehensive refresh to keep the executive buyers happy. Sadly, the cosmetic surgery Saab bestowed upon its big Swede were, frankly, bizarre. Imagine, if you will, going to a plastic surgeon for a chin tuck and a bit of forehead smoothing, then waking up to find your doctor has simply replaced your contact lenses with a set of sunglasses acquired from a McDonald's Happy Meal.

Subaru Impreza, Addicted to surgery

Legend has it that even as the first iteration of the second generation Impreza was being unveiled to the eager public, the facelifted version had already been signed off. That's confidence for you. Again, that's just a rumour, but we wouldn't be at all surprised if it were true; the bug-eyed 2001 Impreza looked dopier than Stan Laurel.
By 2004 the facelift was unveiled, which dramatically changed the look of the front end, mostly because it fulfilled that basic tenet of car design that the front and back should at least look remotely connected. But it still wasn't enough - a second facelift in 2006 sharpened the whole thing up once again and made the Scooby, to coin a phrase, the car it always should have been.