Which model has the biggest change in appearance between two generations?

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ZoomZoomZachAttack@reddit

1st to 2nd gen thunderbird's. Went from a cool little sports car to a land barge.

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Worklurker@reddit

7th gen to 8th gen Mercury Cougars did the opposite. Would also be my pick to answer the post's question.

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Bubbly-Pirate-3311@reddit

Sports is a relative term but you're absolutely right. Personally I think the land barges are cooler, but those lil first gens are certainly a fun thing to spot.

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Call_Me_Papa_Bill@reddit

I don’t think it was second generation, but when they changed the Cruze to a hatchback they took a decent looking entry level compact and turned it into a 1980s Japanese import. WTF Chevy?

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FREDTUC@reddit

When dodge went from square body to looking like a kenworth in early '90's.

Mustang to the mustang 2 ( rebadged pinto )

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waynofish@reddit

"The rules have changed"

BTW, the Squarebody is the 70's/80's era Chevy/GMC trucks.

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Ford had " square bodies " also, so did dodge. Just like most car manufacturers in the 90's went to what the called a " cab forward " design. It wasnt just one make. In the very early '90's Ford & gm got away from square bodies, but dodge held out for awhile.

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waynofish@reddit

Ford was the "Dentside" (73 to 79), Bull nose (80 to 86), bricknose (87 to 91), Aeronose (92 to 96/97)

Chevy/GMC had the actually Squarebody nickname from 73 to 87 except for the Suburban, Blazer and dually which went to 91. OBS (old body style) was 88 onward to late 90's or so for the pickup.

I never heard anything on the "old school" Dodges except by generation.

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FREDTUC@reddit

If thats what ford called their bodies, sure. Most people called the 80's fords square bodies also, same with dodge in that era. Most people call a facial tissue a kleenex. Nobody says " oh, its not a kleenex, its a Puffs Facial Tissue " .

Conversely, Im in my 50's. Not once have I ever heard someone refer to those years of Fords as " bull nose ". Im speaking in generalities, NOT technicalities. I dont even think gm actually called theirs " square bodies " .

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waynofish@reddit

Ford (or Chevy) never had official nicknames. I think all these nicknames came out in the last 15/20 years or so. I'm 57, never heard any of these nicknames until fairly recently. (God I'm getting old if I'm saying 15/20 years is recent)

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Blu_yello_husky@reddit

The chevy caprice went from a somewhat large boxy car with dated styling, to a somehow even bigger, but much more rounded capsule like design with futuristic styling in the 1991 model year. In my opinion, the 91-96 caprice is one of the uglistest, poorest designed cars (from an appearance standpoint) there is. The 77-90 gen was much better looking inside and out.

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waynofish@reddit

I had an 84 "hoopdy" with the 4.3 and a 25 gallon tank. One gas stop between Ocean City, MD and Stuart, FL . God knows how many trips I made and also trips from Stuart FL to Orlando for chemo for a year. Paid $400 for it and got several years, god knows how many miles and only added a bit of oil a few times. I never changed it.

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Blu_yello_husky@reddit

Stories like these are what I tell people when they try to say "70s/80s cars are unreliable." Thank you sir

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waynofish@reddit

You could not kill that car.

Before that I had a 78 Bronco with the (boat anchor) 400. Changed the timing chain and bent the plate while installing. Leaked very bad, of course. Constant oil film on the tailgate/rear window. Again, lots of driving from Ocean City, MD to Palm Beach, FL. I worked on a charter boat so when the oil was changed, I kept the 5 gallon buckets of used oil and always had one in the back of my truck. Yep! every other gas stop ( a bunch on an old lifted Bronco) I climbed up and poured an unknown amount of oil into it and never checked before or after, just filled and went on my way. Only caught fire once, but I put that out with my shirt and drove away like nothing happened.

I have taken much better care of my vehicles since. But yes, older vehicles were pretty tough.

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rakia_doge@reddit

Probably unknown to Americans, but in Europe, Honda Civic between 7th gen (EP) and 8th gen (FN). 7th gen generally followed the design language of the previous generations, then they came out with 8th gen that looked like a spaceship, not even remotely similar to EP.

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Dave_A480@reddit

The Mustang between the 80s and 90s....

From 'ok, we stuck a V8 in an Escort' to actually looking sporty again....

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waynofish@reddit

Funny as I always thought of the fox body to basically be an escort with a tad longer hood. I just never liked them, though they were quite popular.

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dookiebrown2@reddit

Jeep Cherokee

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waynofish@reddit

The 1st gen was a 1/2 ton body on frame truck with either 2 or 4 doors.

the only resemblance after that was the name.

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waynofish@reddit

A big difference between the 1st gen 1/2 ton pickup based Cherokee and the 2nd gen Cherokee of its own design.

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TheDude-Esquire@reddit

The new generation bronco is a lot different than the last one. Though there are a couple of decades in between.

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waynofish@reddit

It went back to its roots. Like the first gen, it's its own thing. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th gens were basically F150's.

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waynofish@reddit

The jump in size between the 1st gen and 2nd gen Ford Bronco. Then the later return with the 6th gen vs the 5th gen Bronco as the 6th gen went back to the original 1st gen roots.

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Large_Cloud_1611@reddit

Any Hyundai basically

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Odd-Staff6245@reddit

Volkswagen beetle, they just keep changing the name, I think they are up to 992.1

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Crafty-Historian8589@reddit

The "Bangle Butt"

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fertile_gnome@reddit

Chevy Nova

At one point (5th gen?) it was a Corolla

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Crafty-Historian8589@reddit

I forgot about that. Wow

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Acrobatic_Crow_6366@reddit

My vote goes to the Ford Taurus. The first generation, at the time it debuted, was a nice looking car. On the other hand, the second generation was an oval monstrosity. To this day, I'm surprised that the design got a "green light" to go into production and be sold.

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Crafty-Historian8589@reddit

Nissan Pathfinder

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Willing_Sink_3623@reddit

E36 to e46, it was even on the same basic chassis. One was an icon, the other started the melted jellybean malaise.

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_Sammy7_@reddit

‘73 to ‘74 Mustang

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porchprovider@reddit

Mustang car to Mustang EV thing

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KAP1975@reddit

Absolutely this one! It’s like when Ford was ready to launch their EV they had such little faith in it the marketing team said “just give it a Mustang badge and people will buy it for the branding”, which is of course exactly what happened.

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Frosty-Analysis1520@reddit

It's the same reason they bring old car models back too - they'll always get some amount of guaranteed sales through recognition (and not an insignificant amount); basically the whole reasoning for this post tbh.

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Flashy-Wrongdoer-628@reddit

Mercedes Benz A-Class

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Farsling@reddit

Ford Maverick.

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fatmanjogging@reddit

If ever there was a model with an identity crisis, this is it.

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MediumAd3331@reddit

Mercury cougar around 99/2000

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PolybiusChampion@reddit

The Ford Mustang II has entered the chat.

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photonynikon@reddit

And no mention of the E-Mustang?

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PolybiusChampion@reddit

I’d wager that if Ford could do a do-over they’d skip that particular branding choice. I think it was made for the Asian markets. They’ve failed to penetrate them in any real sense and are now stuck with this odd branding decision. They could have just called it a Mach E.

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rcheneyjr@reddit

I had one of the POS’s. It was slow, but it got horrible gas mileage to make up for it!

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Effigy59@reddit

They got faster the longer you owned one because the body rusted away. Source: my 1976 Mustang II

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SkibidiBlender@reddit

Maverick was a huge change, but the history of Cougars went from gussied-up Mustangs to big muscle cars to land yachts to boxy small car to aero-coupes to Australian fwd small coupe.

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twelfthfantasy@reddit

2nd to 3rd generation Taurus/Sable. Although it was really Ford's whole passenger car line that just turned into bubbles in the mid to late 90s

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Total-Improvement535@reddit

I’d argue 4th to 5th gen Taurus.

They went from Fords midsize sedan to a huge boat when Ford tried to make the Five Hundred somehow replace both the Taurus and Crown Vic, slapping the Taurus name on it to try and get some sales out of it through name recognition, even though it was a completely different car compared to the one two model years prior.

Another way Ford fumbled in a completely misaligned way for no reason at all.

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newoldschool@reddit

Camaro

catfish to uhhh

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photonynikon@reddit

SSOooo...is it 4 inches shorter or 10 inches longer?

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ablinddingo93@reddit (OP)

Short as in height from the ground

Long as in from bumper to bumper

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Skodakenner@reddit

E38 to e65. From a incredibly good looking classic car to a modern car

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Tossaway198832@reddit

Honestly the 1st gen to 2nd Rams probably win. It was pretty big change back then.

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UnderwhelmingAF@reddit

The first and second gen Honda Ridgeline look very different.

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DBDude@reddit

The Fiat Multipla was by far the ugliest car ever mass produced, and then the second generation was normal boring people mover, but with big windows.

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sebastiand1@reddit

300zx z31, 300zx z32, 350z

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AirportM5757@reddit

Jeep Cherokee

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dumpin-on-time@reddit

according to Subaru drivers, the 26 outback is completely and utterly unrecognizable compared to the 25😂

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Charles_Whitman@reddit

Ford Thunderbird morphed a couple of times.

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throwmethefrisbee@reddit

Definitely. There is no way the Beach Boys would have sung about the ‘84 T-bird.

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BluesyMoo@reddit

Mitsubishi Eclipse

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HourPotential6103@reddit

The Eclipse going from a sleek sports car to a crossover SUV is probably the most jarring glow down in car history, they basically just kept the name and nothing else.

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No_Procedure_5039@reddit

They’d better not name that new rebadged Leaf a Lancer.

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willjacks9@reddit

This. +1.

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heyitsYMAA@reddit

The new one is the weirdest way I've ever seen anyone build a sports coupe.

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amibeingtrolled@reddit

Ford Maverick

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Monst3r_Live@reddit

Ford gt?

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B5_S4@reddit

This is a pretty good answer. The last gen kept the spirit, but man were they weird looking and terrible sounding.

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ashzeppelin98@reddit

Acura/Honda Integra. Nearly twice in this case!

Integra: Went from a legendary sports coupe to just a Civic Type R rebadge.

The RSX was the DC5 Honda Integra in the states, but it went from that to be a electric crossover before Honda cancelled it altogether

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HerefortheTuna@reddit

Ford mustang. Turned into a 4 door electric car eww

Blazer- turned into an electric crossover from an actual body on frame 4x4

Prelude- 20+ years and they took away the manual and made it a slow hybrid that costs 50k when a Miata and 86 are under 35k

Grand Cherokee- took away the wood grain and made it too expensive and no v8

Dodge - take away v8, make it EV

Corvette- engine in the back, take away manual

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PurpleSausage77@reddit

Biggest change in appearance, not powertrains.

Mustang Mach E is just an early spin off of Ford having “Mustang” as a brand. They could slap the Bronco’s in that brand and put the horse logos on everything. There’s concepts of a Mustang sedan coming out to join this “Stable”.

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ashzeppelin98@reddit

Just replace the Mustang with the Capri and the original point would have stood.

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HerefortheTuna@reddit

Ok that one was a joke. But the rest are valid

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WillSnarkForUpvotes@reddit

Hyundai Santa Fe. I can’t think of anything that is even close

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chebysilberader@reddit

ironically, the ford maverick as well

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SaltLakeBear@reddit

I don't think anything else beats this. From compact coupe to four door mini truck.

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ashzeppelin98@reddit

In between that, it was also a rebadged GQ Nissan Patrol in Australia.

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Terrh@reddit

Everyone is wrong, it's the Lotus Elite and nothing else even comes close.

The first generation is arguably one of the best looking cars ever made, and the 2nd generation car is arguably one of the worst.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v3V7TLSnHZQ/maxresdefault.jpg

We went from this

to this:

https://hips.hearstapps.com/autoweek/assets/s3fs-public/6277942507_5e5141f097_o.jpg?resize=980:*

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Cooter_McGrabbin@reddit

The new prelude just looks like another civic

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ablinddingo93@reddit (OP)

Yeah, Honda should have just called the new “Prelude” a Civic Hybrid Coupe and made the Prelude basically a two door Accord instead. Slap the 2.0T and a six-speed in there and it would’ve done gangbusters for sure.

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LifeWithAdd@reddit

Does the Chevy Blazer count?

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throwawayxxx1993xxx@reddit

This would be my vote

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PetriDishCocktail@reddit

Mine too!

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ablinddingo93@reddit (OP)

And my axe!

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whozwat@reddit

Mustang is an electric SUV and Maverick is a truck you say?

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ScaryfatkidGT@reddit

Dodge Hornet?…

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VW-MB-AMC@reddit

The Mustang had a quite big change in 1974, and again in 1979 and 1994. The Ranchero changed a lo in 1960. The Dodge Charger had a big change in 1975. The Thunderbird also went through several big changes over the hyears.

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Otherwise_Switch7536@reddit

2nd gen to 3rd gen Taurus

Chrysler 300 (many different times)

Hyundai Santa Fe

Hyundai Genesis > Genesis brand

Cadillac Seville in the late 70s, then early 80s, then through the 90s

2006 to 2007 Chrysler Sebring then again the 2014 to 2015 200

2007 to 2008 Chrysler/Dodge Minivans

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phatelectribe@reddit

Aston Martin Vantage.

80’s model looks like a spicey Mustang and the next gen is arguably one of the most beautiful cars ever designed.

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TheVengeful148320@reddit

I'm surprised I've not seen anyone mention how the Ford Mustang gens 1 2 5 6 and 7 all look relatively similar, and then there's the 3rd gen and 4th gen. I can't believe I used to like fox bodys more than SN95s when I was a kid.

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ablinddingo93@reddit (OP)

I’m a new edge fan boy myself.

Overall dream NE is a Saleen Extreme, obtainable dream is a Mach 1, and I prefer the ‘99 & ‘01 Cobra front bumper to the Termi’s bulbous fog lights.

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Southern-Usual4211@reddit

SN95 fanboi here Dream one is a S351 speedster I have owned a 1995 Cobra since 1998

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ablinddingo93@reddit (OP)

Hell yeah, love me a SN95 Cobra

When I finally get a Mach 1, first thing in saving up for (outside maintenance, depending on the condition) is an IRS swap lol

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Southern-Usual4211@reddit

Hell yeah I want IRS on my 95

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Beneficial_Try9602@reddit

Supra- OG Supra vs BMW Supra

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Alreadyinuseok@reddit

I swear its the Toyota Prius. Hands down.

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unpolire@reddit

Maybach.

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st162@reddit

Toyota MR2, none of the three generations really have anything in common with the others.

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st162@reddit

Now that I think of it, add several generations of the Celica to that list as well. The first gen was a pretty little thing with US pony car styling cues, the second gen by comparison was a bloated ugly blob. The sharp angles of the third gen gave way to the soft curves of the fourth gen. The 90s jellybean style of the sixth gen was followed by a return to sharp creases and odd angles on the seventh gen.

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Medical-Pear@reddit

Chevy Monte Carlo. The W body was unrecognizable as a Monte Carlo next to the G body one.

Pontiac GTO

Mitsubishi Eclipse

Acura RSX (the new one)

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Clearwater_9196@reddit

GX460 GX550

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Effective-Sail-1225@reddit

I think the civic looks very different from one generation to the next

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Livid-Pilot-1879@reddit

Chevy Bel Air 57 to 58 to 59...

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McwompusCat@reddit

1st gen to 2nd gen Dodge Ram in 1994

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Informal_Ad4399@reddit

I remember how polarizing that change was. All these years later and I still don't like the look of the 2nd gen. Early 4th gen is my favorite, followed by 1st gen.

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judasmaiden15@reddit

Lexus GS especially the first 2 generations

Also the SC it went from a low wide car to a bulbous bigger looking car

A supra went from looking like an 80s car to something curvy with the 4th generation

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scuzzy987@reddit

Monte Carlo, Malibu

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SCuMattly@reddit

Got to be Toyota Pruis. From the ugly 2022 model to the 2023 model which looks cool. I would have been gutted if I purchased the 2022 version new and then seen what came next.

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runsanditspaidfor@reddit

The 1991 Chevy Caprice. The car turned from a box with 30 years of box history to a bubble in one year.

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Sub_aaru@reddit

Ford Explorer or Toyota Land Cruiser

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xampl9@reddit

Ford Taurus. It went from Robocop to Oval Everything

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suboptimus_maximus@reddit

Corvette back in the day. Really, a lot of American models from the 50s into the 60s but C1->C2 ‘Vette was quite a makeover.

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TheVengeful148320@reddit

Crazy thing is I saw both a C1 and C2 during different parts of my travels today.

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frankzappa327@reddit

Jeep Renegade. In 1978 it was a real jeep

In 2010 it’s a economical shit box

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redseca2@reddit

General: Through the 1950’s, cars grew bigger and bigger fins. Even Mercedes had fins. But one day at the start of the 1960’s, all the fins disappeared.

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Proof_Bathroom_3902@reddit

Toyota Celica.

70s to 1981 round and curvy RWD.

82 to 85 cheese wedge straight and angular RWD.

86- suddenly round again and FWD!

2000- ?? I dunno, Mitsubishi eclipse body style?

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