QOTD: The Worst a Man Can Get?

In this time of stress, fear, and uncertainty, please forgive the gendered headline, online Millennials. It applies to all genders.

Having said that, this week’s release of the 2021 Hyundai Elantra, a bread-and-butter product for the Korean brand, got this author thinking about design. Specifically, the decisions taken by design teams between major styling revamps.

I poo-pooed early teasers of the new Elantra a bit, but the harsh light of day reveals a longer, more visually expressive sedan with a greatly improved face and fetching hood (too bad about the carryover base engine). There’s a lot to digest in Hyundai’s new designs, but at least there’s something to look at.

The ’21 Elantra replaces a refreshed sixth-generation sedan that turned this writer’s stomach in every way. The design alterations foisted upon the Elantra for 2019 turned an arguably handsome, clean sedan into a weird nightmare, and the passage of time has clearly not made the heart grow fonder. At least with the mid-decade refreshes of the expressive Kia Optima and Hyundai Sonata, the automaker opted for an extra helping of boring. This was something else.

Mistakes were made, and it seems Hyundai learned from them. Good stuff.

But as we talk about the worst refreshes in recent memory, your author’s mind latches on to a long-gone nameplate offered by an equally defunct brand. It’s the brand that built excitement… or at least tried to.

The Pontiac Sunfire, also known as the Official Car of Quebec (an accolade it shares with the Nissan Sentra), was an odd duck in that, during its decade of existence, it only went through a single generation. Refreshes were mild but constant, but it was the final iteration of Sunfire that took things from generic to grotesque.

As the 1990s gave way to the new century, Pontiac joined the club in rethinking the eradication of grilles. The lowly Sunfire began gulping air again, though by the time it left the market it had grown a face only a mother could love. The leading edge of the hood hadn’t retreated towards the cowl, but it looked like it had. Blame that low-hanging, Firebird-mimicking fascia. Because Pontiac wasn’t willing to give the model a full styling revamp, the addition of a mesh grille made the Sunfire appear as if it had sacrificed hood space for grille. That’s not where grilles belong. An awkward look, and an ignoble end to a car loved by few.

Thinking back over the past two decades, what, in your opinion, is the worst mid-cycle refresh?

[Images: Hyundai, General Motors]