An observation to see how manufacturers keep up with change!
Evolution Of A Car’s Character
Every manufacturer has a design philosophy. The branding that they give tells us something about how the car itself will look and what your first impression should be. This first impression any person has on a car can also be influenced by the car’s tagline and of course, it’s styling.
But this will evolve. In some cases, this is drastic and in some a little smooth. In general, these designs start aggressive and get toned down over facelifts. This can be caused due to the changing demands of the market or competition. So today I will take a couple of examples, namely the Mahindra XUV500 and the Hyundai Xcent and see how these cars have evolved.
Please note that by using the term “character” I do not mean the vehicle’s driving character. Instead, I intend to refer to the character in the design (aggressive, elegant, etc.).
Mahindra XUV500
When the Mahindra XUV500 was launched in 2011, it debuted an aggressive design philosophy inspired by a cheetah. Their claim was supported by a lot of body lines and design cues. This was mainly visible at the front, with whisker-like design elements. The car did have a lot of unique design elements so much so that they released an entire documentary about it!
When Mahindra first launched this car, they pushed the “cheetah inspired” part of it, and that ended up being the tagline of the SUV. The design coupled with the features it offered made it an overall success even though it faced certain electrical issues in the beginning.
After a long production run for 4 years, Mahindra finally decided they give their flagship SUV a facelift in 2015. You can see that the company toned down the aggressive styling. They cleaned up the front and removed the black honeycomb trim. Of course, they also added a new variant with the latest gizmos like push-button start and a sunroof. The car’s tagline was also more mature – “The new age Mahindra XUV500”. The “cheetah inspired” design now became a highlight instead of a selling point.
The car surprisingly did not come with DRLs although Mahindra added an led curve in the headlamp funnily enough. Apart from that, there was not much done to this facelift from a design standpoint.
Cut to 2018, and we have the latest Mahindra XUV500. This one was a long time coming, as the previous facelift didn’t change much. The car now has more glamour and is more mature and luxurious looking than its predecessors. This is where Mahindra wants their product to be placed, as the tagline now became “The Plush New XUV500”. The headlamps were cleaned up once more, and we got DRLs along with more pieces of chrome here and there.
The design became more subtle. Mahindra somehow managed to make an 8-year old design still look relevant in 2019, as the body lines have stayed the same from 2011. It still consistently garners a good chunk of sales from this segment. While the cabin of the SUV gets better materials and more features now, it still doesn’t have a premium feel.
Hyundai Xcent
The Hyundai Xcent was launched in 2014 and it is based on the Grand i10 hatchback. For Hyundai’s 1st sub-4-metre compact sedan in India, they did a great job. The design even till this day does not look outdated in my opinion. The car enjoyed a good sales run for 3 years. I personally liked this design more than any of its competitors at that time. It did the best job in differentiating itself design-wise from the hatchback it was based on – the Grand i10.
When the Xcent facelift was launched in 2017, it was clear that Hyundai wanted to bring its sedan in line with its latest design language. The design perhaps evolved a bit too fast. There was a contrasting difference to Hyundai’s approach towards each car in terms of design. While the previous car never tried to be a full-sized sedan, the current generation Xcent has more sedan-like design elements. From the horizontal tail lights to the grille, the car looked more mature than its predecessor. But I personally liked the more youthful design of the pre-facelift model.
It’s interesting to note that both cars nearly share the same parts. The current version of the Xcent got a new grille and new tail lights along with some bumper rework. Even the alloys stayed the same between each facelift. But Hyundai managed to change the look of their vehicle. The current generation Xcent is not performing as well as its predecessor in terms of sales, mostly due to increasing competition.
Conclusion
Every facelift is somewhat a risk a manufacturer takes. Each company carefully does its homework to alter the design as per the demands of the customer. But cars which enjoy high sales numbers generally have a very dull evolution gradient in terms of design. The manufacturers don’t want to disturb the momentum of the cars unless they are super confident of their latest update or they are very deep in the production run.
At the end of the day it’s always interesting to see how manufacturers carry forward their design philosophies in the forthcoming facelifts. And how they respond to the competition, which is as close as ever.