Some models’ designs evolve so slowly you barely noticed they’ve changed until you park a current model against an original. But even even if you did that with two Porsche 911s built 60 years apart, you’d still be able to see the connection.
And then there are the other models; the ones that change so radically from generation to generation in an effort to remain fashionable that the family ties would be all but invisible if you covered up the badges.
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I’m not talking about automakers slapping the same model name on totally different cars at different points in history, but single model lines and how they change over time. This got me wondering which cars underwent the biggest visual transformation from one generation to the next.
Here are some we’ve come up with, but you can throw in your own suggestions by adding a comment below the post.
1948 vs 1949 Ford
Car plants became military plants during WWII, so when the war finally ended Ford and other automakers reheated 1942 models and served them up as ’46s while they worked on some genuinely new designs. Studebaker beat the Big Three to bring European-style ‘ponton’ bodywork to the US with its 1947 Champion and Commander, but it was Ford’s 1949 cars that really set the template for the next few years of Detroit design.
Low rooflines, integrated fenders, smooth sides and the absence of running boards made the new cars look dramatically more modern. And they were radically different from the ’48 models under the skin, too, adopting a ladder chassis along with a new type of driveshaft, and swapping the transverse leaf front and rear suspension for a coil and longitudinal leaf setup.
1993 vs 1994 Chrysler New Yorker
Talk about shock of the new. One minute the Chrysler New Yorker looked like it had been designed by a six-year old, just a bunch of blocks stuck together and garnished with chintzy fake wire wheels, and the next it’s a swoopy aerodynamic sedan with a modern cab-forward stance.
The new Chrysler LH platform that made this all possible provided a massive 8.7 inches (220 mm) of additional wheelbase to the benefit of passenger room. The LH family of cars (New Yorker, Chrysler LHS and Concorde, Dodge Intrepid, Eagle Vision) don’t get much coverage these days, which seems unfair because they still look great.
2023 v 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe
Let’s bring this list up to date with the Hyundai Santa Fe which, in 2024, swapped curves for creases, a decision most people view as a successful change, even if the back end does look a little awkward. When automakers undertake these kind of radical design shakeups they often give the model a new name to underline how different it is (think Ford Cortina to Sierra and LTD to Taurus), but on this occasion Santa Fe got to stay.
We’ve singled out three pairs of cars here but there are so many to choose from, including the switch from Cadillac’s bloated ’58s to its slimline ’59s, and BMW‘s jump from the E28 to the E34 5-Series. What models do you think underwent the biggest visual transformation from one generation to the next, and which have stayed closest to their original design over time? Drop a comment below and let us know your thoughts.