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  1. Five ugly cars needing their facelifts
  2. Ford Scorpio, Good body, bad face
  3. BMW 7 Series, Flame surfacing not so hot
  4. Saab 9-5, A chrome spectacle
  5. Fiat Multipla, From pretty odd to oddly pretty
  6. Subaru Impreza, Addicted to surgery

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.

Now, if only Subaru would get around to making the current Impreza the car it should be...

Mark Nichol