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Facelifts Should Be Retrofittable, Know Your Consumer Rights!

After last week's "buy your dream car and lay off the internet for a while" piece, some of you reminded me I can't point out an issue without coming up with a solution. So what happens if you acquire your dream ride, open your browser and find out a facelift that's coming soon will leave you behind?
You trade in the car you just bought and go for the updated one. There's only one problem with that - money doesn't grow in trees. As much as carmakers want to keep us riding the spendings carousel every four years or even sooner, you can't just play the perfect consumer role and buy new cars as if they were key rings. And just think about those people who buy their cars one or two years before a revamp arrives.

Sure, sitting in the dark won't cut it either. As one of my colleagues pointed out, facelifts are crucial and most of the times better than all-new cars. Well, I hate to burst anybody's bubble, but the way things are today means you're screwed.

Let's say you were swiped off your feet by the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette and happened to be one of the 37,000 customers who acquired the modern-day Stingray, perhaps nicely gifted with an automatic, during its first year of production.

Well, tough luck. The slushbox offered initially wasn't exactly sharp. GM itself admitted that and replaced that transmission with a new and brilliant automatic starting with the 2015 model year.

Or perhaps the hot hatch fever has hit you and you've decided to settle for nothing less than the fastest one out there. The Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG granted you that title, but with the new Audi RS3 arriving, you dropped to second place. No problem, the recent 2016MY update gave the Affalterbach hatchback extra horses and shorter gears, so those Audi drivers can see your posterior once again. If you sell your "old" A45 and buy the "new" one, of course.

Maybe I'm exaggerating with all the performance cars, so why not talk about a French automobile that's all about style and urban chich - the Citroen DS3. You must be upset about your cool DS using halogen lights in an era when Kias have LEDs and it's understandable. Well, the mid-cycle revamp can sort it all out for you with LED headlights, just make sure your bank account can support the trade.

This is an issue that spreads across the world and whether it's going fast or being refined that you floats your boat, carmakers are simply ignoring existing customers when they introduce such updates.

Yes, some of you may think I've taken too many exaggeration pills today, but just take a look at the most Lavish carmaker in the world, Rolls-Royce. Whenever they introduce one of their Series II refresh, they keep the visual differences as discreet as possible, all in the name of showing respect to their existing customers.

Repeat after me, marketing people - retrofittable facelifts

Not all that many people pay close attention to such details, but the car industry shows no regard for those who do. As much as a niche problem this is, automakers should make facelifts retrofittable for a fraction of a new purchase's cost.

On most occasions, the changes brought by updates are cost-optimized. For instance, headlights usually receive new inner workings, but maintain their overall shape so that production costs don't skyrocket. So yes, if I'd be willing to pay half the money for a pair of new [insert your favorite change here], I should have that option.

Dealers networks could handle the conversion the same way they handle recalls, for instance.

Get this - I've witnessed cases where owners were determined to pay the full spare-part price for such an upgrade and their dealers had to make wonders for the deal to go through, since the mothership wouldn't allow it.

Exceptions? Sure, there are plenty.

I'd have to be insane to expect BMW to offer me one of the new powerplants introduced with the 3-Series LCI for half the cost of one acquired as a spare part. Or to expect Porsche to retrofit one of their upcoming forced-fed flat-sixes on a 911 produced right before the turbo revolution debuts this fall.

Of course, there's also the kind of exceptions that can easily tie you to a brand. The kind of stuff McLaren does - remember when they gave the 2013 MP4-12C a 25hp bump and also offered it as a complimentary upgrade to their existing clientele?

Yes, I mentioned fidelity. These details I'm talking about can sometimes be the kind of tings that drive you crazy and make you abandon ship when an occasion arises. I've met people who were so angry about it that they went to the competition even though the new car they bought was not as good as the alternative from the brand that had left them behind.

It might seem that I'm ranting here and that's because... I am. I feel it's time for the automotive industry to be less like the aeronautical one (any frequent flyer knows the abuses I'm talking about) and perhaps more like the food industry, which has been forced to continuously adapt to the customers' needs. It's not like the makers of our food are business angels, but the perpetual pressure from the consumers means they no longer afford to use cheap tricks, such as absent labels.

And while carmakers chew on that, I'll remind them such a move would only follow a trend they've started a few years ago. I'm talking about the car companies claiming some of the business tuners had built on their products. For example, if you wanted LED daytime running lights a decade ago, you had to turn to the aftermarket, but now even budget automakers offer such a feature. I'll never forget how Brabus' LED DRLs were integrated into the 2013 G-Class facelift without the slightest modification.

It's 2015 and if the carmakers have decided to hire professional scent masters for our interiors, it means they know we're paying attention to every little detail. I'm just waiting for them to act on it.
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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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