What car(s) did you hate at launch but have grown to like as time has passed? Or vice versa

I'd say the same about the current generation of Civic. I really didn't like the look when they first came out, but I saw one the other day next to a new Corolla and thought, "These two are competitors?" The Honda looks so much better, no matter how many fake vents Toyota puts on the Corolla.

I'm glad you said that, they vastly improved the civic in recent times (compared to the 2010 one that I had).

The new corolla looks terribad
 
The exception is their models with all the go-fast on them; I still hate the styling on those, they look like a doodle where the kid didn't know when to stop drawing.
 
  • Ferrari 360 Modena: Hated it when I first found out it replaced the 355 which I loved in NFS3 and all of Clarkson's early home videos. Now it's one of my favourite Ferrari designs of all time. Still nowhere near as good as its predecessors though.
  • Lamborghini Murcielago: Same as above, replace 355 with Diablo. Hell, I even like the later Aventadors now.
  • Lancia Stratos Concept: Aside from the puppy-dog headlights, this is what Lancia should be making instead of continuing to nail its own coffin.
  • Nissan GT-R: I remember praying in school that the next Skyline wouldn't look like the 2001 Proto version. They improved it a lot with the revised 2005 concept, but when it launched I was still underwhelmed. Now though? To put it frankly, this car has aged like wine. Even as late as 2016/2017 this car looked refreshingly new, and I can't wait to see what they'll do with the R36.
  • Noble M600: I thought this would've been the car to kill the underdog brand from Richard Noble, whose past cars looked like demonic Mondeos. Though it isn't as high-profile as their efforts were in the mid '00s, for me the M600 is easily one of the best looking cars of the decade.
  • Porsche 997: The earlier models, at least. Phase II still isn't that appealing to me.
  • Subaru Impreza GE/GH - I just thought the hatchback Impreza looked horrifically wrong the first time I saw it. When they brought back the sedan version I was a lot happier to say the least.
  • TVR Griffith: I remember hating this the second I saw it, and I'm still not a fan of the fish/special student front fascia. All this model's doing is making up for 13 years' of lost time, and the interior's familiar to anyone who's ever seen the inside of a past TVR. Here's hoping TVR becomes a household name once more.
  • Vauxhall VXR8: I loved the Monaro in Top Gear, and I similarly loved "driving" it in Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Then its successor came out, and what was once a sleek, fearsome coupé had bloated into a brutish, blocky sedan with a wing. Nowadays I love both equally, and wish that one day Holden is brought back from the dead, same with Aussie Ford.
 
I should add the current gen S550 Mustang (pre and post refresh) to the list. I remember thinking it looked disjointed front to back when it was released, but as time wore on, I think it’s probably the prettiest Mustang since the first gen.
 
I should add the current gen S550 Mustang (pre and post refresh) to the list. I remember thinking it looked disjointed front to back when it was released, but as time wore on, I think it’s probably the prettiest Mustang since the first gen.

I'm with you there. When it was released, there was a lot of "Ford Fusion" front, and Mustang+Aston rear". I think it out grew that impression even before the upgrade, and I'm regularly pleasantly surprised whenever I get to see a newer one in the wild. On Saturday, I parked next to a nice dark red that looked fantastic.
 
I still don't like the 360 and I've liked very few Ferraris since. Some have been OK-ish but I can't think of one that makes me dribble or want to bite the back of my hand.
 
I'm with you there. When it was released, there was a lot of "Ford Fusion" front, and Mustang+Aston rear". I think it out grew that impression even before the upgrade, and I'm regularly pleasantly surprised whenever I get to see a newer one in the wild. On Saturday, I parked next to a nice dark red that looked fantastic.

Same. I went from meh to buying one.
 
I should add the current gen S550 Mustang (pre and post refresh) to the list. I remember thinking it looked disjointed front to back when it was released, but as time wore on, I think it’s probably the prettiest Mustang since the first gen.

I still don't really like the 2015-2017 cars (except the GT350). I think the facelift looks a lot better.
 
I never hated the Škoda Superb, nor any of the large saloons, but I just thought of them as boring cars. I always liked small and nimble cars, or cars that were otherwise rated as fun by the likes of Evo Magazine. However, when I had a chance to drive a first-gen Škoda Superb 2.0 TDI, I was addicted. The space, the torque, the comfort, the leather seats (it was a higher-end model as it had an umbrella in one of its doors)...

Sure, the interior looked outdated even by the standards of its time and very much VW-ish, and I still can't wrap my head around why'd VW choose the Audi PL45 platform (i.e. one with a longitudinally placed engine in an font-wheel drive car) for the Passat (which this car essentially is), nor do I have a need for such a car, but it broadened the spectre of cars that I find interesting.

The 2002 Škoda Superb looks and feels like a stretched Passat because... that's what it is. It was developed by VW for China, because the Chinese like rear legroom and pretty much every sedan on the market can be had as a long wheel base version. VAG brought it back home and slapped a Skoda badge on it, basically. The Skoda buyers liked it and now we're up to generation 3.

And it wasn't the first Passat with a longitudinal engine. They've historically gone back and forth with longitudinal and and transverse layouts.

The longitudinal and FWD layout with the halfshafts coming out of the gearbox is an old DKW design which Audi inherited and apparently decided to keep using forever. It made sense with a tiny little 3-cylinder 2-stroke in there, but it's pretty ridiculous how far forward the engines are on the five-cylinder models from the 80's.
 
I still don't like the 360 and I've liked very few Ferraris since. Some have been OK-ish but I can't think of one that makes me dribble or want to bite the back of my hand.
Not even the 458?
 
Nope. It's better than some recent efforts but it's not what I would call particularly pretty. Some of their bespoke creations from the last few years however are very handsome - take a look at the SP38 Deborah, F12 TRS or the SP12EC.
 
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