It doesn‘t take to be a car fan to notice the many levels of changes that can be performed into a vehicle. Since minor trim levels updates to a whole new project, this “science“ consists of considering several different factors to find the best possible combination to apply at each case. Some can‘t manage to collect the prize even with big investments, but there are others who have corrected only what was needed and therefore enabled themselves to an increased-sales future. Fluence now has definitely made its way to the second group.
What makes this topic very interesting to analyze is the variety of good and (specially) bad examples. Face-lifts should be only a short-or-medium-term update to boost the car’s sales at the second half of its current generation’s lifecycle, but they can only accomplish that when well done. There are some neutral examples, such as 1989 Fiesta’s updates for 1995 and 1999 or the 2005 Hilux’s updates for 2008 and 2011. However, looking to Fiat Multipla’s good sales from 2004 to 2010 gives the second reason to its facelift, following nothing more than meeting the 1998 car. Similar situation was faced by the 1978 Citroën Visa, which had only to change that hideous front design into a more conventional one in 1981 to see the sales prosper. Unfortunately, some cars end up losing the style harmony among the various attempts of looking modern and attractive, like the first Chevrolet Aveo: from a really neutral debut in 2003, it became a much more elegant car in 2006 but fall into the idea of being more sporty and came to 2008 with a very exaggerated design – similar fate was given to the Mexican first Chevrolet Chevy, which went from the widely known Corsa’s design to a particular one in 2004, and to what must be GM’s biggest front air intake ever made to a city car, in 2009.
When it comes to Fluence, despite of this one being its first official facelift it’s a fact that this car has already had its share of restylings. The car came in 2009 first as Samsung SM3 in South Korea, being restyled a few months later to receive Renault’s badge a few months later – in fact, some other Eastern markets decided to only rebadge the Korean car. The next year received the European’s electric version, and there came another different design to what was now called Fluence Z.E.. And to follow this pattern, the first facelift will be actually two “and a half”: there will be a new SM3, the new Fluence seen in this article’s pictures, and Mexico’s SM3 rebadged as Fluence – how many cars do you know that had seven different designs around the world in less than four years? The sedan enters 2013 with Renault’s new design identity, whose flagship car is the fourth-generation Clio. But it’s impressive to observe how it took only a new front bumper to finish this car’s natural opulence. The air intake became much wider to connect both headlights and a much bigger brand logo, resulting in a much stronger personality: Fluence now takes attention also from the front angle. And if it wasn’t hard to get a better-looking lower part than the 1990s-inspired one used by its previous phase, the new one brings the sophistication of the LED daylights along with grilles that give this car the elegance it has always deserved.
And if the headlights were the only parts good enough to survive the restyling, it was easy to guess that the car didn’t change anything else but the wheels design: the sides and specially the rear were such well-designed that when it comes the time of bigger changes it’s better to show a whole new project rather than taking the risk of an unbalanced partial update. The interior received the Mégane family’s digital dashboard, front and rear parking sensors, electronic handbrake and the R-Link multimedia entertainment system: it brings Bluetooth connection, media player and GPS navigation through a big touchscreen on the top of the console. The car is expected to be start arriving at Turkey next January and then at the other 55 markets which sell it, and at first using a 16-valve 1.6 with 115 hp with Renault’s new CVT X-Tronic transmission. The new SM3 and the Mexican Fluence received similar internal updates, but Fluence Z.E. isn’t expected to change soon.
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