Life On Cars treated to subtle facelift

YOU only have to look at the car above for a lesson in why not to mess with things too much.

A decade ago, Hyundai took its Coupe, one of the most pretty and pert shapes ever to come out of South Korea, and decided to treat it some Frogeye Sprite-style headlights and a redesigned rear bumper to keep it up to date against younger rivals like Ford's Puma. What they actually managed to do was make the best-looking car in the range into something spectacularly ugly. It lasted two years before being scrapped altogether in favour of the Ferrari-esque lines of the current model.

I mention this an example of how not to do a facelift, which is what I've just treated this blog to. Since being launched in July last year it's been treated to just one update, when I changed the font colour from orange to blue and the shameless Life On Mars spoof logo to the one which appears in The Champion newspaper, but that's been it so far.

That's why the latest nip/tuck job is definitely a "blink and you'll miss it" affair, with the emphasis on making this site easier to use rather than anything prettier to look at.

All of which means, in the subtle taps across the top of this page, you now get:

Clickable links to the Life On Cars fleet, pictured to the right, to respond to everyone who wants more updates on the Mini, MGB and Renault 5. No more rummaging through the archives, just click on the pic of the classic of your choice!

A dedicated Fire Up The... section, meaning you can get to all the test drives (and there are a fair few) in an instant.

A radio section to listen back to all those slightly banal interviews from earlier this year (and are due to return in the next month).

Instant access to the Life On Cars Magazine, after lots of you said you were impressed with this venture into the world of car magazines. Another, I promise, is due sooner than you might think.

Details of events, including one next month you're all invited to, and the opportunity to plug your own classic car events (that's you, Roger!).

Contact details so you can get in touch easily, including details of the Life On Cars Facebook page.

There's also a Newspapers section due soon, so anyone outside of the Southport area can see the Life On Cars column as it appears in print, as well as the features from GR8Life Magazine. I'm also planning on a Car Clubs section so if you're in a club in the north west, send over your details and I'll stick them on here.

You can go back to reading about cars now...