Car companies like to perform facelifts on their models mid life cycle to keep it looking fresh and use the opportunities to fix bugs. It usually works well to stimulate sluggish sales half way through the model's life cycle of 5 or 7 years depending on car manufacturer. It is also an indication that the car manufacturer is lost or delayed its replacement model launch when it performs more than 1 facelift during the model's life cycle. If the sales of the model drops quickly within a year of its launch the facelift is aimed at triggering fresh interests. In the case of the current Toyota Vios, it is seems like this bread and butter model is facing this problem. It was Toyota's top selling model a few years ago and it practically sold by itself but it is not the case now. Competition from Mazda and Honda has really taken a toll on the Vios' sales. It is so bad that Toyota had to quickly facelift this model barely 1 year after the launch. It is unheard of for a Toyota model.
Nothing lasts forever and riding merely on its brand reputation alone is not enough to keep it as a top selling model.
Ssangyong is another car company that has performed multiple facelifts for old models to stimulate sales. Ssangyong has struggled for sales outside South Korea and the odd-ball designs of the cars doesn't help despite having Mercedes sourced engines and gearboxes. Riding on the Mercedes name alone doesn't mean it will sell well.
The ultimate king of mid model life cycle facelifts has to be Proton. The two models that received the most number of facelifts have to be the Wira and the Saga. These two models were in production for over 10 years and with no replacement models in sight, Proton kept on facelifting it. Nothing really changed and in fact some parts got worse. Good parts were swapped out for cheaper parts and the car's performance actually deteriorated.
One will question how many times can you facelift a model before it really stops selling?!
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