Were 986/996 headlights stylish back in the day?

[BYprodriver]

Originally Posted by patssle

It seems everybody hates on the 996 and 986 headlights whenever these cars get mentioned but the numbers speak for themselves. Porsche was near death with the 993 and the 986/996 drastically turned the company around.

So did people just care less about the headlights back in the day or were they just fashionable at the time and have slowly fallen out of being stylish as time goes on?

I believe you are right on all points. The 1st "modular" light assemblies I saw were on a 2000 996 & I had never liked Porsches other than 928s.
I loved the "modular" light assemblies because they disrupted the body & paint less being all in one unit. Making for more uninterrupted spans of paint, especially important on a small convertible.