Welcome back to the 1990s! You’ve come back to a time when bold colors and jazzy patterns are in, shows like Saved By The Bell and Star Trek: Voyager are plastered across glass screens across America, and James Cameron’s Titanic is about to set box office records. The 1990s were a different time. There wasn’t a TSA telling you to take your shoes off at the airport, and you, like me, probably heard “You’ve Got Mail!” every time you fired up that dial-up Internet. This was the era of the rise of the personal computer and when people jammed out to tunes on their CD players.
The automotive industry was perhaps equally as optimistic and produced some real forward-thinking designs. What car best symbolizes the 1990s?
The 1990s were a fascinating time in the car world. What we now identify as the “Malaise Era” was firmly in the rearview mirror and cars had evolved away from the wedge designs of the 1980s to more streamlined aesthetics. Car technology also took leaps and bounds as most were now on board with composite headlight housings and flush glazing. The period also saw minimized grilles, the proliferation of car phones, rad three-spoke wheels, and multi-disc CD changers. At the same time, the 1990s helped bring an end to older tech like carburetors in cars, opening quarter windows, and the unpopular automatic seatbelt.
So, a lot was going on here! But what car represents it best? There were some awesome examples of 1990s optimism, such as the exploding popularity of sport utility vehicles like the Ford Explorer and the ascension of the neo-retro era in the Dodge Viper, Plymouth Prowler, Volkswagen New Beetle, and more. Enthusiasts practically drooled over icons like the McLaren F1 and the Acura NSX. Also, who can forget promising oddballs like the GM EV1 and hybrids like the Toyota Prius?
If I had to choose a car to represent the 1990s, it would be the Toyota RAV4, specifically the three-door model. Early crossovers were magical. Nobody quite knew the correct formula yet, so automakers were experimenting. The original RAV4 three-door was a compact, top-down, coastal drive-friendly fun car. It came with funky wheel styles, dazzling interior fabrics, and “Recreational” was right in its name. It was even available with a manual transmission!
Yet, look past the original’s weirdness and you see the future begin to take shape. The original RAV4 had the kinds of cladding that crossovers adore nowadays, and the RAV4 featured a unibody chassis with car origins. Likewise, while the three-door RAV4 might have been the cute enthusiast car, the five-door was the volume model. Early crossovers taught automakers that people will buy tons of five-door crossovers. Now, the market is dominated by them.
So, if I had to choose just one car to represent the 1990s, it would be the Toyota RAV4. It was fun, quirky, and the sort of car that you could see a college kid driving, but it also helped pave the way to the present day. Here’s where I turn things over to you. What car do you think represents the 1990s best?
First gen Miata which brought back the roadster which the Germans answered with the SLK, Z3, and Boxster, so that’s much to thank Mazda for because it thus brought us iconic Porsches including the Cayman.
So your question got me thinking as to which cars produced a paradigm shift, and the first gen LS 400 comes to mind.
I don’t remember that cool RAV4. I remember the original 4 door and in a way it represents a much darker forerunner (pardon the pun): the start of compcat SUVs, crossovers, and the ubiquity of the SUVs in general . . .
That got me thinking of other evil trends. I was in a parking lot of gray. Who started the trend, you can have any color you want so long as it’s gray or silver?
I would have to say the Isuzu amigo I had one that was cylinder 4wheel drive 5speed removable roof ran great taught two kids how to. Drive a car with a clutch in it it was a great vehicle many trips to Ocean city
Honda Del Sol
Defined? Ford Explorer and maybe Ford Taurus (excluding the Tortoise)
There are many memorable vehicles, Viper, Neon, the new Dodge Ram trucks, but defining the 90s is to me what took over the roads and it was Explorer, maybe Taurus.
Agree with the Explorer, specifically the Eddie Bauer. It certainly isn’t fancy by modern standards, but ushered in the era of upscale 4-door 4×4 to the masses. Realize that you probably could say the same about the Cherokee Limited, but Cherokee was more a product of the 80’s. It may have pinged on the radar first, but the EB Explorer is the one that drove it home and spawned even more upscale competition throughout the decade.
The Saturn coupes and sedans. When there was hope that GM could do something new and produce something without effing it up. We know better now.
Any Jeep XJ,TJ,ZJ or WJ
(Cherokee,Wrangler and Grand Cherokee respectively).
Jeep. There’s only one!
’92-’95 Honda Civic EG
and to lesser extent the ’96-’01 EK Civic
The Neon. The fun early ’90s with all the leftover Memphis Group patterns? Plymouth Neon Espresso in Nitro Yellow Green. The RADICAL X-TREEEEME mid ’90s with alternative metal and gangster rap? Dodge Neon R/T in Flame Red with the white stripes. The stately “End of History” late ’90s where everything had soft lighting and Global Coffeehouse was the du jour aesthetic? Dodge Neon Highline in Alpine Green.
Second choice would be the Mustang. Starting with the 80’s hangover in 1991 where hair metal still dominated before grunge killed it would be the Fox-body Mustang GT 5.0 in Pearl White. The mid ’90s with the house craze and the fashion fads born from Clueless would be the SN-95 ‘vert in Bright Calypso. And ending the decade with the rise of nu-metal and edgy media like Camp cKy would be the New Edge Mustang in Performance Red.
I saw a Dodge Neon in that beautiful Nitro Yellow Green new on the lot in Springfield, MO and it changed my life. I didn’t think cars could be FUN until I saw that one. As I was a teen or preteen, neural plasticity was high and I have been warped ever since. A car is not a fun car unless it’s a fun color. My only compromise for accepting a boring black, white, grey, silver, subtle dark blue, or ‘common’ color is a fun interior, especially if it’s the upholstery (see VW GTI).
I am also aware, as an owner of two crossovers (white and dark grey) and a slightly less boring dark blue Transit Connect that I’m not living my values. And it hurts.
My current car is sapphire blue. I wanted orange, but couldn’t find one. Before this I had a wine red over gold Legacy Outback, and before that a cherry red F-150. The only car without true colour I’ve ever had was my first one which was silver, and I only had it for a few months.
I’m trying to find something in forest or emerald green for the next one.
For me the early 90s are encapsulated by the two wheeled IROC, a Suzuki GSXR with a loud exhaust, a day glo windshield and Bad Boy Club stickers covering the scuffed paint, ridden by a Guido wearing baggy pants and a neon tank top.
I spent most of the 90s driving a bone stock 84 Jetta, a Ford Ranger , and my old BMW Airhead.
I’ll go with the first gen Olds Aurora. Very forward thinking design. The best version of the N* engine. And a structure so strong it broke GM’s testing machine. Don’t see many of them anymore, so reliability is suspect. But at the time, you always noticed when one drove by!
(I owned a 2nd Gen Aurora and loved it, but it was definitely more conservative than the first gen)
All the teal GEOs of the era. I’ll take the Tracker overall for my singular pick.
With a Tweety Bird (fists up) spare tire cover
Nice! Thats the Chef’s Kiss
Honda Civic for me.
The green and silver Subaru station wagon. Probably called the Outback or something?
Subaru Legacy
the ford explorer. first model year was 1991 released in 1990 and once “SUV” was available to the masses the rest as you say was history.
Objectively the correct answer. I want it to be something more fun, but it was minivans (probably the Caravan) that did it in the 80s and the Explorer in the 90s.
I’ll let others decide the definitive 1990s car, but this thread makes me miss my Nissan Sentra SE-R
Any of the Chrysler LH cars – Intrepid, Concorde, Vision…
Similarly the GM H body cars, LeSabre, Bonneville, Eighty Eight.
From that other vehicle in Jurassic Park to a punch lines in sitcoms about the ‘Eddie Bauer’ edition, the vehicle of the ’90’s has to be an SUV and it has to be the Ford Explorer (preferable in green and sand).
Ford Explorer. I think it defined the decade and how changes were coming to the market.
Just beat me to it.
1998 Lexus LX470, the George Jones special. That was what he was driving when he ran into a bridge guardrail drunk as a skunk near his Franklin TN home. Now days there is a sign literally at the bridge abuttment where he wrecked that says George Jones Memorial Highway.
Anyways suburban Nashville was just thick with these Lexus Land Cruisers in the late 90s. That and the RX350. Hell a lot of people also had the GS, the ES300 and LS400, 4 different people at my high school had their parents old Lexus as a first car. The area was Lexus crazy, there were way more of them on the road back in the 90s than Mercedes, BMW, Lincoln or Cadillac
2nd gen. Mitsubishi Eclipse, there were a few floating around in h.s. and despite all of the other crap, fox bodies, thunderbirds, Saab 900’s (probably from the 80’s but they looked the same), misc. Hondas, even the cavaliers (since all the ones we saw were rusty shitboxes from the 80’s). The Eclipses turned heads. There was an Eagle Talon floating around that was cool, but more thought the eclipse was better. Even though they were essentially the same.
Also the 1st gen. dodge neon was very 90’s