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?
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