Most influential cars of the '90s

[Smokey]

The decade that brought us "Dances With Wolves," "Silence of the Lambs" and President Bill Clinton, brought us these influentials cars also.

Although most of the car listed is from msnAuto, I had to throw in few of my choices too for good measure.

Not in any particular order:

1990 Ford Explorer: Before the Ford Explorer SUV, soccer moms drove station wagons. The early '90s Explorer put the SUV in the mainstream and became the prime-time player of people moving, and it hasn't looked back.


1990 Lexus LS400: The LS was Lexus' first shot across the bow of luxury sedans from Europe. The automaker's debut car came out swinging with a 4.0-liter 250-horsepower V8 engine under the hood, supple leather in the cabin and tanklike build quality.


1991 GMC Syclone: Its 5.3-second zero-to-60-mph time made it unlike any pickup truck before or since. While the Syclone's black body and turbocharged 6-cylinder engine combo was reminiscent of the Buick Grand National.


1992 Honda Civic: The 1992 to 1995 EG Civic makes this list because of its "founding father" effect in the import tuning scene. Honda produced dazzling engines and many parts from other Honda and Acura products could be easily swapped into the Civic.


1992 Hummer Humvee: The Humvee went directly from military carpools to civilian carports in 1992. Supremely capable, its planetary gear 4-wheel drive and low overhang meant the Humvee could scale inclines that would make Spiderman jealous.


[b]1997 Volkswagen New Beetle[/img]: The "people's car" made a resounding comeback as the Volkswagen hit all the right notes by capturing the hippie chic, minimalist and righteous vibe of the original Bug, the fourth-best-selling vehicle ever at 21.5 million units.


1997 Hyundai Tiburon: The Tiburon was Hyundai's first trip outside the box from a design standpoint. The swoopy coupe laid the groundwork for the styling revolution the Korean automaker is putting on the road today.


1991 Acura NSX: The Acura NSX was the common man's Ferrari, a reliable supercar capable of daily driving. Svelte and smooth, the NSX was all about balance, as the moderately powerful 270-horsepower midmounted V6 engine was no indication of the raw driving pleasure that awaited lucky NSX owners.


1994 Dodge Ram:It featured a big rig-looking front end and a large grille, it would mandate instant recognition for the new Dodge full-sized pickup.


1990 Nissan 300ZX: American Z-car sales reach the one million sales mark in the 1990 model year, making it the all-time best selling sports car.

[Feanor]

Gotta mostly disagree. Tiburon? Really? Two pickups? What? Humvee in a civilian context is no only minor but environmentally unconscionable.

I agree about including at least one SUV. Personally I might have included a compact SUV such as a Rav4 or a CR-V.

[recoveryone]

The Lexus is not from Europe, it is from Japan! can you say Toyota. I have to submit my little sleeper from the 90's that fired a shot back at the Euro's and Japenese sport sedan or saloon for all my Euro brothers out there.



My old 1998 SVT Contour, the middle brother of the SVT lineup

[Craigcpr69]

Hey Recoveryone, I think the ad meant that by being "a shot across the bow of the European luxury cars " it was a warning that the japanese were coming after their Niche in the market! I would've added the Lexus SC400 coupe with the hi-output V8, frt. engine/rear wheel drive instead of the LS400 sedan myself, as well as the BMW 850CS with the high-perf. V12 and 8 speed tranny, a greatly under-appreciated super car introduced in '90/91 over here. Had opportunity to drive 1 once, simply awesome piece of machinery!

[Smokey]

Humvee in a civilian context is no only minor but environmentally unconscionable.

Humvee supposedly was to replace Jeep as incarnation of robust military vehicles going civilian, but low MPG and high gas prices killed it before it even came out of gate. However it created alot of press at the time for being the pinnacle what some poeple called "Endless american appetite for big large vehicles."

Hey Recoveryone, I think the ad meant that by being "a shot across the bow of the European luxury cars " it was a warning that the japanese were coming after their Niche in the market!

Good catch

[Feanor]

Humvee supposedly was to replace Jeep as incarnation of robust military vehicles going civilian, but low MPG and high gas prices killed it before it even came out of gate. However it created alot of press at the time for being the pinnacle what some poeple called "Endless american appetite for big large vehicles."

No denying that!

As a military vehicle the Humvee has been, I think, a very qualified success. It proved no substitute for armoured vehicles, at least not until up-armored versions were developed -- making them even heavier & less efficient. In these configurations it bears little resemblance to the original Jeep.

As a light combat vehicle even the armoured the Humvee has proven less than ideal. So the M1117 Armored Security Vehicle, HERE, for example, is proving much more effective.

See THIS article on Humvee replacement candidates. We may note that all of these are actually larger (more capacity at least) and more heavily armoured than the Humvee.

[blackraven]

My most influential car was the 1968 VW beetle that I had in college. It was a POS and it influenced me to make good grades and make something of myself so I would not have to drive pos cars like it.

The only good thing about it was that after the engine died, I rebuilt it myself and upgraded the engine with larger cylinders, polished racing heads, headers, an oil cooler, light weight lifters with a high performance cam shaft, glass pack exhaust , a 2 barrel Weber Carburator and a heavy duty porsche clutch plate. Then i Baja'd the body. I doubled the horse power and ended up selling the thing to an old lady whose beetle caught fire and burned up.