As part of MotorTrend’s 75th anniversary, we look back at some of history’s most significant cars. A complete list would fill a book, so for each decade we select five notable vehicles that helped shape automotive history.
Introduction to the 1990s
Was this the best decade for the automobile in all of the 20th century? Automakers met new emissions and economy standards with fuel injection, multivalve heads, and solid-state ignitions, and with those technologies came power and acceleration the likes of which American drivers had not experienced since the early 1970s. The economy was strong, and fuel prices, adjusted for inflation, were at a 20th-century low. Fierce competition and rapidly improving technology meant the cars, trucks, minivans, and newly popular SUVs were engineered and built better than anything that had come before.
1990 Lexus LS
It’s hard to believe (and a little cringeworthy to remember), but despite their huge success, Americans held serious doubts Japanese automakers could build a credible luxury car. Toyota shut ’em all up with the introduction of the 1990 Lexus LS, a big, posh, V-8-powered sedan that was elegant, subdued, and reeked of such precision, it made German luxury cars feel like Korean econoboxes. A product of Japan’s voluntary tariffs—the strategy being to sell fewer cars at higher profits—the Lexus LS immediately put Mercedes-Benz and BMW on notice and all but knocked Cadillac and Lincoln right out of the luxury market, at least for buyers under the age of 70. Building brand cachet can take generations, but Lexus became an object of desire virtually overnight. Turns out the Japanese automakers knew exactly what Americans buyers wanted from a luxury car, better, it seems, than American buyers knew themselves.
1990 Mazda Miata
The idea behind the Mazda Miata was simple and laudable: a British-style sports car without British-style breakdowns. The first-gen Miata was classic in style, lightweight in build, and intensely rewarding to drive. The headline for our first cover story read “Warning! This Car May Be Addictive!” We called it correctly, as American drivers have been hooked on the Miata for three and a half decades. The Miata has changed in shape but never in mission, and like the pies from your favorite hole-in-the-wall New York pizzeria, there’s never really been a bad one. Meanwhile, the first-generation NA-series Miata retains an appeal that spans generations from boomers to zoomers, appealing to both budding collectors and those dipping a toe into the world of performance driving. The Miata has achieved a rare feat: It’s become a classic as highly regarded as the cars it was designed to emulate.
1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Originally intended as a replacement for the Cherokee, a design that proved too beloved to die, the ZJ Jeep Grand Cherokee carved out its own spot in history. “Carlike handling” has become a cliché to describe the way modern SUVs drive, but the ZJ was the model that proved automakers could build high-riding vehicles with both hardcore off-road capability and luxury-level driving dynamics. The Grand Cherokee was an instant hit, nabbing MotorTrend’s 1993 Truck of the Year title as well as a headline spot in pop culture, and it set the mold for the SUVs of today that exist in that wide middle ground between rugged utility and daily drivability. Drive a 1993 Grand Cherokee in the here and now, and you’ll be amazed at how modern it feels. The Grand Cherokee served as Jeep’s bridge to the 21st century and remains a popular, desirable, and aspirational vehicle to this day.
1994 Dodge Ram
At the dawn of the decade, pickup trucks were still largely seen as commercial-grade products—and then the 1994 Dodge Ram stormed onto the scene. The drop-fender styling turned heads from Bangor to Beverly Hills, but there was more to this pickup than its butch big-rig face. The Ram featured big power, including the legendary Cummins straight-six turbodiesel and a massive 8.0-liter V-10. Equally important was the well-thought-out cabin, awash in carlike ergonomics executed with truck sensibility, such as controls designed to be usable when wearing gloves. Naming the Ram our 1994 MotorTrend Truck of the Year was a no-brainer, but more important, the 1994 Ram kicked off the “niceification” of the pickup truck and its transformation from farm implement to family cruiser. The truck market thrives today, and we can thank the 1994 Dodge Ram for launching the humble pickup on its stellar trajectory.
1997 Toyota RAV4
Every automaker must ask, “What’s next?” Well, in the late 1990s, the answer was the Toyota RAV4, a small, car-based, fuel-efficient “cute-ute” (the term “crossover” wasn’t yet coined) that acknowledged an unspoken truth: SUV buyers rarely go off-road. The RAV4 was available as a Sidekick-kicking two-door soft-top, but it was the four-door that intrigued MotorTrend as an inexpensive, efficient, entertaining family car. First of what we termed “the new wave of SUVs” (followed closely by the Honda CR-V, and frankly, we had trouble picking between them today for this list), the RAV4’s success surprised even Toyota, which crossed its fingers for 36,000 U.S. sales. Instead, Toyota moved 56,000 RAV4s for calendar year 1996 and 190,000 more before the decade was out. Although the CR-V helped kick off the crossover craze, it was the RAV4’s youthful demeanor that made it a viable option for young families, a market segment still ruled by SUVs of its ilk.
MotorTrend thanks Matt Anderson, automotive historian and curator of transportation at The Henry Ford Musem of American Innovation, for his assistance with our Most Significant Cars of the Decades series.
