1990s

Car companies show off concept designs to get buyers excited about the future state of their design and technology. Most of today’s concept cars are sleek and aerodynamic and feature appealing traits like oversized wheels, suicide doors, a yoke steering wheel, and cameras in place of side mirrors.…

Say the name “Oldsmobile,” and it doesn’t exactly conjure images of powerful sports cars. But back in 1987, the company stamped its name on this futuristic-looking hypercar, dubbed the Aerotech.…

The 1990s were not the best era for automotive design. Everything seemed to be overly curvy and bubble-shaped. Renault’s 1992 concept car, the Racoon, definitely embraced the blobby styling of the time, but at least it had some cool features going for it.…

Anyone who lived through the 1990s (or has watched The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)  knows that the fashion of the decade included a whole lot of color blocking.…

You can currently buy a production BMW roadster in the form of the Z4. Here’s another very different 2-seater designed by the German automaker. The BMW Just 4/2 was actually the winner of an internal design competition at BMW back in 1995.…

I kind of consider the 1990s my “lost decade” – I didn’t really care for mainstream music, movies, or cars during most of that period. Sure, there were some outliers like Radiohead, The Matrix, and the Nissan Skyline, but for the most part, I didn’t really connect with pop culture.…

I’ll go on record now and say that the 1990s wasn’t exactly my favorite decade for automotive design. Cars became more and more homogeneous in style, and mediocre performance seemed to be the name of the game during those days, with none-too-thrilling cars like the Dodge Neon, the Pontiac Trans Sport, and the Ford Tempo.…

Today, the market is filled with compact crossovers like the Kia Soul and the Mazda CX-3. But there was a time when there really wasn’t such a thing.…

If you have ever looked at a late ’90s Cadillac and thought what it really needs is a second Northstar V8 in the trunk and bizarrely designed sheet metal, I have found your ride.…