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25 ’90s Cars Drivers Are In No Hurry To Remember

Cameron Eittreim February 4, 2020

1999 Oldsmobile Alero — via: Auto Evolution

12. Oldsmobile Alero

Toward the end of its life cycle, the Oldsmobile brand was dated and made nothing more than rebadged cars. There was not one unique Oldsmobile car model except for the Aurora. The Oldsmobile Alero was a cheap coupe and sedan. The V6 engine was a solid power plant for the Alero, but that was the only option. The car never had any major upgrades during its run.

The Alero could have been a great compact car to get Oldsmobile back into the mainstream. But around this time, GM was focusing more energy and resources on full-size SUV models. Unfortunately, the Alero was just an afterthought in a crowded marketplace of like-minded automobiles.

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11. Nissan 200SX SE-R

The Nissan brand was in tough shape during the ’90s. The 200SX was an odd little two-door that managed to slot right above the Sentra in terms of size and price. In the ’90s, two-door coupes were some of the most popular cars hitting the market. They were good on gas and somewhat fun to drive, which meant that younger drivers would come into the showroom. The Nissan 200SX SE-R was a sports-oriented model but just ended up being an oddity.

The Nissan 200SX SE-R didn’t offer anything in the way of real sportiness. The features and design of the Nissan 200SX SE-R were just not enough to keep the car going but it stands as just another blur in the history of Nissan.

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10. Hyundai Scoupe

The early ’90s Hyundai was a far different car company than today. The cars were a lot different and a lot cheaper. So what made the Scoupe stand out from the crowd? This was Hyundai’s first attempt at a sports car. The Scoupe was a lot better than the Excel in a lot of ways and this was enough to give Hyundai courage. The car came with a good deal of standard features, making the Scoupe a modest success for Hyundai.

Even though it’s very seldom that you see one of these cars on the road anymore, the Scoupe was a great attempt at a sports car. This was especially true from a brand that was just starting to expand their product portfolio on American soil.

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9. Subaru SVX

Subaru has always been a major player on the American market. But one thing that the brand could never seem to do is sell a sports car people wanted. The SVX is one of the most forgotten sports cars ever made. It’s not that it was necessarily a bad car by any means. But for the most part, the SVX just lacked what it took to be a universally-accepted sports car. The Subaru SVX had a powerful motor, but horsepower wasn’t the only important thing.

The Subaru SVX lacked features of refinement and that’s why it didn’t survive. Doing maintenance on it was a pretty expensive task. The car was difficult for most technicians to work on and reliability was scarce.

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8. Eagle Vision

Chrysler was trying everything during the ’90s. Their Eagle brand was an attempt to get sports car buyers into the dealerships. The Eagle Vision was a sport sedan that had some promise to it, but when production came, everyone knew it was just an Intrepid. Chrysler did nothing to rebadge the sedan the right way. There was no reason for the price increase.

The Eagle Vision could have been a great sedan. It had a clean appearance and powerful V6 engine that was sportier than most on the market. The Vision just needed the right push to get the job done. Instead, Chrysler decided to start winding down the Eagle brand.

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7. Hyundai Tiburon

The Tiburon is another decent Hyundai from the ’90s. The company was expanding and cheap sports cars seemed to be the way to go. But the Tiburon didn’t offer much different from the Scoupe. What was essentially a two-door Elantra ended up being a cheap mode of transportation. The Tiburon didn’t stand out from the crowd in terms of performance and became forgotten quickly.

Aside from fading into the memory of the ’90s, the Tiburon was also a lackluster performer. Which means that you won’t find very many of these that were taken care of. Instead you’ll find junkyard-worthy examples that have been put through the ringer and suffer from ’90s Hyundai build quality.

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6. Infiniti G20

This short-stacked little sedan was notorious for being a cheap part of the Infiniti lineup. The brand was working on competing with other luxury brands from Toyota and Honda, but the cars coming out at the time were forgetful. The G20 was a particularly sad example of what a compact luxury car should not be. It was nothing more than a slightly fancier Sentra.

But the shoddy build quality and lightweight design made the car an impossible mix of what could have beens. The car never had a chance of competing against much more refined offerings from the Germans. The only thing that the G20 did have going for it was bulletproof reliability.

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5. Suzuki X-90

Suzuki wasn’t quite in the same boat as Hyundai during the ’90s, but it was close. The brand was constantly tethering on the edge of obscurity. The only good thing that Suzuki had going for it was its motorsports division. The X-90 was a small two-seater SUV that the brand was hoping to market to a younger demographic. The fun colors and open-air design made the X-90 look like nothing else on the market. But aside from being cheaply-made it was also only a two-seater.

Even the in-house Sidekick had more interior volume then the X-90. What was a pretty cool concept never really managed to latch on with consumers. The car just wasn’t appealing on a broad enough scale and thus you don’t see these things that often anymore.

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4. Nissan NX2000

The ’90s were full of Japanese cars that were not sporty enough. The Nissan NX2000 was very similar in design to the Mazda MX-3, another hatchback sports car. The features that the Nissan NX2000 had made it seem like an appealing buy on paper. But the reality was that it just couldn’t handle the everyday tasks of being a real sports car. The forgettable design made these things fall out of favor very quickly.

The folks at Nissan were offering all types of incentives to give these things away. There are some interesting features, but for the most part it was a dud through due to lack of design.

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via: Motor Trend

3. Isuzu Impulse

There were quite a few forgotten compact cars from the ’90s that you might not remember. The Impulse is one of these cars. The company began to shift its focus to sport utility vehicles. The Impulse is a car that might not have had a chance at life had the company not already had cheap compact cars. You seldom see one of these driving around, but surprisingly the Geo Storm was quite popular.

The Impulse had a lot of potential had the design been implemented right. But when it comes down to it ,the Impulse was just another cheap Japanese car that didn’t have what it needed to survive. There was a lot of competition around this time and the Impulse got lost in a sea of it.

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2. Isuzu I-Mark

Another part of the failed Isuzu sedan lineup is the I-Mark. This interesting-looking sedan was tiny and didn’t have too many interesting features. Isuzu was on the way out of the passenger car business, so the I-Mark didn’t need to attract buyers to a great degree. The company wasn’t going to be putting a whole lot of time and energy into this car and thus it went the way of other cheap imports at the time. There were very few of them made.

Had Isuzu put more emphasis into their passenger cars, there is a good chance that the company might be with us today. But cheap competition from Hyundai and other affordable car makers all but made Isuzu the walking joke of the automotive industry.

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1. Mitsubishi Colt

The Colt was another fairly popular compact car from this period. Mitsubishi was selling them with a variety of different badges on them, including Dodge. The Colt in its regular form was a hatchback like the Suzuki Swift. The car had a lot going for it including an optional turbo version. The Colt had a roomy interior and the car was available in quite a few options that made it a viable choice.

Fortunately, a cheap build quality and a lack of reputation made the Colt a forgettable member of the Mitsubishi lineup. There were quite a few cheap compacts from this period and the Colt was among them. You do see these cars from time to time, but it’s few and far between because the offering was so subpar.

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