The 1980s promised to be difficult for American industry. However, a series of technological innovations have allowed it to regain its footing. Injection engines, turbochargers and airbags became commonplace during these years, allowing American manufacturers to return to the know-how that had made them prosperous: large and powerful cars, but now made less polluting thanks to mechanical advances.
The end of the recession of the early 1980s coincided with the emergence of several now iconic models, which entered the collective imagination thanks to popular culture. The decade gave birth to the DeLorean from Back to the Future and the Trans Am from K 2000, but also to the Chevy Cavalier, the Honda Accord and the Ford Taurus, two of the most fashionable models on the roads of North America during this period.
The second generation Jeep Cherokee, built on a lighter unibody platform, also saw the light of day in 1984, deploying a manufacturing technique that paved the way for modern sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
It was also in the mid-1980s that a vehicle appeared that the New York Times described, in a 1984 article, as the new “hot cars” straight out of Detroit: minivans, which offered, according to the newspaper, a driving experience comparable to that of a car with the storage space of a small truck and the spacious interior of a minivan.
“Analysts say that the minivan has created a new market that could well overshadow that of station wagons,” adds the venerable daily of the Big Apple. The sentence will prove to be premonitory, observes Daniel Boudreault.
“The affordable and practical minivan for families did the same job in the 1990s as the station wagon did in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.”
The 1990s saw the heyday of minivans and the takeoff of SUVs. “The minivan experienced phenomenal growth at the end of the 1990s,” explains Daniel Boudreault. At the turn of the millennium, utility sports were also on board for good and have never given up their place since. »
It was also in 1997 that Ford innovated with a more spacious and comfortable F-150 to meet the growing demand of customers looking for the power of a truck, but also the amenities to make it an everyday vehicle.
According to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, sales of SUVs jumped from 1.3 million in 1994 to 2.4 million in 1999. This 84% jump, major at the time, heralded the trend of today: Americans purchased 12.3 million SUVs in 2023, according to S&P Mobility’s annual report, an increase in sales of 412% in 25 years.
The 1990s nevertheless belonged to mid-size sedans, and three models alternated at the top of the sales podium between 1990 and 2000: the Honda Accord, the Ford Taurus and the Toyota Camry. These cars gained weight and volume with each new generation: the Accord model swelled by around ten centimeters and around 300 kilograms between 1976 and 1998.
These vehicles nevertheless remain modest compared to the Hummer, a 3.6 ton colossus which guzzles a gallon of gasoline every 15 km and which appeared on the market in 1992. The Toyota RAV4, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Land Rover Discovery and the Ford Explorer and Expedition arrive in this decade, a prelude to the wave of SUVs that is about to sweep into the new millennium.