QOTD: Terribly Aged Nineties Vehicles From Asia?
Today’s Question of the Day is a continuation of the styling theme we’ve had of late. The discussion centers around cars of the 1990s that aged poorly. First, we accepted submissions from America, followed up last week by Europe.
Today, we head east and consider Asia.
Our rules for aged Asian aesthetics are the same as our other entries:
- All selections must be model years 1990 to 1999.
- Picks must be from an Asian manufacturer, even if sourced from an import.
- Any body style is eligible except for trucks.
The Nineties and Japan get along well together, as long as the subject is not the economy. Nevertheless, not all designs that emerged from the region were winners. To wit:
A bit obscure here, though neighbors to the north will be more familiar with it than American audiences — the Nissan Axxess. This ripe for Rare Rides MPV was sold in North America as a follow-up to the relatively unsuccessful Stanza Wagon, which Canadians called the Prairie. Axxess in America was a stop gap measure, as the new Nissan Villager Quest was ready, and was the van which Americans and Jill Wagner really wanted.
As usual, Canadians were more into MPVs, and the Axxess lasted there through 1995. With front- and all-wheel drive capability, plus manual and automatic transmissions, the Axxess was versatile and very interesting (and I like it). But did it age well? Certainly not. The Eighties are written all over it.
Off to you for submissions. Don’t think too hard about the Toyota Cavalier up there.
[Images: Toyota, Nissan]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Does it count as terribly aged if it was a hot mess to begin with? I'm thinking the original Prius. I also seem to recall a car that had weird headlights that followed most of the way back to the windshield.
Those hideous early Miatas LOL