Ground Shakers: Upending the Segment
It doesn’t happen every year but, on occasion, a new vehicle shows up and so completely rewrites the rulebook for its segment that its competition is left talking to itself and scrambling to come up with the Next Big Thing.
Perhaps the vehicle is a wholesale quantum leap over the old one. Or maybe it is something so far ahead of its rivals that it wins buff book comparison tests until the laggards finally come up with something better. Either way, there are a list of these things throughout history - and we’re going to profile three of them in posts like this over the next couple of days.
[Images: Sue Thatcher/Shutterstock.com, Dodge, Art Konovalov/Shutterstock.com, Ford, Car Spotter/Shutterstock.com, Nikonysta/Shutterstock.com]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
First up? The new-for-1994 Dodge Ram. Any gearheads who weren’t around when that pickup truck dropped from space underestimates the amount of impact it had on the half-ton segment. People were climbing all over each other to drive one off the dealer lot, to the point where this author remembers someone drawing a Dodge logo on a piece of cardboard and sticking it on the upright grille of their Chevy squarebody in jest.
The style was outrageous and like nothing else in the class and hugely increased Dodge’s slice of an incredibly competitive pie. Helping matters was the fact that the model it replaced was hopelessly outdated; that thing shared much with trucks of the ‘70s both inside and out, making the ‘94 Ram all the more appealing.
Much has been written about the 1986 Ford Taurus and the impact it had on what was then a huge segment for the auto industry: midsize family sedans. Aero slick considerations like composite headlights and flush door handles were all but unheard of at the time, especially in the relatively affordable markets. Compared to its direct competition from Detroit (Celebrity, big K Cars, et al) the ‘86 Taurus was a steamroller.
Did it give the crew slinging Honda Accord sedans sleepless nights? Possibly two or three, which is two or three more than before. Speaking of, we also must mention what a quantum leap the Taurus represented over its predecessor - the thoroughly outdated Ford LTD (the dowdy midsize one, not the Crown Vic).
Similar praise should be heaped on the original 1991 Lexus SC, a sultry two-door personal coupe from Japan crafted with the type of perfection with which gearheads were familiar now they had a chance to digest the mighty LS sedan introduced a couple of calendar years prior.
Rear-wheel drive and technically related to the Toyota Supra, the SC first appeared as an automatic-only SC 400 followed by an inline-six SC 300 with an optional manual transmission.
