For some reason 1990 is a year that is marked in automobile history as a turning year.  From 1990 forward automakers started adding a multitude of features to cars and turned their backs on their previous bottom of the market versions that were perfect for the young automobile owner.  This may have been a truly negative swing in the market as we saw a year where there were several cheaper cars on the market to choose from in 1990 and by the next year or two they were gone.  The reasons for these changes certainly began with the low margins on these low end cars, but oftentimes a low margin product is able to be a way to gain a customer for life.

The 1990 model year was interesting in that it offered cars such as the Cavalier Type 10, Ford Escort, Plymouth Colt, Mazda 323, Honda Civic DX, Toyota Tercel and VW Fox.  All of these cars have a completely stripped down model that never came near the $10,000 price tag and were not equipped with automatic transmissions.  These cars were able to be the right cars for many young drivers to enjoy on the road and were priced for those entering the workforce for the first time to be able to afford.

These cars of course not only were devoid of the automatic transmission, many of them had no air conditioning, were fitted with hand crank windows and certainly would not have ABS brakes.  Even though these were the features that we would take for granted today, buying a used car that was five to ten years old meant a car that was better off left in the scrap heap and since new cars were so inexpensive you could afford to spend the money, even if you were a clerk at a grocery store making at the time $5-$7 per hour.

Even though automakers were not offering these cars later in model years what these cars typified was the beginning of a relationship with a brand that many have felt to this day.  Think about it, when you look to buy a car you generally already have a favorite brand in mind that will certainly allow you to enjoy the features and drive you are familiar with.  As you get older that basic Tercel or Civic translates into more expensive models and eventually luxury machines as income increases and success in business is found.

In today’s world, the difference is the used cars are certainly not what they were back in 1990.  A ten year old Toyota still holds a lot of value and the base models on some cars come with things like Bluetooth connectivity and certainly have power everything so you don’t have to crank your windows.  Would it be a good idea for automakers to find a way to offer an inexpensive option once again?  Certainly it would, but with the entire tech that is put into cars I suspect we aren’t going to see the stripped down, easy to work on basic models any time soon and will instead have to work with what we have.