In the 90s, cars from the 70s and 60s were seen as classic, but in 2022 cars from the 90s or 2000s can still be seen in daily use, and in terms of body design, many don’t even look that far off modern cars. What happened around the late 80s?

Question

Edit: great responses, Reddit. People have largely addressed the form factor aspect of my question. But am I wrong in sensing that cars from the late 90s seem to be more reliable and functionally acceptable in 2022, than most cars from the 70s were in the 90s? Was there some engineering breakthrough that made them more long lived?

In: 91

Answer 1

Cars from the 70’s had a much shorter life, overall. Anti-corrosion coatings, improved machining tolerances for engine components, computer control (both to alert and prevent bad things from happening), and general advances in materials have all made a big difference. My first car was a ’75 I got in 85 with pretty low miles, and it already was well on it’s way to terminal rust. They were simpler to work on, however.