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A little over 20 years ago, we faced the new millennium, as did our societal and cultural tastes. We began seeing the cool factor of things we hadn’t at that point fathomed. As such, in the automotive world, many models were sub-zero cool. Nearly everyone wanted to get their hands on many models, including the ones listed here. But then, there is a matter of age.
Ideally, with time, we grow wiser, not older. However, and unfortunately so, this is not always the case. Cars, of course, aren’t sentient, so any aging will always be superficial. With that said, they can either age with grace to become timeless designs, or become bland, tacky, or even obsolete. The ten sports carson this list unfortunately did not turn out as timeless as we’d hoped.
10/10 Ford Mustang
The SN-95 Ford Mustang was tasked with the tremendous weight of succeeding the Fox body. Many famous versions came of this generation, like the SVT Cobra. The facelifted version, though newer, somehow aged worse.
Ford attempted to incorporate its recent New Edge design language into an existing platform. While they did so successfully on the exterior, the interior remained almost entirely unchanged. The problem was the interior, with its curvy dashboard that starkly contrasted with the ‘Stang’s new clean-cut shell, was a ’90s relic.
9/10 Hyundai Tiburon
The Hyundai Tiburon was a favorite in that it was a cheap, relatively modern sports coupe, taking up a spot where value-based sports cars like the Geo Storm and Eagle Talon left.
However, time hasn’t been good to the old Tiburon. Especially the first-gen, with its love-it-or-hate-it ‘spider eye’ headlights on the facelifted version and the tacky space-age details of the interior. It was seen as edgy at the time. Now, it’s aged like chunky milk.
8/10 Pontiac Grand Am GT
The Pontiac Grand Am was a midsize sedan based on the same platform as the Oldsmobile Alero. But unlike the Alero, the Grand Am had a little spice, especially if opting for the GT version, which came with Ram-Air hood scoops and GM’s High Output 3.4-liter V6.
As cool as it was, poor safety scores and a plastic interior made the Grand Am show its age as time went on. Nowadays, you can either find these in scrapyards or for sale on Facebook Marketplace for half a month’s paycheck.
7/10 Ford Thunderbird
The final-generation Ford Thunderbird was Dearborn’s attempt at buying into the retro car fad of the early 2000s. It was a large, expensive two-seater convertible with styling cues straight out of the 1950s.
It was ice-cold for its day, even being a part of the exclusive Bond Car club, but its low-rent interior and impracticality made it less of a classic as much as a sign of the times.
6/10 Chevrolet Camaro
Before taking an eight-year hiatus, the Chevrolet Camaro was a wedge-shaped star-spangled rocket. The problem, which wasn’t as prevalent at the time, was that it had remained relatively unchanged for a decade, save for the front fascia, which did away with its pop-up headlights due to safety reasons.
What resulted was a car with 1990s looks and technology. When placed next to the reintroduced Camaro from 2010, the cool factor of the latter doesn’t even compare.
5/10 Toyota Celica
Similarly to the Tiburon, the final-generation Toyota Celica tried to achieve a Y2K aesthetic, evident in various styling cues throughout both the interior and exterior.
It may have looked cool at the time, but such aesthetic choices soon became novelties. It soon felt like you were driving a toy more than a serious automobile. Perhaps, however, that may be an advantage for some.
4/10 Mercury Cougar
The Cougar is the third entry on this list that was the final generation of a famous nameplate before it got discontinued. In the case of the Cougar, it was a break from the Thunderbird-based grand tourer the Cougar once was, instead a front-wheel-drive replacement for the Ford Probe.
Another product that used Ford’s New Edge design language, the Cougar was a good-looking liftback. However, cheap materials and lackluster dependability prevented it from aging with much grace.
3/10 Acura 3.2 CL
Certainly, one of the coolest cars to come from the 1990s was the Acura Legend Coupe, with its squared-off body and dominant stance coupled with durable Japanese engineering. Its successor was the Acura CL, with its second and final generation ending production nearly 20 years ago.
It was luxurious and quick—especially if it was the Type S—but it gained an unlikely reputation for unreliability. Specifically, the automatic transmission was a ticking time bomb on these cars, as well as its sedan version, the 3.2 TL. Beware of this if you find one on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for only a few grand.
2/10 Mitsubishi Eclipse
The generation of Mitsubishi Eclipse that debuted in 2000 lacked what made its predecessor so magical. Its styling, while cool in 2000, today seems lost as to what it wants to be. This was very much unlike the simple, clean curves of the previous generation.
This, plus a cheaper interior shared with Chrysler, made for a less popular Eclipse than before. After all, even though the newer version was already on sale, it was the previous version that was featured in The Fast and the Furious.
1/10 Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor
The Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor was arguably the storied German automaker’s first attempt at creating a youth-oriented model priced more affordably for the U.S. market. Standard was a 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, and it was one of the few Benzes you could get in the States with a cloth interior.
Most of them didn’t last long, however, and many became scrapyard darlings. Its controversial hatchback styling and premium price, despite being cheaper than other Benz models, didn’t help sales either. It was cool but has since been largely forgotten.
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