- Have you ever just had one of those conversations
with another person and you're like,
"Hey bro, what's your dream car?"
And they respond and they're like,
"Yeah, I'd probably say an MK4 Supra."
And you look at them and you're like,
"Did you just, did,
did you just say MK 4?"
And they're like, "Yeah, dude. An MK4 Supra,
'cause that's the dream car."
And then you're just questioning yourself.
It's like, do you want to tell him that it's Mark?
It's Mark.
Alright? We've all made this mistake before.
We were all young at one point.
But it's Mark, not MK.
But you don't know if you'd rather be concerned
about the fact that it's a Supra or an MK.
But why is it that no matter
what the conversation could be about
when it comes to cars, it almost always ends up
with people talking about the most famous cars out there
usually from across the seat.
Alright.
And it's pretty much the infamous cars
if you are under the age of 35.
You'd say RX-7, the 993911, the Skyline, the Type R,
the MR2, the 3000GT, and the 300DS, and the Supra.
Why?
I'm Alex, @alex.fi on Instagram.
And today we're gonna be talking about just why,
why, for everyone's beautiful green ears...
That doesn't make any sense.
Why do we love these cars that were born
the same generation I was?
And just how have the 90s automotive industry
paved the way for the car scene
that we now know and love today?
And if you've never seen... this first,
I'm sorry that you're here.
But second off, don't forget to subscribe
so I can keep making banging videos like this.
And if you haven't yet, be sure to check us out
over at fitmentindustries.com,
where you have everything that you could possibly want
for wheels, tires, suspension...
Right. And for your 90s car or otherwise.
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Neat.
We also have 0% financing available
which means you can pick up your stuff now
and pay for it later with your tax returns
in case you need to get your project car built now,
instead of later, or you can not do that.
And then just roll in your winter beater
to the season opener because the project car got behind.
I feel like I'm overusing quotes.
Use them whenever the hell I want to.
Let's take it back to the days of the 80s
in the automotive industry.
We had the old industry going through a few weird things,
especially here in the States.
First off, they were just coming off of
many of the harsh and severe limitations
that came from the implementation of the EPA regulations
and importation of raw materials from across the world.
International trade rules were getting really fierce and
it was actually turning into a little bit of a dirty battle.
Generally speaking, it wasn't really the best
for the domestic automotive industry.
It wasn't until the mid-80s that the oil industry prices
had finally begun to drop, which allows some revitalization
into the automotive industry in the States.
This was when they were still competing pretty well
with keeping that industry in the United States.
But across the water, their guy, there was another economy
that was just pretty much booming.
It was doing no wrong.
It did nothing but grow, pretty much straight to the sky.
Alright. Reminds me a little bit
what's going on with like GameStop.
Alright. It was much what was happening
except there wasn't so many politics built around it.
It was just that the economy was just doing really well.
Alright. AMC, people's interest in TikToks,
it was pretty much the same way.
And either way the Japanese automotive industry
on the other side of the world
was going through a much different awkward state
in high school.
They were going through the exact opposite
to where automotive industry in the United States
was barely coming up,
the Japanese automotive industry was skyrocketing.
They didn't really have the same pains and groans
as the domestic automotive market
and the Japanese import variants of the cars
that were previously exclusive to the Japanese market
made their way into the awkward states of Minnesota
and California, where people began to realize
that Hondas provided better reliability, gas mileage,
and lower costs in the domestic equivalent,
which in the same token, not a lot of people
were enjoying their domestic car manufacturer names
because they were getting their troubles
and their asses beat by every single person
that cared about the environment.
And because of the cross-mingling of competition space,
people like you and people like me got to see
what happens when the two richest kids in schools
compete to have the coolest car in this parking lot.
And that's essentially what happened in the 80s
when it came to the international automotive market.
Me and Michael Shaw were sitting over there
at a base model 300E and a 1977 Buick Riviera.
In case you were wondering
what I was driving around in high school.
It was $3,000,
baby blue, insurance was like 60 bucks a month.
It was pretty cool.
And that's what happened.
The Japanese automotive manufacturers saw an opportunity
coming into the 80s that had untapped potential,
because the domestic manufacturers
just weren't cutting the cake for enthusiasts that had found
that they enjoyed small cars that turned quick
and had decent gas mileage.
And what that did was essentially
prepare the Japanese market to enter into the world
of the 90s.
And they wanted to hit the 90s not just a little bit,
but they wanted to hit it
with absolutely everything they possibly could.
Alright. When it came down to the nineties,
you had people blowing on NES cartridges,
Tamagotchis, alright, these people were killing them.
I had one one time, and then my dad took it away from me.
Blockbuster-loving, Land Before Time-having ass.
And it was a beautiful time to be alive.
Okay. You had to tell your mom to
get off the phone so you could connect to multiplayer,
- [Man In Video] Get off the phone!
- on your Behemoth computer.
And I remember that specifically,
mostly because I was never actually allowed
on the computer cause everybody was always on the phone.
The Japanese Yen was booming
and the market was insanely successful.
Adjustments the tariffs were made,
which allowed the island to truly capture some equity
in the international market.
And a lot of that money was funneled
through the companies of Nissan, Mazda,
Mitsubishi, and Toyota.
And this sparked what I would like to call,
and this is unofficial in every way, shape and form,
but we're here, so we're going to do it.
I'm calling it
the Japan Dodge Syndrome.
Alright. Hear me out.
This is what happened.
What is the newly appointed term that I officially used?
Okay. Let me tell you.
It's what happens when a company has more money than needed
on their existing platform,
so they toss money into experimental projects.
Performance niche markets and
give the marketing team the budgets they actually should
instead of giving them pennies on the dollar.
Cars like the 3000GT did a VR4 model
with all wheel steering, all wheel drive,
all of the most advanced HVAC system ever invented,
300 horsepower, twin turbos, active front and rear arrow,
and adjustable suspension.
Like what?
It means the RX-7, it got more Doritos,
more love and more R and D to truly explore the limits
of an unconventional motor type that even Mazda knew
they weren't going to really kind of pan out that long.
It was just an insane time to be alive.
It meant that Toyota made their 2JZ motor a freight train
that was then de-tuned for the official purchases
that embarrassed those that sat in F-16 cockpits.
JDM Audi manufacturers in the 90s had money-money.
Alright. And while the domestic market was trying their best
most of us were closely infatuated with the cars
coming out of the other side of the world.
Because they were so insanely built,
because they had money-money.
Alright. Even your being companies
were seeing the opportunity
through the likes of the period correct M3, Porsche, Volvo,
and even Mercedes-Benz with their C36 AMG in 1993.
And when you start really looking at all of the stuff
that was going into the automotive industry of the nineties,
it was a big deal.
And they had the money and they made some fast ass cars
but that didn't inherently mean that it did insanely well.
What it did do is it set up the recipe for success
as to why 90s cars became so coveted
and why we still look back to them for inspiration
thirty years later.
And what it comes down to is what they stood for.
As the cars came out and entered the market into the States
they were immediately sucked up into media and television.
You had US auto shows, putting them in TV shows.
You had UK shows like Top Gear reviewing them against
some of the greatest cars in history.
And they proved their worth further justifying that
these cars are some of the most
technologically advanced cars ever.
For a fraction of the cost of an exotic
during the same time period.
Even the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini
were getting their ass just tossed during this time period.
And you had movies that began coming out in the 2000s,
2010s, and even recently, still featuring
the iconic cars of the 90s because
people just refuse to let them go.
Forgoes of what you think about Vin Diesel saying,
"Family." 72 times in a movie,
that franchise senses origination,
pushed the nostalgia button as many times as possible
for people like us all the way up until the point where
we finally had enough money to buy one.
Because we became adults and we started getting a real job
that was full time.
And all of a sudden we learned about taxes
and then we're like,
"We're going to get a car to escape our pain."
Nostalgia. Alright, it's nostalgia.
And we're old now, but the manufacturers of that era
set the bar for what a lot of us as enthusiasts
started to expect from automobiles and high output,
beautifully designed, connected, and built-with-soul cars
really, really, really found some strong roots
in the 90s for people our age.
As they inevitable collapsed came
into the Japanese automotive industry
in the early 2000s,
that statement they made for the past decade set the bar
and it never really went away.
And this has happened before.
A Japanese market wasn't the only one to do this.
The domestic market in the late 60s and early 70s
are why our parents and grandparents
love Chevelles, Camaros, Mustangs,
and all of that good stuff.
And it's because of what those cars stood for.
Beautifully designed, powerful, connected, loud,
and master lifestyle of the American dream at the time.
What the 60s and 70s did for them is
what the 90s are doing for our generation.
And that's just sick.
Even when you look at some of the newer cars
trying to make their way back into our lives,
like the MK5 Toyota Supra, or even the Nissan 400Z,
both of them have nostalgic moments taking us
back to the 90s that most of us grew up to live.
Like they're not even really changing much
on what they knew to work 30 years ago.
All they're doing is making them obtainable.
They're real cars that made us,
and spoke to us and made us smile,
kind of reminded us of the days where we had to get
off of our phone or off of our computer
so that our mom could talk to her bestie for 45 minutes.
But why do you think the 90s paved the way
for this scene?
Let us know. And of course,
if you need wheels, tires and suspension
be sure to hit us up over at fitmentindustries.com
where everything you could possibly imagine
including our brand new wheel company that we just launched,
Artisa Art Form Wheels.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
We really appreciate you guys. We love you so much.
I'd give you a hug, but you know how it is.
And we will see you later.
Peace.