The game-changers of each decade.

bazz26

I always found the MkI Focus to be well built, panel fit was very good and interior was solid enough. Still plenty of 98-00 Focus on the road with high miles on them too.

JohnBoy26

bazz26 wrote: »

I always found the MkI Focus to be well built, panel fit was very good and interior was solid enough. Still plenty of 98-00 Focus on the road with high miles on them too.

Lots of niggles on them and some bigger faults too, they also rust, well some more so than others. They are capable of high miles though.

PurvesGrundy

Gen 1 Volvo S60 of 2000/2001. A coupe styled saloon four years before the Merc CLS:

colm_mcm

That's just a saloon though? Its nice alright

PurvesGrundy

colm_mcm wrote: »

That's just a saloon though? Its nice alright

Never claimed to be anything else, but had a slight hint to the four door coupe concept none the less, at a time when three box design was order of the day.

visual

PurvesGrundy wrote: »

Never claimed to be anything else, but had a slight hint to the four door coupe concept none the less, at a time when three box design was order of the day.

Bigger hit of 4 door saloon

Why was it a game changer ?

PurvesGrundy

visual wrote: »

Bigger hit of 4 door saloon

Why was it a game changer ?

Its spaceball gearknob?

DakarVert

Biggest game changer in the 1960s?

The Ford Transit.

tossy

There is nothing coupe like about the S60.

Red Kev

Going back decades every country has had a car that has changed that particular country, a cheap runabout that made motoring affordable to the masses, like the Model T, 2CV, Mini, Fiat 500, Beetle etc.

More recently for me it's these:

Land Rover; from Kinshasa to Kinnegad, the first widely available off roader, honourable mention to it's cousin the Range Rover, the first luxury off roader/SUV.



Renault 4, cheap affordable motoring, very spacious for it's class, first mass produced hatchback, as good in the city as in the country, and it had a good van version as well.

Audi 100 C3. Aerodynamic shape was groundbreaking, the car was designed for being as fuuel efficient as possible, something that is probably the most important consideration in a car today, as was the 4WD system, making both acceptable on a mass produced car for the first time.

It's estate was the first "lifestyle" estate where space was sacrificed for looks and it was one of the first mass produced turbo cars in this category as well. Procon ten was a forrunner of airbags and in many ways safer.




Mazda MX-5. Re-introduced the small open top sports car.




Renault Scenic. A small affordable MPV for the masses, not the first, but the first very successful one, every car manufacturer has one in their line up today. I owned one for a while and they are an excellent car for the job they are designed to do.



Toyota Prius. Mass produced hybrid, often mocked but copied by almost every major manufacturer and........

Nissan Leaf, first fully electric car from a major manufacturer, if it's a gamechanger remains to be seen.

Frankie Lee

For the 90's it has to be the LS400


Introduced new standards for everything in its class and was a phenomenal success in terms of sales.

dr.fuzzenstein

I don't know why people list, sports cars, sports models or special editions, they did not affect 99% of car buyers. The cars that I think turned the automotive industry on it's head, changed it and broke new ground are very different to what you're thinking.

00's (of the 1900's) Ford Model T
(can't think of anything inbetween and not trawling the net for hours to find out)
50's VW Beetle (from 1938, but only took off in the 50's due to unspecified reasons I cannot mention)
60's-Mini (1959, but the essential 60's car)
70's-Golf
I don't know why people list the GTI, only a tiny amount of people actually had one and it came out later on. it took the family hatchback to new levels.
80's-hard to say, the Japanese where taking over by then..., but the Renault Espace sticks out to me, since it introduced a whole new class of cars.

ofcork

The Lexus ls was up against THE standard setter which was the s class.

Frankie Lee

ofcork wrote: »

The Lexus ls was up against THE standard setter which was the s class.

And blew it out of the water in every aspect of performance and annihilated it when it came to sales in the US. It also set new standards in production and assembly. Hence why it was a gamechanger as Mercedes were operating in a comfort zone for a long time before that.

Voodoomelon

The Scenic was a definitely a game changer when it launched. Having so much interior space, headroom and cargo capacity, without a massive overall footprint and three individual rear seats meant it sold exceptionally well. It was also quite stylish compared to the boxy offerings of it's time.

EDIT: Ah, mentioned above.

JohnBoy26

The Nissan qashqai was a game changer, it introduced us to the crossover we know today, and a concept copied by many other manufacturer s since.

PurvesGrundy

tossy wrote: »

There is nothing coupe like about the S60.

Well either you don't see it or the designers failed, as it was the C70 coupe that was reported to have influenced the shape. I accept you might argue the coupe styling reference is vague, but to say it has none is a fabrication. Would anyone be aware the Merc CLS had a coupe influence if no one was told?

visual

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

The Nissan qashqai was a game changer, it introduced us to the crossover we know today, and a concept copied by many other manufacturer s since.

The market was already saturated with crossovers M5 springs to mind and lots of soft off roaders that where so soft they had difficulty marketing as SUV or MPV

Jimmy Bottles

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

The focus is the most overrated "game changer" out there imo. Yes it handles well but it's as bland as anything to look at and isn't as fantastic as it's made out to be to drive either. it's nothing special at all imo.

In terms of car styling, the Mk 1 Focus was the game changer. Everything pre Focus looks fuddy duddy and ever car ever since owes part of its styling to that Focus.

Just look at the Astra or Corolla from 98 or 99. They look last century compared to the Focus which IMO to this day still looks good.

Frankie Lee

The first generation Punto was more influential from a design point of view. Hard to believe these are 21 years old now.

Frankie Lee

This could have been a game changer for BL back in the early 80's but never made it.
http://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/news/comment/2013-08/prototype-austin-ar6/

dr.fuzzenstein

Jimmy Bottles wrote: »

In terms of car styling, the Mk 1 Focus was the game changer. Everything pre Focus looks fuddy duddy and ever car ever since owes part of its styling to that Focus.

Just look at the Astra or Corolla from 98 or 99. They look last century compared to the Focus which IMO to this day still looks good.

It's true. Look at any of the middle of the road cars from the 90's and they are all horrendously ugly. The Focus forced everyone else clean up the lines of their cars, they where all used soap shape with way too many busy, messy lines. It even forced Ford to clean up their messy and ugly lineup from the 90's, Orion, Escort and MKI and II Mondeos anyone? All utterly dreadful. And best not to mention any Vauxhals. Or Toyotas. VW manages to escape with some dignity.

JohnBoy26

Jimmy Bottles wrote: »

In terms of car styling, the Mk 1 Focus was the game changer. Everything pre Focus looks fuddy duddy and ever car ever since owes part of its styling to that Focus.

Just look at the Astra or Corolla from 98 or 99. They look last century compared to the Focus which IMO to this day still looks good.

Apart from a few sharp edges on the focus's lights it's nothing fantastic and is no looker imo. It's not really any more exciting to look at than anything else in that class. It's got a tall slab side profile and the saloon is one of, if not not the ugliest in that class.

Maybe at the time it looked good when you considered the cr@ppy escort that came before it but in reality looking back now it's nothing at all to write home about imo.

I can't agree that the focus still looks good. Like almost all old fords from the past 20 years or so It has aged badly imo and it's looks are now very bland and sterile.

The mk4 golf may not of been considered to be as radical at the time but imo it has aged far better than the focus and looks a far fresher design today compared to the focus imo.

The corolla was never intended to be a looker. It was made with build quality and reliability as the no1 priority. It is the best screwed together car in that class and along with the civic it's also the most reliable.

JohnBoy26

visual wrote: »

The market was already saturated with crossovers M5 springs to mind and lots of soft off roaders that where so soft they had difficulty marketing as SUV or MPV

M5? The market wasn't already saturated with crossovers at the time. What other crossovers were out at the time? I'm not talking about small jeeps like you are referring to above.

dashcamdanny

Cant belive no one has mentioned the Ford Sierra .

It was the big game changer of the 80s . More So than than any big production car IMO .

dr.fuzzenstein

dashcamdanny wrote: »

Cant belive no one has mentioned the Ford Sierra .

It was the big game changer of the 80s . More So than than any big production car IMO .

It was the follow on from the Cortina, so nothing too revolutionary there, methinks.

dr.fuzzenstein

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Apart from a few sharp edges on the focus's lights it's nothing fantastic and is no looker imo. It's not really any more exciting to look at than anything else in that class. It's got a tall slab side profile and the saloon is one of, if not not the ugliest in that class.

Maybe at the time it looked good when you considered the cr@ppy escort that came before it but in reality looking back now it's nothing at all to write home about imo.

I can't agree that the focus still looks good. Like almost all old fords from the past 20 years or so It has aged badly imo and it's looks are now very bland and sterile.

The mk4 golf may not of been considered to be as radical at the time but imo it has aged far better than the focus and looks a far fresher design today compared to the focus imo.

The corolla was never intended to be a looker. It was made with build quality and reliability as the no1 priority. It is the best screwed together car in that class and along with the civic it's also the most reliable.

The Focus really cleaned up the way cars where designed.
Just look at anything before 99.
Mondeos, Sierras, Escorts, Corollas, Accent, any Rover, Toyota, Opels, well, the whole lot of them with very few exceptions.
In the 80's everything was boxy with strong lines, not all of it good, but a lot of interesting cars. It was like in the 90's designers didn't know what to do with themselves and just started doodling.
The Focus was simply sharper and had clearer lines.
I do give you the Focus Saloon. It is a travesty. Nearly as bad as the 4 door Polo Saloon.



Now THAT is ugly! :eek:
And I had one!

pablo128

David09 wrote: »

If you could nominate one car from each decade that was different to others and set new benchmarks in styling, engineering and was influential on others, what would they be?


70's : Fiat ritmo


Those are my nominations. What are yours??!

The Ritmo came out in '79, so really could be described as an '80s car. They were ok when new, but went rapidly downhill with age. They were based on the 128 running gear though, which was a true benchsetter in its day. Introduced in 1969, it was the first car ever to have a transverse engine layout with unequal length driveshafts, a feature which is used on virtually every front wheel drive car to this day.

mickdw

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

It was the follow on from the Cortina, so nothing too revolutionary there, methinks.

I don't know. Id say it brought things along quite alot. A sierra is still a reasonable car today in term of refinement, handling, comfort etc whereas as the cortinas feel very much vintage at this stage.

pablo128

mickdw wrote: »

I don't know. Id say it brought things along quite alot. A sierra is still a reasonable car today in term of refinement, handling, comfort etc whereas as the cortinas feel very much vintage at this stage.

I think the original hatchback model helped matters. The auld brits are fond of their hatchbacks. It looked a lot more modern than anything that came before too. I loved them as a kid, even had a few decent models of the XR4i back then. The Cossie hadn't been introduced yet.
I was a bit gutted though when I began working as a mechanic, and came to realise how sh1te '80s Fords were!:pac: