Today, June 16, is National Gen X Day, celebrating those born between 1965 and 1980. I was born in the inaugural year of the Celica Liftback but I don’t think I’m biased when I say it’s the best generation. Our parents weren’t helicopters, we had just the right amount of technology, grew up with the best music, and got our driver’s licenses just in time for the golden age of cars.
Any vehicle from the 80s and 90s could probably be a Gen X car. All you need is a Pearl Jam or Public Enemy cassette in the tape deck and a Douglas Coupland book on back seat. For me it’s the first front-drive Corollas, but the GM versions of them. My two best friends from high school both drove NUMMI Novas, and my sorta girlfriend had a Geo Prizm. Aside from the west coast most of America wasn’t quite ready to embrace Japanese cars with open arms, but liked the idea of a fuel-efficient 4-cylinder that was screwed together right. When we got our licenses in the 90s, these GM-badged Toyotas made the perfect hand-me-downs. But everyone probably has a different idea based personal experience.
What’s the most Gen X car?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s your favorite radio control car?“.
The answers this week brought us back to browsing the aisles at Toys R Us, with Tyco and Nikko creations taunting us from their styrofoam enclosures.
There’s such a wide range of RC cars available, from Jamal‘s claw game Kenmeri Skyline prize to @kanyewest‘s Tamiya Lunch Box. We enjoyed reading about the memories of ra21benj‘s Tokyo Marui Big Bear Datsun, Fashion Victim‘s Kyosho Turbo Optima, and Taylor C.‘s friend’s Tamiya Nissan King Cab and his longing for a Kyosho Burns. Even more run-of-the-mill Nikkos like StreetSpirit‘s Nissan 350Z or Yewnos100‘s Mazda RX-8 made lasting impressions.
The winner this week was Ian G., whose excitement for his Toyota 4Runner reminded us what it was like to be a kid again.
I am a big diecast car enthusiast and I was just organizing my collection yesterday but as far as RC cars, I have one awesome memory. I went to HK with family with I was like 7. We took a one day layover in Japan and I am not sure if I chose this or not but my mom and dad bought me a Toyota 4-Runner (this was the early 80’s so it may have been a Hi-lux) RC car that as I kid I remember taking with me everywhere to show off to my friends. I remember bulding a little ramp so I could make sick jumps with it.
It was the beginning of my love for all things JDM car love and apparently that love started with a truck and not a car.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
I am solid genX’r – I drove a BJ42 in high school through university. Then an FZJ80 when I assumed full domestic life and kept that for 18 years…as far as a GenX car, the history of the TLC combined with it’s reliability, campy utilitarian styling, affordability at the time, and more importantly its Cult Status among owners allowed those who bucked “the in crowd” at school to unknowingly become a part of a different crowd, one that doesn’t know you but accepts you for no other reason than what you drive – because when ever I passed a TLC, I always got a wave. The TLC gave this new driver the ability to fit in and bug-out at the same time. My father also insisted that it’s 4400lb curb weight and 86hp 3B also kept me alive as the mighty TLC was a wet blanket on any fledgling speed demon…
I always think of the Honda CRX as the “teenager in the 80s” car. For the younger Gen Xers getting their license in the early to mid 90s, I won’t deviate much and say the Honda Civic
I recall a lot of Toyota Tercels, Geo Storms and Metro’s in my old hood (Scarborough ON. Canada).
In western PA, my high school (class of 86) there seemed to be a lot Buick Skylarks because mom and dad had GM cars or VW Rabbits since the VW plant was in Westmoreland County but Jeeps were also gaining in popularity, especially the XJ Cherokee and CJ7, with the skiers. A couple had hand me down Mercedes 240s and one guy had a Porsche 944 but everyone was appalled that it was an automatic as he could not drive a stick shift. A lot of our parents had jobs connected with the steel industry so Japanese cars were not popular and older ones tended to rust out with all the on the roads during Pennsylvania winters, A couple of years later you saw more Civics and CRXs in the high school parking lot.
The grainy analog black and white photo and subject car are the absolute perfect answer; it’s like Bill Clinton saxing In Your Eyes through John Cusack’s boom box. His girl is inside watching Clerks or playing NBA Jam.
The driver wears Doc Martens and plaid, there are Nirvana, Bjork, and DJ Shadow cassettes in the glove box, maybe some Marlboro lights and Binaca. Possibly a Spawn figure hot-glued to the dash. Pure nostalgia. We are the actual Greatest Generation.
Send yourself a sticker, Ben.
I haven’t thought about the peculiar popularity of Spawn in decades. Well done!
S30 for me. 69-78
Being somewhere on the tail end of millenials or genz with unc. status depending on who you ask i have no real frame of reference here but with GenX i think of Crystal Pepsi, arcades, Nirvana unplugged (y’know, the t-shirt guys) and the rise of gaming.
If i’d be san junipero-ed and teleported to genX dreamland i’d cruise around in a Tahitian Green EF Civic with a sunroof and white mugen wheels!
If genX dreamland has a european location though it’d be a renault twingo in vert coriandre.
An Astro Van. Furthest thing from a JNC. Nothing else comes to mind. You’re talking about Gen X’ers, right? Yeah, that.
The Detroit iron we all wanted was a Fox Mustang. What I had was an Omni and an old one at that.
They love those things in Japan, though.
1988-1991 ED Honda Civics and DA Acura Integras were the cars me and my friends wanted in highschool in Socal. If you were a spoiled kid you were able to get your parents to buy you an ED CRX. We would be looked down on by the V8 muscle car crowd, but some of them could appreciate the look of our “4 banger hot rods”. Sought after wheels were SSR EX-C NEOS, Racing Hart/SSR Super Fin/Mesh, SSR BANG-VEC, Gale LS636, Work Ewing Emotions, Work STARK II, Momo Stars, DP Motorsport 5’s, TSW Evo …etc. Such a fun time to be into cars.
The Nova comes close but it’s still a Toyota product and the used-car bargains were from the lesser known Japanese makes, whether wearing Detroit badges or not. I had a Dodge Colt, there were also the Ford-branded Mazdas which were probably the biggest improvement over the domestic product whose name they took, to and the Chevys from Isuzu.
I’m still surprised that the Spectrum/I-Mark/Gemini FF is well-enough remembered in Japan that Hasegawa tooled up a model kit within the past few years, of the 4-door sedan no less.
The first and second generation Ford Taurus. The car introduced a new generation of “sleek,” brought on new concepts to the company, and literally saved the Ford company. The cars were ubiquitous, a symbol of the (then) American family car, and most people remember them as vehicles of the 80s and 90s. RoboCop had the SHO in their movie.
We had an ’86 Taurus L with the no power 4-cylinder, with only 88 horsepower. It looked cool, had four speakers AM / FM cassette, rode smooth, but was definitely not without some teething problems. But, I feel it’s really represented those decades, before the SUVs took over, and when the American companies started realizing it was time to modernize.
Weird, guess I pressed “submit” too quickly. “T” is Taylor C.!
Anything driven by Janeane Garofalo.
Mic drop. BOOM.
GenX’r from NYC here. Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, if you were trying to make an impression, it was always tilting toward sedans, the dream cars were the Acura Legends and Maximas – defo drug dealer vibes – with aftermarket rims. A little later on, you started seeing the mafia-adjacent kids rolling around in LS400s and Infiniti Q45s.