While Automobile Magazine focused only on domestic makes for their 1997 new car issue, Car and Driver made sure to cover the imports as well. The November 1986 C&D covered all imports, from Korea, Japan and Europe, with their tried and true “Charting The Changes” and “Technical Highlights.” Unlike 1987, when the focus was just on the Japanese, for 1997 the Europeans served up an array of interesting cars, at least at the high-end of the market, with the Koreans back in the game as well.
Unfortunately, Car and Driver’s headlines about coupes/sport cars was a stretch. The Acura CL was anything but sporty, the Honda Prelude played to a dramatically shrinking market, the Hyundai Tiburon was a disposable cheap coupe. Even at Jaguar, the XK8 sold far better as a convertible than a coupe, and it was a grand tourer and not a sports car.
By 1997, it was clear that Acura had lost the plot, and its sales mojo. Only the Integra name remained from the brand’s more exciting past, and sales for that aging model in a shrinking segment dropped 18%. The blandtastic “L” models (CL, TL, RL and Isuzu Trooper-based SLX) didn’t bridge the gap, and total Acura sales dipped 1%.
However, BMW hit the bullseye at the core of the booming premium European sports sedan market with the new 5 Series (total BMW sales rose 11%). Audi was also clawing its way back from obscurity with some very interesting products, including the all-aluminum A8 (Audi’s 1997 sales were up 123%).
Never mind the Prelude, the real star from Honda for 1997 was the CR-V. Small sporty coupes suddenly seemed so “Eighties” as the market moved to cute-ute. Plus the CR-V was a genuine Honda product as well, unlike the rebadged Isuzu Rodeo SUV sold as the Passport. Sales numbers reflected the new reality, as the CR-V sold 66,752 units in a shortened model year, while the all-new Prelude only garnered 16,678 sales, up 38% from 1996 but still behind the fake-Honda Passport (22,622 sold). Total Honda sales rose 15% for the year.
Though still selling at a fraction of its late-1980s volume, Hyundai was gradually climbing back up the sales charts with an increase of 8% for the year. Fellow Korean brand Kia, grew 35% as more dealers were added and buyers caught on to the ultra-cheap products.
The premium Japanese brands were suffering from some pretty significant malaise by 1997, and Infiniti’s line-up certainly exemplified the problems. While Infiniti total sales did grow 21%, that was mainly due to thinly disguised Nissan products–the Maxima-based I30 and the Pathfinder-based QX4. The all-new Q45 saw sales increase 77%, but only to 10,443 cars.
Jaguar was finally becoming a bit of a luxury bright spot for Ford Motor Company, as the new XK8 was well received (6,846 sold). Total Jaguar sales rose 9% for the year as a result.
Lexus had a very quiet year for 1997. The ES was all-new, but it didn’t look it. Rarely has a thoroughly revamped car looked so much like its predecessor that it was hard to tell apart. Still, the sleepy new ES saw a sales increase of 31% to 58,430 cars, making it the most popular Lexus.
Likewise, Mazda was in a pretty boring mode as well. Buyers yawned at the minimal changes, and sales dropped 7%. Mitsubishi served up an array of reworked or all-new products, including the Mirage and Diamante near-luxury sedan, but nothing really sparked dramatically with buyers, and sales only rose 2%.
In contrast, the Germans were coming on strong. Mercedes introduced the new SLK Roadster, which generated a lot of buzz, while the rest of the now “value-engineered” Benz models continued to see favor with buyers, and brand sales rose 11%.
Japanese juggernaut Toyota served up a new Camry, while rival Nissan had a relatively quiet year from a new product standpoint. Nissan’s sales dropped 4%, while Toyota’s rose 5%. Over at Subaru, the popularity of the Outback boosted overall sales 11%. By this point, however, Suzuki was just a sad footnote on the market, with sales dropping 20% to just 8,350 units.
Porsche had a great 1997 thanks to the new Boxster, and brand sales rose 80%. Saab and Volvo, by contrast, had little news and flat year-over-year sales. The revamped Passat, a late arrival, would help Volkswagen a bit, as sales climbed 2% for 1997.
Honda was still introducing very sweet and sophisticated engines for 1997, it was just a shame that they were packaged in such boring products.
Multi-valve cylinder heads, turbos, increased use of aluminum components, advanced safety systems like driver and front-passenger side head airbags, active head restraints–there was a lot of interesting technology coming from the imported brands. From the Americans? Well, who needs tech? How about a truck?
A couple of key new technologies were the focus for 1997: electric cars and in-car navigation systems. While electrics grew in fits and starts, they are now gaining a bit of market traction 20 years later. Built-in navigation systems, by contrast, have gone from being newfangled technology, to relatively prevalent, to almost obsolete, as they are now being supplanted by mobile-device-based mapping services.
When the dust settled for 1997, the imported brands sold over 4 million units in the U.S. market, and coming within 300,000 units of General Motors. As for market share, including trucks, GM had 31%, imports accounted for 28%, Ford achieved 25% and Chrysler held 16% (without trucks, the market share for the U.S. brands would have been much worse compared to the car-centric imported brands). Here are the sales totals, by brand, for the imports:
| Toyota | 1,132,527 |
| Honda | 811,805 |
| Nissan | 662,825 |
| Mazda | 221,840 |
| Mitsubishi | 190,978 |
| VW | 137,855 |
| Subaru | 133,783 |
| BMW | 117,112 |
| Hyundai | 113,136 |
| Acura | 106,724 |
| Lexus | 97,593 |
| Mercedes | 92,512 |
| Isuzu | 91,530 |
| Volvo | 89,964 |
| Infiniti | 65,133 |
| Kia | 35,494 |
| Audi | 34,160 |
| Saab | 28,447 |
| Land Rover | 23,825 |
| Jaguar | 19,503 |
| Porsche | 12,921 |
| Suzuki | 8,350 |
Clearly, the imports were getting more and more entrenched in the U.S. market, especially for family sedans and luxury cars, and trend that would accelerate even more after the start of the 21st Century.
The Aston Martins sure looked good. Ford ownership was allowing the designers at Aston Martin to actually design a new model. Even if the platform was now shared with Jaguar, the influence of the DB7 shape is still seen in Astons today twenty years later.
You’re not kidding. For all the vitriol heaped on Porsche for keeping the 911 looking supposedly “the same” over all these years, Aston’s are far more indistinguishable from each other starting in the 90’s. And that spans the range, not just one model. Thank goodness it’s a very attractive shape to begin with.
At last we are getting to the years in which cars were starting to be (somewhat) interesting again. I’m afraid the 70s and most of the 80s were black holes for me, with very little worth having (or, if worth having, not in standard form). These Astons represent fair value for money for anyone wanting AM magic and – from what I’ve gathered – good ones are even reliable.
Yes, the CR-V was indeed “yuuuuge”. I still see a fair number of early ones out on the road.
They do not mention that 1997 would be the final year for the original version of the Miata.
They may have not known. Some companies will not make mention of a new model in order to prevent the possibility that a possible customer will wait until the new model arrives before buying. This would mean the old model would pile up on the dealers lots and have to be sold cheap to get rid of them.
I will be honest with you, I think the 98 was a downgrade in the looks department compared with the 97 and that the original version of the Miata was the best looking of them.
Yellow on a CUV, how refreshing, the last gasps of fun in the cute ute segment. Too bad I’ve never seen a CR-V of this generation in anything but silver.
In contrast to T. Turtle’s take on ’97, I viewed this period as a snooze-fest, and the beginning of the homogenization of the automotive landscape. I did love the Jaguar XK8, but just about everything in my own price range, or remotely practical for my purposes at the time, bored me to tears. I guess that was why I held on to the appliance-like Sentra that I bought under duress in December of ’96, with nary a thought of replacing it until well into the new millenium. There was just nothing out there to really grab my attention. These were the years when 2 bland late 90’s Nissans were in my driveway, and they were viewed as just what they were; machines necessary to keep life moving, but not much else. I’d reckon that a lot of people had started feeling this was by this time, as SUVs became the most excitement to be had for the average household. We all know how that turned out.
I’m with you MTN. The 90s were another dark decade for me, much like the 70s were even though the cars were better.
And I am of the same mind today, from 2007 on. None of them really spark an interest: too much tech that becomes obsolete too quickly, styling is so busy to the point of looking pre wrecked, grotesque grilles, dubious transmissions and even more tech or gimmickry just to eke out the last 1/10th of a mile of gasoline.
I foresee many of these offerings hitting the junk yard early because of the cost of replacing these tech marvel transmissions and engines. What a waste.
The limit has been reached for me, I suppose. I can hang on to what I have for decades if need be.
I agree on the later date, and my high tech marvel will most likely be disposed off in two years when it’s 3 years old.
T. Turtle: I think I’ve reached the age where the tech and the industry has passed me by. Check back in 20 years, I’ll be the crazy old uncle still driving my 05 Saturn ION. [The modern equivalent of driving an 87 Hyundai Excel in 2017 ].
Damned new fangled beasts hogging the road.
Huh, I forgot about the 8-Series
That Prelude does not look like a nearly-20-year-old car.
Agreed. The Prelude was and is a great little car. It’s a shame Honda hasn’t come out with a worthy successor, though I’ll admit that the market for small sporty cars hasn’t yet come back.
I agree
I had a 2000 Honda Prelude, that was metallic powder blue. Loved that little sports car. You are correct int hat it’s hard to duplicate the final year, because it was so cool looking.
VW was deep into it’s dark days of the ’90’s at this point. Even if combined with Audi total sales were less than Mistubishi. The MK3 even in Europe was not well liked, and the Mexico built US versions were not very well built. This was around the time (around ’95 through ’99) VW in desperation introduced it’s short lived factory 10 year 100k warranty.
My 2012 VW Touareg also had a 10yr/100k factory powertrain warranty. I believe every Touareg from 2011 and on did.
Ah the first generation CR-V. This is a vehicle that Honda sold a massive amount of and which a lot are still on the roads looking good. Unlike the first gen Rav4 which are never seen much anymore, there are still massive amounts of the first gen CR-V rolling around. Everybody I know that had or still have one have nothing but praise for them.