Three reasons why you should add a 90s car to your collection – if you haven’t already

Contrary to what you may assume, the 1990s didn’t take place ten years ago. The passage of time has made countless seminal cars from that decade rare, desirable – and attainable on a modest budget.

What defines a car as ‘classic’ remains up for debate informally, but there are plenty of worthy cars built before the governmental cut-off date of 40 years that need saving; these cars are easy to own, [mostly] straightforward to get parts for, and will be considered for classic insurance by Lancaster Insurance Services (and other providers).

1. They’re reliable enough to use every day

Modern classic dealer Zak Mattin, of IGM Pedigree Motors, Cheshire, rates Nineties cars as the easiest to own of any era of classic. “1995 to 2005 was ‘peak car’ as far as I’m concerned. They were so well built and engineered that they lasted, started every morning, but still had character.
You knew what a BMW was, what a Mercedes was, what a Jaguar was, for example. New cars are generic; it’s hard to tell them apart.” Key technologies improved in the Nineties that helped cars last longer on average than ever before, too.

Galvanised bodies hit the mainstream in this decade; technical updates like fuel injection and electronic ignition became standardised over more cars, meaning they ran better and started easily in the morning.

Zak added: “It’s also when we saw fuel economy improve dramatically, even in larger cars like the BMW 5-Series (E34). Five [and six] speed automatics meant that instead of doing 20mpg, big executive cars could do 30-35mpg reliably.”

Familiarity with monocoque construction and advances in material technology also meant that cars stayed light enough to have decent performance, but also that they were strong enough to hold up in an accident; more cars offered (and came with) anti-lock brakes; MPVs aside, the blind spots so prevalent on modern cars weren’t so much of a problem on Nineties cars, either.

Multi-cylinder engines didn’t last that long past the Nineties; buoyed by incredible levels of investment in the late Eighties (notwithstanding the recession) we got some of the best six-and V8 engines ever offered, further developed from designs honed in the previous decades.

2. ULEZ and other emissions zones are making them affordable – provided you live elsewhere

If you’re noticing more Nineties cars for sale than you did last year, even in the tail end of the pandemic, its owing to the planned extension of the London Ultra Low Emissions Zone into the Greater London boroughs.

The owner of any petrol car that doesn’t meet Euro 4 emissions standards, or any diesel producing more than Euro 6 levels of exhaust gas, has to pay £12.50 a day; if they want to go into Central London, another £15 is due. The ULEZ was expanded to cover the North and South Circulars in October 2021, putting historic London venue, the Ace Café, under further pressure.

Many Londoners with older Nineties (and Noughties) cars have realised that they simply can’t afford to keep paying out to keep their – otherwise perfectly serviceable – vehicles on the road locally. While the roll out of the expanded ULEZ, otherwise dubbed the ‘ULEX’, will be expanded to all London boroughs by 29 August 2023, some owners are selling up amid the uncertainty.

Zak Mattin said: “It’s a shame, but the ULEZ will force a lot of people to give up these cars, unfairly.”

We may well see cars that have never come to market before; their loss is our gain. Scan the online classifieds in around London, Birmingham and Bath – these areas have also made Nineties cars attractive for those living elsewhere in the UK.

3. They’re the future of the classic hobby

As the likes of the evergreen Morris Minor and its ilk get more and more expensive, and clubs agonise over how to attract youngsters to the hobby, Nineties cars are gaining ground among Generation Xers, Millennials, and Generation Z; they’re the cars they remember as children and want to preserve as adults so as to relive their youth.

They watched as the 2009 Scrappage Scheme decimated numbers of these cars – including legacy ranges of older designs, like the Mini and Volvo 900 Series.

Purists may scoff, but generations cherish cars important to them. It’s not a new phenomenon, either – the first issue of Practical Classics, in 1980, acknowledged an MGB as a classic, when it was still in production. It's been acknowledged by market experts and pundits – including Salvage Hunters: Classic Cars co-host, Paul Cowland.

“ Real classic cars like these are the future of our hobby,” he said. “We need an emotional connection with classics. Whether it’s because we wanted one, our parents ferried us in them, or they were on a film or TV show we liked. They’re all valid reasons!”

Love them or hate them – Nineties cars are getting rarer, and were, for many critics, the apex of performance, reliability, and durability.