I guess it's out goes the old, in comes the new!

Wonderful post.

For me, the car you posted is not a "lost generation" for me. During that time I'm still more interested in girls than cars as I'm still studying. It's during the early 90s which I considered the lost generation in my sense.

Suzuki Swift GTi

Ford Laser

The timeless Mazda 121

One of the best corolla ever

This is one of the nicest look civic ever built. It was very futuristic during it's time, however as the years goes by the sleek and futuristic image became bengster image....Such waste

The Nissan 200SX...dubbed the "Porche" of the east

My friend's 91 G7 still running strong and it's still as powerful as day 1...Gonna scrap this oct

One of the reasons there are so few cars from the late 90s (actually 1997 to be precise) saw Asia going into recession. SG was only affected but I remember talk of expensive COEs around that time (wikipedia states SG$62K for 1.0-1,6cc in july 97 but also states a low of sg$50 in jn 98). Of course by 1998 people were scared to buy new cars as the economy asia-wide was bad - SG may have suffered slightly less but with everyone else hitting rock bottom, people were cautious.

It was better to scrap (not sell used) a car after 5 years as you could get some cash back to finance the new car instead of run it for 10 years. Much like the high COE prices today. I suppose this is the reason why there are so little late 90s cars running around.

My opinion anyway. Anyone else?

Pocus, thank you so much, and a fantastic post by you too. :)

But it seems that the Corolla and Civic you posted have managed to outlast their successors, as there are more than a few examples running around in Singapore (my brother has one of those Corollas in fact). Although it appears that 2011/2012 might be the last year(s) that they might be available since most of their renewed COEs expire within this next few years, so they might follow their fellow 'descendents' into that great carpark in the sky. :P

My friend had one of those Mazda 121s briefly. Although the car itself wasn't exactly that great, the experience of driving with that unique roof open was quite a hoot.

Rigval, good point. But as you can see in recent times, whether times are good or bad, people will still buy cars. :)