1980s-Present
Automakers took their first serious steps into the digital age and advances in computer engine management allowed them to better leverage crucial technologies like fuel injection and turbocharging. Many of the vehicles built by companies outside the mainstream adapted to these changes quickly as a way of standing out in a crowd. Technology also made cars more efficient, cleaner, and more luxurious than ever before. It also made light trucks and SUVs drive like big passenger cars, endearing them to a generation of Americans.
1981-’83 DMC De LOREAN
The rise, fall, and sordid demise of John Z. DeLorean, the jet-setting automotive executive with the supermodel wife, is a tale best told elsewhere, but the man who brought the world the Pontiac GTO, spearheading the muscle-car era, also willed into existence a unique car bearing his name, a car that has become a cultural milestone of the 1980s as much as any one car can be. The only model produced by the De Lorean Motor Company, the Northern Ireland-built DMC De Lorean showed massive promise during its development, but was let down by significant delays, lack of power from its rear-mounted PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) movie franchise.
