It let drivers use their mobile phones without holding them to their ear.ġ998 – We test the £3,000 in-dash Blaupunkt Berlin RCM003 Sat Nav.
The tech soon trickles down from limos to exec saloons.ġ998 – Bluetooth integration appears in cars for the first time. Its name is derived from ‘prior’, or the Latin for ‘before’.ġ997 – The first Euro NCAP results are published, rating cars for safety.ġ998 – Mercedes introduces keyless entry on a production car, the latest version of the S-Class. Designed by Gordon Murray, and powered by a BMW V12 engine, it’s the fastest car in the world.ġ997 – The Toyota Prius goes on sale, although it would be another few years before the first production hybrid would become a global model. Honda soon offloads the remaining 20 per cent.ġ994 – McLaren launches its first road car – the F1. It’s seen as a watershed moment for the British luxury brand.ġ994 – Six years after taking control of Rover Group, British Aerospace elects to sell its 80 per cent stake in the firm to BMW.
But it would never make a profit under American ownership.ġ990 – Skoda becomes the latest firm to be assimilated into the Volkswagen Group of brands, after SEAT and Audi.ġ993 – Aston Martin launches the DB7, a new sports GT created with resources from Jaguar and funds from Ford. The best JDM cars of the 90s wow, what a selection to pick from this was a great time for gearheads, and we were driving some of the coolest cars available, if only we’d have known back then just how collectible they’d become, perhaps we’d have been a bit more caring toward them we kicked the ass out of them. His F1 cars score a one-two at the Italian GP a few weeks later, the only race in 1988 not won by a McLaren-Honda.ġ989 – Ford takes control of Jaguar cars, promising to help the old British brand flourish. 30 years of motoring: the big stories from 1988 to 1999ġ988 – The first Auto Express rolls off the print presses in September 1988 we’re now on Issue 1,543.ġ988 – Enzo Ferrari, founder of the famous Italian sports car brand, dies in Italy aged 90. The W220 would last through until 2005, but its influence continued long after that point – not least through Mercedes’ uber-luxury brand Maybach, which sold a car based on the W220 S-Class’s underpinnings through until 2013. It gave Mercedes the upper hand in the battle with its German rivals, the Audi A8 and the BMW 7 Series. The luxury saloon brought in air suspension, keyless entry and ignition, ventilated seats, radar-assisted cruise control and even cylinder deactivation – features that some other brands are still working hard to introduce, 20 years later.