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Written by Paul Horrell
Remember "the end of history"? That coinage, and early Nineties book that sprung from it, was by Stanford political scientist Francis Fukuyama. We stood amid the fall of the Berlin Wall, the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the beginnings of capitalism in China and the release of Nelson Mandela. Communism was in retreat, ultra-nationalism too. It seemed like the great battles of ideas had finally been played out. Instead, we"d be living in a world of broadly democratic governments peacefully tweaking the levers of economic activity, in order to ramp up their populations" wealth, education and ability to buy ever-more elaborate video cassette recorders.Life in motoring magazines during the era was eerily similar. The evolution of the car certainly hadn"t stopped, but it had arrived from all sides onto a tediously convergent path. The template had become staggeringly entrenched: a transverse engine, front-drive, hatchback body or maybe a saloon if you were American or Japanese. VW applied the formula from the Polo to the B3 Passat, Rover from the Metro to the 827, GM from the Vauxhall Nova to boats like the Olds Cutlass Supreme, Ford from the Fiesta to the Taurus, Nissan from the Micra to the Maxima. Yawn.OK, the Germans persisted with rear-drive, but they still had tiny car ranges three sizes of Mercedes saloon, three of BMW, plus related coupes, an occasional sports car and an estate each. The Americans and Aussies too did RWD. SUVs were a minority interest, just better-upholstered farm trucks really. So, yeah, we"d reached the end of history, and it looked like many sizes of Golf.A quarter-century on, Fukuyama"s sound bite hasn"t stood. Try telling Daesh that western liberal democracy is the default condition.And in our little world of the automobile, the early Nineties" stultifying convergence of evolution has now blossomed into staggering diversity. Renault invented the Scenic, and lo for a decade the world was full of handy-sized people carriers. Toyota brought us the RAV4 and crossovers became absolutely rampant. Mercedes had something it called the "model offensive" which brought a vast increase in its range from the A-Class to R-Class a truly offensive model. Of course, BMW and Audi had to follow.
Date written: 8 Jul 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 4177
Remember "the end of history"? That coinage, and early Nineties book that sprung from it, was by Stanford political scientist Francis Fukuyama. We stood amid the fall of the Berlin Wall, the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the beginnings of capitalism in China and the release of Nelson Mandela. Communism was in retreat, ultra-nationalism too. It seemed like the great battles of ideas had finally been played out. Instead, we"d be living in a world of broadly democratic governments peacefully tweaking the levers of economic activity, in order to ramp up their populations" wealth, education and ability to buy ever-more elaborate video cassette recorders.Life in motoring magazines during the era was eerily similar. The evolution of the car certainly hadn"t stopped, but it had arrived from all sides onto a tediously convergent path. The template had become staggeringly entrenched: a transverse engine, front-drive, hatchback body or maybe a saloon if you were American or Japanese. VW applied the formula from the Polo to the B3 Passat, Rover from the Metro to the 827, GM from the Vauxhall Nova to boats like the Olds Cutlass Supreme, Ford from the Fiesta to the Taurus, Nissan from the Micra to the Maxima. Yawn.OK, the Germans persisted with rear-drive, but they still had tiny car ranges three sizes of Mercedes saloon, three of BMW, plus related coupes, an occasional sports car and an estate each. The Americans and Aussies too did RWD. SUVs were a minority interest, just better-upholstered farm trucks really. So, yeah, we"d reached the end of history, and it looked like many sizes of Golf.A quarter-century on, Fukuyama"s sound bite hasn"t stood. Try telling Daesh that western liberal democracy is the default condition.And in our little world of the automobile, the early Nineties" stultifying convergence of evolution has now blossomed into staggering diversity. Renault invented the Scenic, and lo for a decade the world was full of handy-sized people carriers. Toyota brought us the RAV4 and crossovers became absolutely rampant. Mercedes had something it called the "model offensive" which brought a vast increase in its range from the A-Class to R-Class a truly offensive model. Of course, BMW and Audi had to follow.
Date written: 8 Jul 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 4177
