As the Australian motoring landscape continues to evolve, we look back to the Aussie streets of the 1990s and the cars that occupied garages, driveways, and parking spots Down Under.

An era before SUVs took over, and when Chinese cars weren’t even known about, let alone spotted on Aussie streets.

Look around today, and you may be hard-pressed to spot any of the cars on this list, but rewind 30-odd years and you’d have never been far away from one of the following.

1. Toyota Tarago

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The Toyota Tarago did a lot of heavy lifting when it came to changing Australian perceptions. Shifting the idea of van-based multi-seaters from utilitarian minibuses to comfortable and convenient people movers

The second-generation Tarago, with its futuristic aero-smooth shape and innovative packaging, moved the game forward even further. Formerly a fixture of school runs and shopping centre carparks, and now rare to spot in the wild.

2 Hyundai Excel

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Hyundai swept into the Australian market on the back of sharp drive-away deals on the compact Excel. By the time the colourful third-gen Excel arrived in 1994, it was an unstoppable force in Australia’s new car market.

Three-door Excels were the default P-plater car of the late 1990s, but the availability of sensible four- and five-door versions also saw them pull duty with retirees or as a second car for urban families. An Excel racing series started in 2014 thinned the herd drastically, and continues to this day.

3 Ford Laser

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If the words ‘the average young family has 2.3 children’ has you returning serve with ‘yeah, and I’m the point three!’ then you’ll be familiar with the Laser.

Ford came out swinging when it first introduced the Laser, based on the front-wheel drive Mazda 323, in the early ‘80s. Australian production ceased in 1994, but the Laser persisted for two more generations until it was replaced by the European-designed Focus in 2002.

4 Toyota Camry

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Toyota started Camry production in Australia in the late 1980s, and by the time the ‘wide body’ Camry arrived in 1992, the bigger interior and excellent build quality pushed Camrys onto suburban streets as an unmissable fixture.

From fleet-spec sedans to the slightly odd-looking wagon with its twin rear wipers, all the way to the upscale Vienta models, it wasn’t hard to find a Camry in car parks around Australia.

5 Mitsubishi Pajero

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Despite being outsold by the likes of the Toyota LandCruiser and Nissan Patrol, the Mitsubishi Pajero was an inescapable fixture of Australian suburbia.

Maybe it was the way the Pajero blended on-road comfort and go-anywhere utility, or perhaps it was just the distinctive two-tone bodywork. Whatever the reason, the Pajero had well and truly cemented itself in the Australian psyche during the 1990s.

6 Nissan Pulsar

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As with its rivals, the Nissan Pulsar switched from Australian-assembled to fully imported in the mid 1990s, but the move, coupled with a healthy increase in size, only seemed to strengthen its ubiquity.

Conservative styling meant you never really noticed the Pulsar; it just quietly existed. Nissan tried to spice things up a bit with the SSS hot hatch, and these very quickly found their way into the hands of backwards cap-wearing JDM fans on a budget.

7 Ford Falcon ute

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Despite skipping a generation compared to the sedan and wagon, the Falcon ute’s proven reputation as reliable, affordable tradie transport kept it popular. Ford finally invested in a mid-90s makeover to give the angular ute that traced its original design back to 1979, a look that matched the contemporary EF Falcon.

The XH ute and panelvan wore the logos of builders, plumbers, and electricians before the rise of dual-cab utes changed the face of Australian suburbs.

8 Toyota Celica

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While never quite as commonplace as family cars of the era, the Toyota Celica made a huge impression on the motoring landscape of the 1990s thanks to its curvaceous styling that, believe it or not, was considered almost risqué for Toyota at the time.

While the Celica formed the basis of Toyota’s WRC efforts, the suburbs were filled with much tamer, non-turbo front-wheel drive versions. A surprising number of convertible versions, as grey market imports from Japan, also made their way here.

9 BMW E36 3 Series

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In the greener suburbs of Australia’s capital cities, the E36 BMW 3 Series could be found in almost plague proportions.

The 318i sedan, replete with unpainted bumpers, became the uniform of corporate ladder-climbers in the 1990s. Decent amounts of coupe, convertible, and later three-door compacts also appeared, but the grey-bumpered four-door is probably the one etched in your memory.

10 Holden Commodore 

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As the winner of Wheels Car of the Year in 1988, 1993, and 1997, it’s no wonder the Holden Commodore was a common sight on Australian roads.

From wagons loaded to the hilt for holiday adventures, to hard-working utes, and HSV’s hotted up specials, the Holden Commodore, although hardly a new nameplate by the ‘90s, was a firm fixture on Aussie roads.

While there are still plenty of later versions scattered about, the earliest cars of the 1980s and ‘90s are starting to reach alarming scarcity. No longer crowding every street and Macca’s drive-through the way they once did.