It's not really the taste's that changed. It's govt. regulations that change and sometimes cause changes in cars.
For instance...I have collected old British sports cars.
They are known for being low to the ground and very, very nimble in handling.
But in 1974...cars imported into the U.S. were required by law to have a certain height at the bumpers. So that raised the cars up in the air several inches...destroying that "look" and completely ruining the handling.
They were also required to have rubber bumpers.
Now, these days car makers integrate the bumpers into the vehicle body. But back then you had all this stock of chrome bumpers for these cars. So for a few years you ended up with ugly rubber placed over the chrome bumpers and then just plain out ugly ass big black rubber bumpers.
It took a while for all the car manufacturers to get up to speed with all the new regs. (not even mentioning that emission control regulations destroyed the performance of those kinds of cars for a few years until technology caught up)
So yeah...there was a horrific period for cars around the late 1970's through the early 1990's where they all started to look the same and pretty much the styling sucked.
There were a few exceptions. But not many.
I prefer a pre-1974 vehicle OR a post 1996 vehicle (about the time that cars started to have some style again)