The Sorry State of Affairs in Automobilia in the 1970s, 80s and 90s

[Henry]

The quad square headlights and the body sculpture that fit them took the gaudiness away from the Colonnade-era cars... at least in most cases.  The Buick Century had square headlights too, but they were vertically stacked. It was an improvement over the 1973-75 Buicks and it was unique compared to the Regals, Customs, and Specials, but it was still pretty gaudy-looking.

The Monte Carlo and Malibu had stacked headlights too...which I never cared about. FWIW, the Cutlasses (including the performance-minded Hurst Olds and 442 variants) were the best-looking ones of the bunch, especially the ones with the slanted nose, similar to what was seen on the NASCAR stockers back then.

[slorydn1]

Just out of curiosity how long is everyone generally keeping their cars?

I try to keep mine as long as possible.  If my '97 Crown Vic (that I owned since Nov. 1996) wasn't totaled in a 3-car accident two-and-a-half years ago (I replaced it with a 2011 Crown Vic., a former rental); I'd still be driving it.  I've had my other car, a 2007 Mustang convertible, for just over 11 years.

At the moment, I have no plans to replace either of them.

I'm with you. If I didn't absolutely need the money when we were buying my wife's 2012 Mustang GT I'd still have my 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis. It only had 95K miles on it in Dec 2011 when we parted with it, and I estimate it would still only have 120-125K miles on it now if we still had it. The Mustang(s) became the defacto road trip vehicle(s) and work is only 9 miles away for me. I certainly wouldn't be driving my 2014 Mustang GT to work every day if I still had the Grand Marquis, other than really nice days.


In fact, I am not 100 % sure that we would have gotten the second Mustang, tbh. My wife demanded I get my own because I kept wanting to drive hers all the time and she got tired of driving my truck.


Hers is paid off and mine will be in January. We have zero plans on replacing either of them. We have been putting the amount of her car payment away in a separate savings account every month for the inevitable clutch/transmission repair which will not be cheap. The way we drive and maintain our cars our Coyote V8's should last for a very long time as they are designed to put up with alot more abuse than what we give them.

[Max Rockatansky]

IROC-Z

[D-Dey65]

Recently, GMC has been running ads for their Sierra pickups towing an ice cream truck.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/dRKZ/gmc-sierra-ice-cream-day-song-by-outasight

But they used to MAKE ice cream trucks.

[Max Rockatansky]

87-92 Formula Firebird

[Max Rockatansky]

Something different; TRX tires and wheels:

[bugo]

I had a 1980 Mercury Cougar XR-7. It came from the factory with TRX wheels and tires. They were very expensive, so we replaced them with 14" wheels and tires. The speedometer was always a couple of MPH off because of the smaller wheels.

[Max Rockatansky]

I had a 1980 Mercury Cougar XR-7. It came from the factory with TRX wheels and tires. They were very expensive, so we replaced them with 14" wheels and tires. The speedometer was always a couple of MPH off because of the smaller wheels.

Heh, my brother used to use that excuse in high school to get out of speeding tickets. I forget what he was driving but he made the switch from TRX to conventional wheels.  I want to say that worked 2-3 Times before the local township police called him out on his BS, guess it sounded plausible back then. 

[jon daly]

I had a 1980 Mercury Cougar XR-7. It came from the factory with TRX wheels and tires. They were very expensive, so we replaced them with 14" wheels and tires. The speedometer was always a couple of MPH off because of the smaller wheels.

Speaking of gauges being off, I noticed a while back that my odometer goes 1.1 or so miles for every 1 mile. I don't plan on selling my car, so this doesn't worry me much. So I've never investigated the issue. Your post just triggered my memory, bugo.

[formulanone]

Michelin still uses a similar tire size format for their PAX tires, their lineup of costly run-flat tires...much to the dismay of some Honda Odyssey owners that had 17.5" wheels.

[Max Rockatansky]

GMC Motor Home; I'd love to have one of these:

[Rothman]

GMC Motor Home; I'd love to have one of these:

EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle!

[Max Rockatansky]

1994 Nissan Altima SE

[Tonytone]

GMC Motor Home; I'd love to have one of these:

Yoooo, that is freakin awesome man. Yea they definitely should have kept that thing going. Id buy that & just live in it.


iPhone

[Henry]

GMC Motor Home; I'd love to have one of these:

Yoooo, that is freakin awesome man. Yea they definitely should have kept that thing going. Id buy that & just live in it.


iPhone

Oh, to be able to live like this while traveling across the USA

[Max Rockatansky]

GMC Motor Home; I'd love to have one of these:

Yoooo, that is freakin awesome man. Yea they definitely should have kept that thing going. Id buy that & just live in it.


iPhone

Oh, to be able to live like this while traveling across the USA

As awesome as it might be I'd still need to tow a two or four wheel vehicle to enjoy backroads properly. 

[Tonytone]

GMC Motor Home; I'd love to have one of these:

Yoooo, that is freakin awesome man. Yea they definitely should have kept that thing going. Id buy that & just live in it.


iPhone

Oh, to be able to live like this while traveling across the USA

As awesome as it might be I'd still need to tow a two or four wheel vehicle to enjoy backroads properly.

You can tow cars with that right? Probably just gotta put some extra wide mirrors on it. & bang you're ready to go.


iPhone

[DJStephens]

At 3:19 you can see the test driver shaking his head in total disgust.    I remember my Grandma bought a new Chevette from the dealer in Detroit in 1980.  For some reason she thought that piece of crap was wonderful despite it being a total piece of garbage and completely useless in the winter.  If I remember right my Dad tried to convince her to buy something else that was front wheel drive and did find body rust on it (the grand legend of show room Chevettes) shortly after it was purchased.  She hung on to that piece of crap until 1989 when her and my Grandpa got a new Lumina.  For some reason they were completely loyal to GM despite never have worked for the company themselves.  I think that it had something to do with my Mom being an accountant at GM rather than anything logical...people really blindly followed brand loyalty back then.

Used to work for a guy in the Boston area (he's now deceased) who had a small battery factory.  He used Chevettes for light deliveries and several survived into the late nineties with close to 300k miles.  He was fanatical about maintenance and rinsing off salt - which there was plenty of in the winter in the Boston area.

[US71]

GMC Motor Home; I'd love to have one of these:

An old friend of mine, Miles, lived in something like that.

Of course, I had another friend who lived in an old school bus.

[Tonytone]

GMC Motor Home; I'd love to have one of these:

An old friend of mine, Miles, lived in something like that.

Of course, I had another friend who lived in an old school bus.

Reminds me of a show, in one episode they pimped the bus out & it was able to float on the water & the band had a concert on it.


iPhone

[ErmineNotyours]

I had a 1980 Mercury Cougar XR-7. It came from the factory with TRX wheels and tires. They were very expensive, so we replaced them with 14" wheels and tires. The speedometer was always a couple of MPH off because of the smaller wheels.

A few years ago, the batteries in my bicycle "computer" died suddenly, before I could record the wheel circumference.  I made a guess, but it seemed off, so I took my Garmin and biked down a straightaway to calibrate it that way.  The speed between the two devices was exactly one mile-per-hour off at the speed I was going, about 10 miles per hour.  It was very strange watching both devices advance or decrease the readings at the same time.  If I were still in college, I would come up with an algebraic formula to adjust the circumference setting, but I didn't bother now.

[Max Rockatansky]

1990 Dodge Daytona ES

[DJStephens]

GMC Motor Home; I'd love to have one of these:

Bill Murray and Sgt. Hulka would approve 

[Max Rockatansky]

GMC Motor Home; I'd love to have one of these:

Bill Murray and Sgt. Hulka would approve

My 3 year old niece approves apparently and asked for one for Christmas to take camping. 

[D-Dey65]

Ford F250 Centurion Van/Truck

That's actually an E-250, since it has the cab of an Econoline.