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

[Max Rockatansky]

Something totally different from the 1980s...aside the K-Car parts:

[Max Rockatansky]

From the time when the Mini-Van was king.  Both are absolutely wretched in appearance, at least the Mitsubishi had reasonable power and a cool swivel seat:

Oh and that 80s talk about the supremacy of FWD layouts, I miss hearing that from my Midwest days. 

[Max Rockatansky]

Turbo Sprint and Spectrum:

[bugo]

If one Google's 1957 Cadillac, one will notice pics of both Fleetwood & Eldorado models featuring both single & dual/quad headlight setups.  My guess was that the latter was optional where allowed.  Similar is probably true for the '57 Chryslers and Imperials (such was a separate make at the time) as well.

The only Cadillac for 1957 that had quad headlights was the uber-expensive Eldorado Brougham, which wasn't introduced until March of 1957. Quads had been legalized nationwide by then.

[bugo]

Something totally different from the 1980s...aside the K-Car parts:

The Consulier GTP  was a beast. It would beat many much more powerful cars of the day. Another turbo Chrysler that was fast was the Dodge Spirit R/T and its sportier sibling, the Daytona IROC R/T, both with the 224 horsepower DOHC 2.2L inline 4 cylinder with 16 valves. The Spirit R/T was one ot the greatest sleepers of all time because it was one of the least sporty looking cars ever built. They only built them in 1992 and 1993. I think I read that the Spirit R/T was the fastest American 4 door sedan in 1992. It would show the legendary Taurus SHO its taillights in a race.

[kevinb1994]

If one Google's 1957 Cadillac, one will notice pics of both Fleetwood & Eldorado models featuring both single & dual/quad headlight setups.  My guess was that the latter was optional where allowed.  Similar is probably true for the '57 Chryslers and Imperials (such was a separate make at the time) as well.

The only Cadillac for 1957 that had quad headlights was the uber-expensive Eldorado Brougham, which wasn't introduced until March of 1957. Quads had been legalized nationwide by then.

That particular Caddy sold the area code that I moved to with my parents back in late September of 2017. The oldest dealership around here, in fact, is Claude Nolan Cadillac which originally opened along the historic Main Street corridor at the point where Hogan's Creek divides Downtown (formerly Pine Street just like in Chicago where that particular Pine Street became a portion of Michigan Avenue north of the Loop) and Springfield (Broad Street just like in say, Philly or Newark for example) back in the early 1900s not long after the Great Fire of 1901 (which is probably comparable to the thirty-years-earlier Great Chicago Fire of 1871) ravaged our city's Urban Core area which really hasn't grown much since then aside from some notable annexations I guess.

[D-Dey65]

From the time when the Mini-Van was king.  Both are absolutely wretched in appearance, at least the Mitsubishi had reasonable power and a cool swivel seat:

Oh and that 80s talk about the supremacy of FWD layouts, I miss hearing that from my Midwest days. 

I like the way they look. Too bad both of them were lemons.

[Henry]

From the time when the Mini-Van was king.  Both are absolutely wretched in appearance, at least the Mitsubishi had reasonable power and a cool swivel seat:

Oh and that 80s talk about the supremacy of FWD layouts, I miss hearing that from my Midwest days. 

I like the way they look. Too bad both of them were lemons.

At least Nissan and Mitsubishi ditched their boxy vans for a more conventional body in the 90s, while Toyota (the best-looking of the three Japanese vans from the 80s) hung on to its own design for a few more years with the Previa (predecessor to the conventional Sienna).

[Max Rockatansky]

From the time when the Mini-Van was king.  Both are absolutely wretched in appearance, at least the Mitsubishi had reasonable power and a cool swivel seat:

Oh and that 80s talk about the supremacy of FWD layouts, I miss hearing that from my Midwest days. 

I like the way they look. Too bad both of them were lemons.

At least Nissan and Mitsubishi ditched their boxy vans for a more conventional body in the 90s, while Toyota (the best-looking of the three Japanese vans from the 80s) hung on to its own design for a few more years with the Previa (predecessor to the conventional Sienna).

Those 80s vans would make the perfect test bed for some sort of modern turbo four or six cylinder.  On occasion an Astro Van with a small block V8 shows up, they are among the most uniquely stupid but yet awesome custom cars. 

[bugo]

The eponymous Nissan Van as seen in the comparison test was based on the JDM Nissan Vanette and was sold on the US market from 1986-1989. The Japanese version of the van came with an A engine of up to 1.5 liters, but since Americans love torque, Nissan made the fateful decision to cram the 2.4 liter Z engine out of the Nissan pickup into the US market vans. This larger engine generated a lot of heat, making the vans prone to overheating which led to many engine fires. Nissan recalled the vans 4 times before finally giving up and making the offers to every single one back from the owners, Some of the owners didn't want to sell the vans so a few escaped the crusher. As you might imagine, they are extremely rare today but there are still some in use as daily drivers. The attrition rate for these cars has to be worse than the Chevy Vega because American market Nissan Vans were actively targeted for destruction. These vans were really weird and very Japanese. One of my relatives had one of these little oddballs and riding in it was weird.

[GCrites]

From the time when the Mini-Van was king.  Both are absolutely wretched in appearance, at least the Mitsubishi had reasonable power and a cool swivel seat:

Oh and that 80s talk about the supremacy of FWD layouts, I miss hearing that from my Midwest days. 

I like the way they look. Too bad both of them were lemons.

"Who are you callin' a lemon?"

[formulanone]

From the time when the Mini-Van was king.  Both are absolutely wretched in appearance, at least the Mitsubishi had reasonable power and a cool swivel seat:

Oh and that 80s talk about the supremacy of FWD layouts, I miss hearing that from my Midwest days. 

I like the way they look. Too bad both of them were lemons.

"Who are you callin' a lemon?"

I recall one of them was a medic Autobot.

[bugo]

This is what the toy Ironhide looks like in robot mode. The top and back of the toy transform into a battle vehicle of some sort, and the front and lower parts of the toy forms the robot himself. He had a head in the cartoon and looked a lot different from the toy. I always thought it was weird that the toy didn't have a head.

[Max Rockatansky]

1985 Ford and Chrysler cars.  The poor Merkur really ended up never amounting to much:

[Max Rockatansky]

I had a run in with a 1974 Chevelle Laguna S3 down in Jaliso.  Suffice to say that there is quite the decline from the 1970-1972 Chevelle SS in terms of styling:

IMG_2288 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

At least for awhile on the S3 you could still get a 454 Big Block.  The 400ci Small Block was an option but that seems to be among the most hated Chevy V8s even built.

[Takumi]

1985 Ford and Chrysler cars.  The poor Merkur really ended up never amounting to much:

The Merkur might have had a better chance had it had a real name. Unfortunately its European model name, the Sierra, was unusable in the US since GMC was already using it by then.

[bugo]

The Chevrolet 262 and 267 V8 engines are generally regarded as the worst small block engines. The 307 doesn't have the greatest reputation either, but it's far better than the 262 and 267. The 262 made as little as 110 horsepower. The 305, however, was a good engine. We had a 1985 Impala with a 305 and a Quadrajet and it was pretty fast for a big car from that era. The 400 was never meant to be a performance engine, it was used to pull huge cars around with little drama. The consensus is that the rev-happy 327 was the best small block V8. It put out as many as 375 horsepower (gross).

The Oldsmobile Rocket 260 and the Pontiac 265 were also debored, gutless V8 engines that were not much better performers than V6 engines were, although they were smoother and sounded a hell of a lot better.

[bugo]

And yes, the 1973-1977 "Colonnade" A body cars were a huge letdown from the spectacular 1968-1972 models. They are cool in their own way, but a far cry from the LS6 Chevelle.

[Max Rockatansky]

If I recall correctly wasn't the 400 Small Block not emissions compliant in California?   I want to say only the Oldsmobile 403 ended up being California emissions compliant by the late 1970s. 

[DJStephens]

And yes, the 1973-1977 "Colonnade" A body cars were a huge letdown from the spectacular 1968-1972 models. They are cool in their own way, but a far cry from the LS6 Chevelle.

They were originally supposed to have been introduced as '72 models, but were delayed by strike related issues IIRC.   The '72's were considered carryovers, and sold less than many '73 models.   

[D-Dey65]

"Who are you callin' a lemon?"

Hey, I think these cars should be preserved;
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chevrolet_Citation_2.8_V6_(9493193959).jpg

And those were lemons too.

[Max Rockatansky]

Kind of amazing how few Citations are around today when over 800,000 of them sold in 1980.  Personally I don't put the Citation in the same league as something that was truly all time bad like the Chevette.  I kind of dig the look of the Citation, it fits the stereotype of a cheap 70s car...which was sold in the 1980s. 

[PHLBOS]

Kind of amazing how few Citations are around today when over 800,000 of them sold in 1980.

Unfortunately, for many of those buyers; the reliability and recalls associated with those Citations, as well as the other X-bodied bretheren, were the reasons why such were the last domestic-branded vehicles they would ever own.  While GM finally sorted out most if not all of its bugs by 1984; the damage to the X-body's reputation was already done.

Among the Citation models, I kind of liked the look of the 2-door notchback Club-Coupe.

Personally I don't put the Citation in the same league as something that was truly all time bad like the Chevette.  I kind of dig the look of the Citation, it fits the stereotype of a cheap 70s car...which was sold in the 1980s.

I saw quite a lot of Chevettes around circa the late 70s through the mid-80s.  To the best of my knowledge, such did not have the same issues that plagued the Vega/Monza nor had the fore-mentioned recall history of those larger FWD-based X-bodies.

FWIW, the Chevettes were simple, basic subcompact transportation.  As time went on, the only criticism the RWD-based Chevette received was that the design became dated... especially when all its competitors switched over to FWD.

[Max Rockatansky]

Regarding the Chevette it got a lot of flack from Mid-Westerners for being RWD which wasn't what was wanted in cold weather climates.  My grandma actually had a Chevette she bought as her first brand new car, I recall she had a ton of pride in that thing.  The biggest maintenance issue I've heard of on the Chevette is the somewhat well known story of show room rust on the undercarriage.  While that probably was true it also wasn't uncommon to get early rust on all cars of that vintage.  The rust story along with RWD and extremely slow acceleration somehow has preserved the legacy of the Chevette over the X-Body cars. 

[PHLBOS]

Regarding the Chevette it got a lot of flack from Mid-Westerners for being RWD which wasn''t what was wanted in cold weather climates.

Do keep in mind that when the Chevette first rolled out circa 1976; the majority of subcompact cars in the US market were still RWD-based.  Many of the Chevette's competitors switched over to FWD during the early 80s. 

The rust story along with RWD and extremely slow acceleration somehow has preserved the legacy of the Chevette over the X-Body cars.

I'm not sure why you keep comparing the Chevette with the Citation.  The two vehicles were of completely different size classes.  Whereas the Chevette was Chevy's bargain-basement subcompact, somewhat overlapping the Vega/Monza in its early years; the Citation, though larger than any subcompact, was a downsized compact that replaced the long-running RWD-based Nova.