User Panel
Posted: 7/12/2021 2:57:18 PM EDT
Seems to me like the 1970's |
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75-81
The EPA is to blame 100% Add in the bonus of the NHTSA and here we have even a cheap car is expensive |
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74-84 would be my vote for the worst 10 year stretch. The early 70s still had good stuff, and stuff was getting better in the late 80s.
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Quoted: Seems to me like the 1970's View Quote ETA: mid ‘70s to mid. ‘80s were mostly trash, the ones that I owned anyway. |
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The 70's were god awful The 80's were just bad. They were starting to get it in the 80's but they still had a long way to go.
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Going with the 80's. I sold people new Ford Tempos and Chevy Celebrities...
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I voted 90's because well shit sucked. But if the Era was 75 to 85, or 86 to 95 or 96 to 2005 I think would be a better question. 75-85 was pure garbage.
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I agree that 1974 to 1984 was probably the low point for American auto makers.
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Quoted: 74-84 would be my vote for the worst 10 year stretch. The early 70s still had good stuff, and stuff was getting better in the late 80s. View Quote This would get my vote as well. I grew up driving cars from that era since we were dirty poors, and they were constantly breaking down. Post EPA emissions crackdowns, but pre fuel injection was the absolute worst. |
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1973 a lot of GM cars got super ugly, and they didn't fix them until 1981 or 1982. Build quality and HP was pretty bad, too. But, there were some gems. The turbo Regals were pretty hot, and they started supercharging the 231 v6 in the Pontiacs, too.
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1975 to 1985 objectively
Many of my favorite cars are from that period though |
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Quoted: CAR & Driver specs. --------------------------------------- ARFCOM GD favorite 1977 Trans Am 60 mph: 9.3 sec 100 mph: 29.3 sec 1/4 mile: 16.9 sec @ 82 mph Top speed: 110 mph Braking, 700 mph: 213 ft ------------------------------------------------ Boring family car 2017 Toyota Camry Zero to 60 mph: 6.1 sec Zero to 100 mph: 15.0 sec Standing -mile: 14.6 sec @ 98 mph Top speed (governor limited): 129 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 189 ft https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1977-Pontiac-Firebird-Trans-Am-122.jpg?resize=768:* https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/images/16q3/669461/2017-toyota-camry-xse-v-6-test-review-car-and-driver-photo-671269-s-original.jpg?fill=2:1&resize=768:* View Quote |
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Quoted: CAR & Driver specs. --------------------------------------- ARFCOM GD favorite 1977 Trans Am 60 mph: 9.3 sec 100 mph: 29.3 sec 1/4 mile: 16.9 sec @ 82 mph Top speed: 110 mph Braking, 700 mph: 213 ft ------------------------------------------------ Boring family car 2017 Toyota Camry Zero to 60 mph: 6.1 sec Zero to 100 mph: 15.0 sec Standing -mile: 14.6 sec @ 98 mph Top speed (governor limited): 129 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 189 ft https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1977-Pontiac-Firebird-Trans-Am-122.jpg?resize=768:* https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/images/16q3/669461/2017-toyota-camry-xse-v-6-test-review-car-and-driver-photo-671269-s-original.jpg?fill=2:1&resize=768:* View Quote I remember the old British Top Gear did a segment on the performance of some of the classics vs. newer cars and Jeremy Clarkson said something to the effect of "how do we reconcile the performance claims of the old cars with how they actually performed? They lied!" |
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I think all the drugs the designers were doing in the late 60's caught up to car design in the early/mid 70's.
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Quoted: But you can actually modify that '77 with plenty of aftermarket support to make it into a serious strip or track car. And, well, you wouldn't have to deal with FWD and torque steer. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: CAR & Driver specs. --------------------------------------- ARFCOM GD favorite 1977 Trans Am 60 mph: 9.3 sec 100 mph: 29.3 sec 1/4 mile: 16.9 sec @ 82 mph Top speed: 110 mph Braking, 700 mph: 213 ft ------------------------------------------------ Boring family car 2017 Toyota Camry Zero to 60 mph: 6.1 sec Zero to 100 mph: 15.0 sec Standing -mile: 14.6 sec @ 98 mph Top speed (governor limited): 129 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 189 ft https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1977-Pontiac-Firebird-Trans-Am-122.jpg?resize=768:* https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/images/16q3/669461/2017-toyota-camry-xse-v-6-test-review-car-and-driver-photo-671269-s-original.jpg?fill=2:1&resize=768:* |
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The oil crisis of the 70s caused a fundamental shift in the auto industry. One byproduct was ugly, cheap cars.
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Quoted: 74-84 would be my vote for the worst 10 year stretch. The early 70s still had good stuff, and stuff was getting better in the late 80s. View Quote THIS The early years of major emissions controls until the introduction of electronic fuel injection and engine management systems. I mean those carburated engines with catalytic converters required 25% more fuel dumped into the engine to insure that the converters would light off, just in time for the gas crisis years. Thanks EPA! |
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Eighties cars were pretty terrible. Anyone remember the Chrysler K Cars? The Cadillac Cimmaron?
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Can't we all just agree it was the government that ruined a decade + of cars?
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Quoted: CAR & Driver specs. --------------------------------------- ARFCOM GD favorite 1977 Trans Am 60 mph: 9.3 sec 100 mph: 29.3 sec 1/4 mile: 16.9 sec @ 82 mph Top speed: 110 mph Braking, 70–0 mph: 213 ft ------------------------------------------------ Boring family car 2017 Toyota Camry Zero to 60 mph: 6.1 sec Zero to 100 mph: 15.0 sec Standing ¼-mile: 14.6 sec @ 98 mph Top speed (governor limited): 129 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 189 ft View Quote My best friend had a one year old 78 TA in high school, it did a lot better than that. It would go 130 and ran high 15s in 1/4 The 80s was the worst. My 18 Fusion will beat that Camry by almost a second in the 1/4 |
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70s and 80s sucked, had some nice looking cars but they were slow AF and handled like the boats of the 60s.
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Quoted: CAR & Driver specs. --------------------------------------- ARFCOM GD favorite 1977 Trans Am 60 mph: 9.3 sec 100 mph: 29.3 sec 1/4 mile: 16.9 sec @ 82 mph Top speed: 110 mph Braking, 70–0 mph: 213 ft ------------------------------------------------ Boring family car 2017 Toyota Camry Zero to 60 mph: 6.1 sec Zero to 100 mph: 15.0 sec Standing ¼-mile: 14.6 sec @ 98 mph Top speed (governor limited): 129 mph Braking, 70-0 mph: 189 ft https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1977-Pontiac-Firebird-Trans-Am-122.jpg?resize=768:* https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/images/16q3/669461/2017-toyota-camry-xse-v-6-test-review-car-and-driver-photo-671269-s-original.jpg?fill=2:1&resize=768:* View Quote 16.9 @ 82mph That’s long before I turned sixteen and got my driver’s license, but that^ is humiliating |
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Tough call. Both the 70's and the 80's sucked for American cars.
Went from 1970s GM to 1980s Toyota because I needed something dependable. I didn't buy an American car again until 2005. |
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About after Jimmy Carter was elected to When Ronnie Reagans term...
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late 70s, early 80s. Combination of EPA mandates resulting in shitty bolted-on retrofits and the US car manufacturers/unions simply not giving any fucks, at all, about anything.
There's a reason Japan's imports exploded in that time frame. |
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Quoted: Seems to me like the 1970's View Quote Chevy Vegas Ford Pintos Chevy Citations Chevy Chevettes Dodge Darts Plymouth/Dodge Omnis Dodge /Plymouth K Cars I rest my case. |
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