Worst Car Decade? I Vote '70s.

I still recall the horror of seeing a Mustang II for the first time.

 

1950's - Toyota was imported to North America...that was really the beginning of the end for exciting cars. Now they are just baige.

 

70's for sure. Just look under the hood of a 1978 whatever. About 16 miles if 1/4 inch vacume line. Nothing like a 454chevy with 160hp and 9 MPG. Yikes!



Darrell.

 

Vega, Pinto, Maverick, Pacer..MY EYES! MY EYES!

 

1977 TransAm, 240Z, Countach, Lotus Esprit, 308 and GT4

 

There are some great cars from every decade, but in general the '70s were horrible. My college roommate had a Mustang II. GM had its diesels and the Vega and Citation, VW had the rust-prone Rabbit. Ford the Pinto and Maverick, Granada, LTD. The Thunderbird was in its death throes, choked in vinyl landau roofs and plastichrome. British Leyland died from smog regs and cars that leaked in the showroom. Triumph killed itself with the wretched TR7. Porsche had the awful 924. Rolls Royces even looked bad. And of course AMC made what AMC made, which made everything else I listed seem like very good cars.

(But Ferrari was making Dinos, Boxers and carb'ed 308s - incredible, especally for that era.)

Still, the 2000s are pretty bad. The technology is far improved, but cars don't have much character or style any more:

BMW fell off a styling cliff, Chrysler thinks the PT Cruiser and 300M are cool, Jeep is making CUVs (chick utility vehicles), GM won't kill the Monte Carlo, Ford is renaming the slow-selling, dull Five Hundred to remind us of the dull Taurus, and every Toyota and Lexus looks more or less identical. Hyundais now look like Toyotas and Lexuses, and Nissans look like Infinitis. Kias look more like Hyundais. Buick has added portholes to its bland sedans to remind us that Harley Earl used to work there. Every company makes dull 'crossover' vehicles that look kind of like sportwagovan-econoutility vehicles -- i.e., you can't classify them and it would be too boring to try. Dodge makes a sports car that looks like something that you keep tucked in your pants. Land Rover had the Freelander - for a few months before everyone stopped buying them. Jag gave us the Mondeo- er, X-Type and tacky S-Type and let the stunning F-Type sports car die. The new XK is bland. In exotic-land, Lambo got normal doors on the otherwise very cool Gallardo, and we have weird spacecraft-looking things from Koeinigsegg and Paganini. TVR is dead. Hummer just keeps shrinking its one idea. Subaru formally gave up styling its cars and gave us that orange Brat-revival vehicle with enough cladding to sneak into the Pontiac HQ.

Porsche did a nice redo on the 997/987 over the blobbish 996/986. Mercedes did nice work on the new gen SLK and SL. BMW's Mini is a winner. Aston is doing some of its best of the modern era. Ferrari is struggling -- the 360/430 still don't look quite as right as the old Daytonas, Boxers and 308s; the 575 is destined to be an all-time classic, but no one seems to love the 612, and the 599 is a hard-to-remember hodgepodge useful mostly for 200mph runs to the club.

 

There are always exceptions to the rules.


Darrell.

 

And, lets not forget the first Porsche 930 Turbos...

 

Excellent write-up. I enjoyed it a great deal.

 

Styling wise, there was no great difference between the 911s and 930s other than the fenders....from a technology standpoint, the Porsche Turbo was easily the highpoint of the decade....

 

Sorry, I'm going against the grain and say the 80's were the worst.
Diesel Chevettes leading the pack. Chrysler luxury cars clad with wood grain and mexican tuck and roll.

Lambos from the 70's and early Boxers almost single handedly save the 70's for me, then throw in LT1 corvettes 70-72, LS6 Chevelles, ect...
Some trendy stuff too, like GM hiring Cosworth of Englad to build some Vega motors. Finally, a 67 Camaro cost $250 in 1975, can't beat that era.

 

I vote for 1975-1985 as the worst decade. Horsepower-robbing smog controls, absolutely horrid American designs, awful interior materials (and styling), bad exterior colors, vinyl roofs, to say nothing of some butt-ugly exterior stickers (flaming chicken, anyone?).

 

i vote ford

but not the ford gt

 

the worst 10 years are 1973 to 1982.

 

Isn't that nine?

 

While European marques had some darn nice stuff throughout the '70s, car crazy North Americans had a really rough go of it (sort of like how music fans really suffered in the '80s). Here are three that I just can't get out of my nightmares. Seemed like 85% of my school teachers had a Cordoba, and the really happenin' single male teachers had the Magnum with the sweet headlight covers.
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A lot of cool cars were built 1970-1974, and a ton of awesome cars from 1986-1990. However, virtually nothing of any value (save the 308) was produced between 75 and 85.

 

The 70's cars of the USA sucked because of forced government emission intervention into the private sector. Almost overnight, engine performance took a hit, while not truly reducing emissions. Tetraethyl gasoline didn't go away until the early 90's. Even the California Highway Patrol suffered putting up with a gutless turn car in the 70's; the St. Regis.

 

No. '73 is included.

 

Chevette Scooter was like Chevy's Challenge Stradale. Lightweight, stripped for competition.

Anyway the initials are the same.

Wow, Ricardo Montalban looked good back then.

'80s music was pretty good actually, IMO. We needed something between hair rock and rap, right?

 

Ugh, don't remind me. Anybody remember the wedge?

I think only the Bangle trunk was worst.

Dale

 

IMHO, styling wise, the Turbo popularized the 911 "fender flare" and "whale tail" look so much that a lot of normally aspirated 911's were modified to look like them.

And you are right on the technology point (if you discount the turbo lag and peak in the early cars). This thing was like a splash of cold ice water into the face of 1974 Corvette owners who had all of about 210 HP geared to run maybe 123 mph at 7mpg.

 

And somebody came up with an interesting point -

What about the 1940s?

Practically no new cars at all until after the war, and then they were just reruns of the prewar design in progress for a good while. Jaguar XK120, the first Ferrari V12s, first Porsches, Masareti A6GCS, and so on were arguably the product of the renaissance of the 1950s.

At least we still HAD cars in the 70s!