1980 quality cars?

[dano42]

The last time that inflation was this high, was a 1980. I remember the cars of the early 80s were really really crappy. I’m wondering if we may have a repeat of that because of the information. Is it possible we go through a period of poor quality vehicles because of cost cutting?

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[tfisher15]

The last time that inflation was this high, was a 1980. I remember the cars of the early 80s were really really crappy. I’m wondering if we may have a repeat of that because of the information. Is it possible we go through a period of poor quality vehicles because of cost cutting?

I think the problem of poor quality US cars in the ‘80s goes deeper than high inflation. Japanese cars made great gains in market share do to better quality and gas mileage. US car makes had to scramble to come up with higher efficiency vehicles from the 70’s that were bloated gas hogs which Americans no longer wanted. It took the US car makers years to catch up.

I had a 1980 Mercury Zephyr station wagon that suffered from rust out during the first three years of ownership (36 month warranty). Only vehicle I’ve owned that the manufacturer had to fix due to rust during the warranty period.

 

[9zero1790]

possible, but we are all supposed to be driving ev soon so it will not matter how good cars are now... ?

 

[MountainGoat]

They are getting crappy but in new and exciting ways. I keep thinking of the vehicles in Minority Report, where the cops hijack Tom Cruise's podcar and it tries to drive him to the police station.

I'm curious to see how the "sober facial recognition to start your car" rollout will go, and how long it will take to malfunction and start stranding people in random places.

 

[myothercarizahearse]

I'm curious to see how the "sober facial recognition to start your car" rollout will go, and how long it will take to malfunction and start stranding people in random places.

Can I be a test subject for this? how many drinks does it take to trigger? the R&D lab must be blitzed all the time

 

[VegasRanger]

I think the problem of poor quality US cars in the ‘80s goes deeper than high inflation. Japanese cars made great gains in market share do to better quality and gas mileage. US car makes had to scramble to come up with higher efficiency vehicles from the 70’s that were bloated gas hogs which Americans no longer wanted. It took the US car makers years to catch up.

I had a 1980 Mercury Zephyr station wagon that suffered from rust out during the first three years of ownership (36 month warranty). Only vehicle I’ve owned that the manufacturer had to fix due to rust during the warranty period.

This ^

 

[Trigganometry]

The last time that inflation was this high, was a 1980. I remember the cars of the early 80s were really really crappy. I’m wondering if we may have a repeat of that because of the information. Is it possible we go through a period of poor quality vehicles because of cost cutting?

Ah yes I remember them well! Throw in the Pacer to go with these ?

 

[MountainGoat]

Can I be a test subject for this? how many drinks does it take to trigger? the R&D lab must be blitzed all the time

Yeah the testing for this stuff must be wild. Who knows they probably just feed the petabytes of facial data they already have into a program.

The per mile tax that was in the infrastructure bill is another one. Just wonderful.

 

[Toytec]

I think the problem of poor quality US cars in the ‘80s goes deeper than high inflation. Japanese cars made great gains in market share do to better quality and gas mileage. US car makes had to scramble to come up with higher efficiency vehicles from the 70’s that were bloated gas hogs which Americans no longer wanted. It took the US car makers years to catch up.

This^ also.
These were my start up years as a Toyota mechanic and I must say they were my best years employed. It was all maintenance not repair.
I lost count on how many people were in disbelief after trading their Celebrity of Fairmont in on the "new" Camry.
They were not rock solid cars, but they were engineered well. The Germans were both just not as dependable.

 

[Marpater]

I really don't think that Japanese built vehicles were any better than the domestic manufactureres, I believe that the Japanese brands filled a niche that the American producers didn't see coming, increased pollution requirements control drove many poor innovations on those big thirsty V8's, horse power output was dismal and fuel economy suffered. Remember the Mopar 383 2 bbl carb putting out what 120HP, the 350 CI Chevy putting out 130 HP, the 351 Ford putting out 135 HP or so, while the Japanese cars where lighter, more agile with great HP to weight ratio's, but they were all rust buckets both American and Japanese built vehicles, the days before pretreat and electrocoat, they would rust from the inside out, they all needed tuneups every 10K or so, imagine that today!

 

[Dgc333]

FWIW, the two fastest vehicles from the 80s were the Buick Grand National GNX and the Dodge Little Red Express pickup.

 

[Cabose-1]

I really don't think that Japanese built vehicles were any better than the domestic manufactureres, I believe that the Japanese brands filled a niche that the American producers didn't see coming, increased pollution requirements control drove many poor innovations on those big thirsty V8's, horse power output was dismal and fuel economy suffered. Remember the Mopar 383 2 bbl carb putting out what 120HP, the 350 CI Chevy putting out 130 HP, the 351 Ford putting out 135 HP or so, while the Japanese cars where lighter, more agile with great HP to weight ratio's, but they were all rust buckets both American and Japanese built vehicles, the days before pretreat and electrocoat, they would rust from the inside out, they all needed tuneups every 10K or so, imagine that today!

Is that the 351m or the 351w
Or the 351c?

 

[Marpater]

Is that the 351m or the 351w
Or the 351c?

351w and m were actually 180 to 220 horses the c was 300 hp with a 4 brl carb with differnt heads and cam you easily get up to 400 horsies with a few mods. The good ole days.....

 

[Cabose-1]

We had a 1973 ltd with the clevland motor, and our f250 had the 351m 2brl 3speed automatic transmission. The 351m with the auto3spd was a beast. Empty, towing or hauling, it didn't care drove the same and same mpg 10mpg by the way. Haha. The good ole days. (Not so good really, always tuning the carb, winter, summer, low or high altitude, regular or unleaded gas, always changing spark plugs. But yet, i could throw a pillow in the bed and the metal wouldn't dent!!)

 

[VegasRanger]

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