1980 quality cars?

[Grumpaw]

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

When that day comes, and you need emergency road service, this is who will show up....

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[Trigganometry]

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!

Back story: I can tell you exactly what happened. During this period of time manmade diamond entered the arena. The Japanese were the first to get onboard with implementation of this. It’s also when aluminum entered the scene. High in silica and magnesium. The diamond tooling allows precise tolerances never seen along with finishes that were better than anything before it. What this did was allow far better finished products that would last a very long time. It cost less to machine as tooling life was superior to anything before it. The American auto makers we’re getting their lunch handed to them. That is until they adopted the same technology along with CNC machines to make the parts. I handled the very first manmade diamond back in the mid 70’s. I made tooling using natural diamond back then so I pretty much knew what needed to be done. Later on in mid 80’s we started our own company that specialized in diamond tooling for auto manufacturers, aerospace, and general industrial uses. We were only 1 of 6 business in the country that did this work. I had more business than I knew what to do with. It was in the 90’s when the bottom dropped out. Manufacturing in the US went offshore and so did my business. Company still exists today but I sold out back in late 90’s as I saw the writing on the wall. Today polycrystalline diamond is very common and is used exclusively in all types of non ferrous machining

 

[Progeny2021]

I dunno. I bought 4 GM vehicles between 1976 and 1981 - 2 brand new and two nearly new. Traded the '81 Chevrolet C10 in 1985 and have never seriously considered another GM vehicle.

Fords have given us the best service since the 1980s. We took a chance on a brand new 2020 Chrysler 300S 5.7 - good reviews overall - no problems to date. Our previous Chrysler product was a 1985 LeBaron GTS - good car, horrible dealer network. When we bought the LeBaron GTS, we were looking at used Honda Accord SEs (top model) selling for over the new sticker price.

The LeBaron was selling for well under sticker and we were happy with the car and deal over all. Color and equipment were near perfect. Drove LeBaron for nearly 10 years and well over 100k miles without a major repair.

Rust was a serious issue only on the 1976 C10. Paint was a major issue on the '81 C10 and the '88 Ranger. Ford repainted the Ranger and Chevrolet did zip with either Chevrolet C10.

 

[Gazmic]

Back story: I can tell you exactly what happened. During this period of time manmade diamond entered the arena. The Japanese were the first to get onboard with implementation of this. It’s also when aluminum entered the scene. High in silica and magnesium. The diamond tooling allows precise tolerances never seen along with finishes that were better than anything before it. What this did was allow far better finished products that would last a very long time. It cost less to machine as tooling life was superior to anything before it. The American auto makers we’re getting their lunch handed to them. That is until they adopted the same technology along with CNC machines to make the parts. I handled the very first manmade diamond back in the mid 70’s. I made tooling using natural diamond back then so I pretty much knew what needed to be done. Later on in mid 80’s we started our own company that specialized in diamond tooling for auto manufacturers, aerospace, and general industrial uses. We were only 1 of 6 business in the country that did this work. I had more business than I knew what to do with. It was in the 90’s when the bottom dropped out. Manufacturing in the US went offshore and so did my business. Company still exists today but I sold out back in late 90’s as I saw the writing on the wall. Today polycrystalline diamond is very common and is used exclusively in all types of non ferrous machining

Awesome story and a side of the 80's auto industry I've not heard of. I've been on a few forums for other vehicles I've had in the past, but this one has the most interesting stories from people in the manufacturing industry. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Trigganometry]

Awesome story and a side of the 80's auto industry I've not heard of. I've been on a few forums for other vehicles I've had in the past, but this one has the most interesting stories from people in the manufacturing industry. Thanks for sharing!

Here’s another lost fact. The very first manmade diamond was made by GE. Many attempts were made to do it but they failed. One attempt they made something but didn’t know what it was and stuck it on a shelf to visit later on. That ended up being cubic boron nitride or CBN. It’s a type of super abrasive used today for hard turning. The world of grinding shapes changed forever. That’s a good reason why transmissions last so long now. Tolerances can be held in 10 thousands of an inch. That almost impossible to do grinding.
The very first manmade diamond was made from a thimble of peanut butter out of the inventors lunchtime sandwich!

 

[DakotaGuy]

Well let's look at a couple all new 1980 models from Ford and then compare them to the previous generation F-Series and Thunderbird. The 1980 and 1981 F-Series even had big holes cut in the frame to save steel and weight. That idea didn't last too long. The Thunderbird (and Cougar) was just a stretched and "luxified" Fairmont. Very cheaply built vehicles versus the models that came before them. Some of it was driven by CAFE and some was driven by inflation and trying to keep the MSRP down. The Thunderbird had a 115 HP 255 CID V8 in it.

 

[9zero1790]

I dunno. I bought 4 GM vehicles between 1976 and 1981 - 2 brand new and two nearly new. Traded the '81 Chevrolet C10 in 1985 and have never seriously considered another GM vehicle.

Fords have given us the best service since the 1980s. We took a chance on a brand new 2020 Chrysler 300S 5.7 - good reviews overall - no problems to date. Our previous Chrysler product was a 1985 LeBaron GTS - good car, horrible dealer network. When we bought the LeBaron GTS, we were looking at used Honda Accord SEs (top model) selling for over the new sticker price.

The LeBaron was selling for well under sticker and we were happy with the car and deal over all. Color and equipment were near perfect. Drove LeBaron for nearly 10 years and well over 100k miles without a major repair.

Rust was a serious issue only on the 1976 C10. Paint was a major issue on the '81 C10 and the '88 Ranger. Ford repainted the Ranger and Chevrolet did zip with either Chevrolet C10.

i will never ever again buy a new gm anything. not even branded parts lol. if i own a gm in the future it will be something classic and a play toy only.

 

[Langwilliams]

IMO American manufacturers got complacent an lazy in the 70's. WWII destroyed all the factories in Japan an Germany so there were no threats to their dominance....until the rest or the world started building new factories with the latest tech. The US was caught sleeping. They enjoyed the post war boom an thought it'd never end.

A lot of the problems I remember from the 80's was electronic related. Early fuel injection to reduce emissions was plagued with problems. I bought a brand new 1984 camaro an it never seemed to idle right. That was the only problem I had with it.

Imagine a car with so many problems you just named it after the problems.....The Gremlin!

 

[tfisher15]

I dunno. I bought 4 GM vehicles between 1976 and 1981 - 2 brand new and two nearly new. Traded the '81 Chevrolet C10 in 1985 and have never seriously considered another GM vehicle.

Fords have given us the best service since the 1980s. We took a chance on a brand new 2020 Chrysler 300S 5.7 - good reviews overall - no problems to date. Our previous Chrysler product was a 1985 LeBaron GTS - good car, horrible dealer network. When we bought the LeBaron GTS, we were looking at used Honda Accord SEs (top model) selling for over the new sticker price.

The LeBaron was selling for well under sticker and we were happy with the car and deal over all. Color and equipment were near perfect. Drove LeBaron for nearly 10 years and well over 100k miles without a major repair.

Rust was a serious issue only on the 1976 C10. Paint was a major issue on the '81 C10 and the '88 Ranger. Ford repainted the Ranger and Chevrolet did zip with either Chevrolet C10.

GM also gave us the infamous Cadillac V8-6-4 and Oldsmobile diesels during the ‘80s.

 

[Langwilliams]

GM also gave us the infamous Cadillac V8-6-4 and Oldsmobile diesels during the ‘80s.

My uncle had one of those Cadillacs. It got stolen an he was happy. They wouldn't pay until the 45 day window to find it ended. They found it in pieces an it was even worse after that.

 

[DakotaGuy]

All of the manufacturers built some real turds around 1980, but only one can be credited with actually destroying a corporation. Although it took 29 years after the introduction of an abomination of an automobile to drive General Motors into bankruptcy all roads lead to one vehicle…

The 1980 Chevy Citation and related X-body cars. Everything that went wrong for GM can be traced back to that one moment in time.

 

[Floyd]

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

Thanks for making the point....
The Pinto was one of the ten best cars in automotive history. Certainly more reliable than a Corollaskate!

 

[GTGallop]

Inflation was part of the problem, but there were other issues too.

• We had just come out of an Oil Crunch.
• We had just recovered from 4 years of an old man that made a bad president.
• The Russians were causing issues globally.
• There was an arms race.
• Supply shortages.
• Environmentalists were trying to kill cars because of a hole in the ozone causing global warming.
• We had just had a mandated vaccine for Swine Flue that messed every one up and caused a pandemic.

Things were totally different then.
Nothing to worry about now.

 

[JimG_AZ]

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

The only problem with this statement was that the Dodge Little Red Express Truck was built from '78-'79. The '87 on 5.0L Mustang and the 5.7L Trans Am and Camaro would have beat the Little Red Express Truck. For the fastest, I would agree with the GN GNX or the 20th Anniversary Trans Am with the GNX motor.

 

[DukeCanBuildit]

I really don't ………. 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!

Imagine the titles of threads in automotive forums if that was today! ?

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