Best and worst era of the automotive industry? (auto, sedans, Japanese)

[Mopac1980]

What would you consider it being the best and worst eras of the automotive industry?

[brikag]

The Best...
1950's & 60's... The Tail fins! The use of chrome!
2000 and beyond... Just the wonderful innovations that are coming out!!!

The Worst....
1980's... The car companies and their divisions started to look the same, but added a few more options over the other. Example, GM's J platform...Pontiac Sunbird, Chevy Cavalier, Cadillac Cimmaron, Oldsmobile Firenza, and the Buick Skyhawk.

[Bazzwell]

The late fifties thru mid-seventies were tops for design but nightmares for quality and longevity. My absolute favorite cars came from around 1958 thru maybe 1973 or so. But no era ranks higher for lack of quality control. The 1958 models of all makes were known for falling apart on the showroom floor, doors flapping, windows leaking and major rust through before the year was out. Same thing with the early seventies with the imported steel. Had a '73 LTD that by 1976 was completely rusted out, you could lift the door skins from the bottom up. The only thing holding them on was the upper chrome strip. Dad's brand new '68 came off the delivery truck in solid white, black vinyl roof....with one beige front fender and one beige rear fender. On different sides no less. The '66 LTD dropped a gas tank on the turnpike in '67, a year old car.

Guess I'm saying the period was the best and the worst.

[Sayantsi]

The 80s are by far the worst era for cars - its the time where a whole generation of people switched from American crap cars that were poorly engineered and raised their kids on Japanese cars, which were about as exciting as sliced bread, but at least were as reliable as the sun.

The 40s-50s were a great era for fanciful post-war designs and enjoyed the new interstate system. The mid 90s to today is the other great era imo, with powerful cars, good safety equipment, high reliability, and modern engineering.

[Drover]

Worst: Late 70s through late 80s when the auto industry was basically forced to dump so much resources into emissions and CAFE compliance that they had nothing left for product development or quality control. Those were some dark, dark times for the motoring public.

Best: Early 90s through today. Right around 1990 is when the industry finally figured out how to make cars reasonably powerful again while still achieving decent fuel economy and meeting tight emissions standards. Build quality started making a comeback as well, particularly with the Japanese makes. The industry figured out that decent braking and handling was important on everyday cars too, not just sports cars. Today we live in an era with production vehicles making as much 600+ horespower, and even mom-and-pop sedans pushing 300HP. Unfortunately, this era has been tempered by the fact that cars keep getting heavier and heavier and heavier to the point where mid-sized sedans are pushing or exceeding 3500lbs.

[Mopac1980]

Originally Posted by Drover

Worst: Late 70s through late 80s when the auto industry was basically forced to dump so much resources into emissions and CAFE compliance that they had nothing left for product development or quality control. Those were some dark, dark times for the motoring public.

Best: Early 90s through today. Right around 1990 is when the industry finally figured out how to make cars reasonably powerful again while still achieving decent fuel economy and meeting tight emissions standards. Build quality started making a comeback as well, particularly with the Japanese makes. The industry figured out that decent braking and handling was important on everyday cars too, not just sports cars. Today we live in an era with production vehicles making as much 600+ horespower, and even mom-and-pop sedans pushing 300HP. Unfortunately, this era has been tempered by the fact that cars keep getting heavier and heavier and heavier to the point where mid-sized sedans are pushing or exceeding 3500lbs.

I really thought the 1990s cars were starting to get better and had a very good power-weight ratio along with a economy-power-ratio, I personally think the 1990s cars are built better than the cars of today, the new midsized sedans are sure heavy and I can't believe how much they weigh, I really do like the handling of the family sized cars of today.

[Mopac1980]

Originally Posted by Bazzwell

The late fifties thru mid-seventies were tops for design but nightmares for quality and longevity. My absolute favorite cars came from around 1958 thru maybe 1973 or so. But no era ranks higher for lack of quality control. The 1958 models of all makes were known for falling apart on the showroom floor, doors flapping, windows leaking and major rust through before the year was out. Same thing with the early seventies with the imported steel. Had a '73 LTD that by 1976 was completely rusted out, you could lift the door skins from the bottom up. The only thing holding them on was the upper chrome strip. Dad's brand new '68 came off the delivery truck in solid white, black vinyl roof....with one beige front fender and one beige rear fender. On different sides no less. The '66 LTD dropped a gas tank on the turnpike in '67, a year old car.

Guess I'm saying the period was the best and the worst.

To me the best era of them cars are from 1965 to 1972, I really liked the styling of those cars along with the power/weight ratios, to me that is the golden era of the automotive industry.

The runner ups would be the cars built in the 1990s due to the good power/weight ratios and they've get good economy, plus many of the cars weren't overly rounded or boxy which I really liked.

I thought the worst era of them cars was anything built from 1973 to around 1985 cause of the poor power/weight ratios and many of the cars didn't have the same reliability due to the gas shortage and economy concerns

[Mopac1980]

Originally Posted by brikag

The Best...
1950's & 60's... The Tail fins! The use of chrome!
2000 and beyond... Just the wonderful innovations that are coming out!!!

The Worst....
1980's... The car companies and their divisions started to look the same, but added a few more options over the other. Example, GM's J platform...Pontiac Sunbird, Chevy Cavalier, Cadillac Cimmaron, Oldsmobile Firenza, and the Buick Skyhawk.

I did not like the GM's J platform cars at all either, you couldn't tell which car was which, I also did NOT like the GM's front wheel drive X platform cars (Chevrolet Citation, Buick Skylark, Oldsmobile Omega and Pontiac Phoenix), those cars were poorly made and you rarely see those cars on the road anymore.

[doc1]

Originally Posted by brikag

The Best...
1950's & 60's... The Tail fins! The use of chrome!
2000 and beyond... Just the wonderful innovations that are coming out!!!

The Worst....
1980's... The car companies and their divisions started to look the same, but added a few more options over the other. Example, GM's J platform...Pontiac Sunbird, Chevy Cavalier, Cadillac Cimmaron, Oldsmobile Firenza, and the Buick Skyhawk.

I agree. The late '70s and 1980s were definitely the "dark years". Very boring.

[Bazzwell]

Originally Posted by Mopac1980

... I also did NOT like the GM's front wheel drive X platform cars (Chevrolet Citation, Buick Skylark, Oldsmobile Omega and Pontiac Phoenix), those cars were poorly made and you rarely see those cars on the road anymore.

I spot maybe one of each a week. Usually beaten down, dodging the inevitable flatbed ride. But now and then one crawls out of grandpa's garage for a spin and they look surprisingly good. That is until pap dies and the car goes to a grandson....toast in a week or less. I'm guessing they survive in my area for economic reasons more than anything.

Chrysler stuff from the 80's, lots of very nice examples here, clean. The ones that are really gone are Ford products. You'll always see 80's pickups, maybe the odd LTD or LTDII. But the Escort/Lynx line is almost extinct and the early fatboy Taurus/Sables are rarely seen.