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Old 01-30-2012, 09:17 AM
 
Location: Suffolk County, NY
874 posts, read 2,864,552 times
Reputation: 474

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The Japanese made really good quality cars in the 1970's? That is news to me. The Toyota vehicles were known for using cheap metal that rusted in a very short period of time up until the mid-eighties. Rotary engines in the Mazdas were good but they were not fuel efficient for their size at all. This was a problem with rotary engines which manufacturers were trying to fix for many years. Have you looked at the Hondas from that era? They were horrible.

As far as good American cars from the seventies; in my opinion, there were a number of them. Darts, Dusters and Aspens were excellent cars and the Slant six cylinder was one of the best engines ever made in terms of longevity. My father owned a 1975 Maverick that he had bought used around 1980. He had that car up until around 1985 and the car served him well. He also bought a used 1977 Nova with a 305 around 1986. He used this car until around 1995 at which time he gave it to me due to the fact that the alternator went. My father never worked on cars and did not believe in fixing them when they broke. He would pay so little for them and have them for so long that once they broke he would junk them and buy another cheap one. I fixed the alternator on the Nova and used it until 1997. The engine was still strong when I got rid of it (just kicked a little blue smoke at start up but not once warmed up-could have used a valve job at that point) but the transmission was slipping and I decided to get rid of it at that point. The car had over 250,000 when I got rid of it. I consider that a perfect example of a “good” car from the mid-seventies.

I also owned a 1979 Camaro with a 350 which I still miss. I had it from around 1992 until 1995 when my father gave me the Nova. I found the Camaro to handle extremely well and it was comfortable to me. I only got rid of the car due to the fact that the body bushings were bad and I did not want to spend the money for new ones. Looking back, I should have fixed it and kept the car. At the time I did not have the resources to change them on my own and was not going to pay someone else to do it for me.
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Old 01-30-2012, 09:38 AM
 
Location: Floribama
18,923 posts, read 43,211,623 times
Reputation: 18717
My Mom used to have a '77 Caprice and it seemed to be a decent car for its time, her friend had a '77 Impala around the same time and I also remember it being a good car. Both cars did have the sagging headliner and paint problems though.
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Old 01-30-2012, 09:49 AM
 
Location: Wichita Falls Texas
1,009 posts, read 1,974,895 times
Reputation: 1003
Quote:
Originally Posted by Egobop View Post
The Japanese made really good quality cars in the 1970's? That is news to me. The Toyota vehicles were known for using cheap metal that rusted in a very short period of time up until the mid-eighties. Rotary engines in the Mazdas were good but they were not fuel efficient for their size at all. This was a problem with rotary engines which manufacturers were trying to fix for many years. Have you looked at the Hondas from that era? They were horrible.

As far as good American cars from the seventies; in my opinion, there were a number of them. Darts, Dusters and Aspens were excellent cars and the Slant six cylinder was one of the best engines ever made in terms of longevity. My father owned a 1975 Maverick that he had bought used around 1980. He had that car up until around 1985 and the car served him well. He also bought a used 1977 Nova with a 305 around 1986. He used this car until around 1995 at which time he gave it to me due to the fact that the alternator went. My father never worked on cars and did not believe in fixing them when they broke. He would pay so little for them and have them for so long that once they broke he would junk them and buy another cheap one. I fixed the alternator on the Nova and used it until 1997. The engine was still strong when I got rid of it (just kicked a little blue smoke at start up but not once warmed up-could have used a valve job at that point) but the transmission was slipping and I decided to get rid of it at that point. The car had over 250,000 when I got rid of it. I consider that a perfect example of a “good” car from the mid-seventies.

I also owned a 1979 Camaro with a 350 which I still miss. I had it from around 1992 until 1995 when my father gave me the Nova. I found the Camaro to handle extremely well and it was comfortable to me. I only got rid of the car due to the fact that the body bushings were bad and I did not want to spend the money for new ones. Looking back, I should have fixed it and kept the car. At the time I did not have the resources to change them on my own and was not going to pay someone else to do it for me.

Mavericks were my first love. Still have the first one I bought. At one time I owned 17 of 'em, but only have 7 now including a 72 Sprint and 76 Stallion.
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Old 01-30-2012, 10:31 AM
 
25,723 posts, read 16,340,902 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sailordave View Post
This doesn't include trucks. Did Ford, Chrysler, and GM make a well built car during this time period? What cars I remember from the time squeaked, rattled, rolled (when making a turn quickly), prone to quick rusting, slow (even the sports cars), and thirsty. Vehicle speed and efficiency improved in the 80s but still slow and thirsty by today's standards.
Great question. I think the Chevy Monte Carlo was a really cool car even with the smog 350 V8. Very nice cruiser and very stylish. My sister had one I think she put well over 100K on it with very few problems.

The Chevy Nova was a decent car and fairly trouble free.

The Ford LTD was a really nice car as well. Built like a tank and very quiet.
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Old 01-30-2012, 02:59 PM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,701 posts, read 79,330,237 times
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Most GM cars with a 350 (5.7 L).

Most Dodge with the 318.

Most Fords with a (ok now I have forgotten and I am too tired to think about it much).

these were the tried and true engines that were easy to work on and had the bugs worked out of them over decades of use. As they started playing with smalled engines and new technology for better mileage, it took a while for them to get things figured out again. Cars got so complicated that it became impossible to work on them, plus they did lots of dumb things to try to comply with dumb laws (like mixing SAE and metric fasteners on the same car). As a society, we still have not learned that politicians make terrible engineers.
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Old 01-30-2012, 03:48 PM
 
Location: Southwest Pa
1,440 posts, read 4,396,150 times
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Just from personal experience....

1978 Ford LTD II - Medium sized then, probably considered huge now. Power was good, build good, motor dead at 60k.....

1980 Plymouth Volare - Just reeked of plastic, right front caliper kept locking up, turned out a tiny metal burr inside the caliper would hold the brake on that wheel and turn it cherry red. Fixed that one myself as the factory tech couldn't figure it out. Endless electrical troubles.....

1982 Mercury Grand Marquis - Rolled down the road like a comfy couch on wheels, Variable Venturi carb which never worked right and probably contributed to the engine's early death at around 48k.....

1982 Mercury Lynx - Rolled down the road like it was trying to push a two ton stone, and that's going downhill. Tranny kept locking in second gear and had to be adjusted every couple thousand miles.....

However, on the other hand we had...

1979 Chevy Caprice - Bought as a ten year old used car and drove it another five years without a single issue. You could count the missing paint job (oxidation) as a negative but overall a worthy and reliable car...

1982 Chevy Caprice wagon - Bought used and ran to around 123k without issue, sold off and ran (I'm told) another few years. Hard to argue with that....


What have we learned? Again, just from my own ownership, Ford and Mopar had some real issues during that time while GM was a pretty good bet.
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Old 01-30-2012, 05:07 PM
 
8,317 posts, read 29,357,988 times
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My answer: No. American cars in the 1970's and early 1980's were generally fuel-inefficient and gutless. They combined the worst of strangling emission systems with complex carburetion systems to make vehicles that were short on power, long on fuel consumption, with all kinds of rough-running problems that would be considered intolerable in vehicles today. Manufacturing consistency and decent quality control was almost non-existent. Vehicles coming off of the same assembly line could be reliable workhorses are complete junk, even depending on the day of the week that they were built (the common mantra then was to never buy a vehicle built on a Friday or a Monday). Nor was component quality consistent in vehicle models. A car model might have a stone-reliable engine, but a body that would rust away in two years.

I hold no nostalgia for that period in American car manufacture. Cars today are way better built than most any of those made then. In those days, most American cars were complete junk at 100K miles; today most cars will still be going strong at 150K or more if they have reasonable care and maintenance. The worst quality cars built today are generally better than most of the best quality American cars built in the 1970's and early 1980's.
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Old 01-31-2012, 07:55 AM
 
25,723 posts, read 16,340,902 times
Reputation: 15912
Quote:
Originally Posted by jazzlover View Post
My answer: No. American cars in the 1970's and early 1980's were generally fuel-inefficient and gutless. They combined the worst of strangling emission systems with complex carburetion systems to make vehicles that were short on power, long on fuel consumption, with all kinds of rough-running problems that would be considered intolerable in vehicles today. Manufacturing consistency and decent quality control was almost non-existent. Vehicles coming off of the same assembly line could be reliable workhorses are complete junk, even depending on the day of the week that they were built (the common mantra then was to never buy a vehicle built on a Friday or a Monday). Nor was component quality consistent in vehicle models. A car model might have a stone-reliable engine, but a body that would rust away in two years.

I hold no nostalgia for that period in American car manufacture. Cars today are way better built than most any of those made then. In those days, most American cars were complete junk at 100K miles; today most cars will still be going strong at 150K or more if they have reasonable care and maintenance. The worst quality cars built today are generally better than most of the best quality American cars built in the 1970's and early 1980's.
They were definitely junky, but some of them were very cool cars. The '79/'80 Dodge Magnum was a nice car. Remember the sport models with the T-Roof? Again, the Monte Carlo was nice. The '76-'80 Pontiac Trans Am are very sought after by collectors. Very cool cars.

My good buddy had a '79 Chevy Camero Z28 he bought brand new. He put about 20K miles on it and then we pulled the engine and put in a balanced and blueprinted 1970 Chevy 350 with 400+ HP. After that the car was a beast.
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Old 01-31-2012, 08:00 AM
 
25,723 posts, read 16,340,902 times
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I think a good comparison on American Cars vs Japanese cars in that era is my wife's car and her brothers.

My wife (girlfriend at the time) bought a 1982 Toyota Celica GT Hatchback. Her brother bought a Chevy Camero RS or LS (not the Z)

Anyway--just some basic observations. The shocks on the Toyota were twice the size as the ones on the Camero. Every moving part under the chassis of the Toyota had a rubber boot protecting it. The Camero? Very cheap.

The exhaust--the Toyota had double wall exhaust pipe that was mounted by U bolts with rubber isolation mounts. The Camero? SPOT WELDED brackets directly to the unibody. No kidding.

Camero was cheap, cheap, cheap but higher price tag. She paid $9300 for the Celica new, drove it 5 years and got $8000 on trade for it. I have no idea what happened to his camero.
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Old 01-31-2012, 08:43 AM
 
Location: South Jersey
7,780 posts, read 21,776,627 times
Reputation: 2353
Its like anything. Some good, some bad. We had some late 70's cars growing up and they are run well for many miles.. I don't think they were as bad as some make them out to be actually.
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