70's cars, decade of disaster or delight?

[axlon]

Maybe that should be afternoon delight?! If anyone remembers that Starline Vocal Band song, lol. But did the era that gave us Chopper bikes and the Bee Gees, produce interesting cars? The BMW Gullwing was nice, shame they didn't put it into volume production.



280ZX

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[4rephill]

axlon said:

Maybe that should be afternoon delight?! If anyone remembers that Starline Vocal Band song, lol. But did the era that gave us Chopper bikes and the Bee Gees, produce interesting cars? The BMW Gullwing was nice, shame they didn't put it into volume production.

Lancia Stratos
Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer
Ferrari 308 GTB/GTS
Lamborghini Countach
Lotus Esprit
Alfa Romeo Montreal
Fiat X1/9
Jaguar XJS

To name a few


Based purely on the thread question: "70's cars, decade of disaster or delight?":

The 70's were like every other decade, there were good cars, great cars, bad cars, all manner.

[JCW]

Triumph Stag
De Tomaso Pantera
Reliant Scimitar
TR 6
Lotus Élan
Lotus Elite
Lotus Esprit
Aston Martin V8
BMW 2002 Turbo
BMW 3.0 CSL
FIAT X19
Jaguar E Type S3
Lancia Monte Carlo
Porsche 911 Turbo


Plenty more depending on taste...

[AndrewW-G]

Rolls Royce Camargue,
Saab 99 Turbo,
Golf GTI
Lamborghini Jalpa / Silhouette
Lancia Stratos

Edited by AndrewW-G on Sunday 1st April 16:46

[Yertis]

TR6 and Stag are both products of the '60s. However, since 1980 is technically part of the '70s, I'll suggest the Audi Quattro – thus the decade is a delight!

[Stu R]

[benjj]

The mass introduction of disk brakes all round, 5 speed manual boxes, misc safety features inc anti lock brakes and anti submarining seats, countless models mentioned above, improved (ish ) manufacturing techniques addressing things such as rust. Cars of the 70's made huge leaps forward, some of which worked, some did not. A terrific decade for motoring.

Edited by benjj on Sunday 1st April 17:10

[sday12]

[varsas]

60's > 70's >80's

I'm sure we could all agree that the 70's where much better then the 80's, but not as good as the 60's. Can't we?

[a8hex]

varsas said:

60's > 70's >80's

I'm sure we could all agree that the 70's where much better then the 80's, but not as good as the 60's. Can't we?

Probably since we are a classic car forum :-)

But surely the 60s are a bit too modern too.
While I chose a 50s classic, others would find my selection too contemporary. For many Jaguar XK enthusiasts then the late 40s would be their period of choice.

[bamberwell]

varsas said:

60's > 70's >80's

I'm sure we could all agree that the 70's where much better then the 80's, but not as good as the 60's. Can't we?

i thought the '80s were better than the '70s in every way ! well as lot more fun anyway

[4rephill]

varsas said:

60's > 70's >80's

I'm sure we could all agree that the 70's where much better then the 80's, but not as good as the 60's. Can't we?

Not really, that's too much of a generalization.

You could as easily say that in the 60's, cars were stylish but slow, in the 70's the styling was modernized and the cars were faster but they lacked build quality, and that in the 80's styling took a back seat to function but the cars were quicker still and had good build quality too.

The 80's was the era that gave us the hot hatch (once people realized there was a big market for cars like the Golf GTI), it gave us the Q-car, saloons with supercar performance (as with BMW's M5), it gave us the prestige sports saloons (BMW's 3 and 5 series), it gave us reliability with the advent of fuel injection (no more turning the key and pumping the accelerator pedal three times followed by holding it halfway down whilst hoping the engine would fire up on a cold winters morning!)

In the 70's, if you wanted a family car or a company car, your choices were basically: Ford, Vauxhall or British Leyland (Rover). That was pretty much it! Between the three of them , they had the market sown up and as a buyer, you had to put up with shoddy build quality/ poor designs/ poor reliability.
Sure you could buck the trend and buy something foreign like a FIAT (as My dad did), or an Alfa, but these were worse still!
(MY dad bought a FIAT 128 2 door brand new in '76 and within a year it had visible body corrosion! Mind you, he rated the 1.6 engine as being as powerful as a Ford 2.0 and loved how it loved to rev).

Then came the 80's and the Germans showed up with high quality cars from VW, BMW, Mercedes (and to a much lesser degree at the time, Audi), that put the British three to shame.

This was followed by the Japanese turning up with cars that had decent build quality, great reliability and were cheap to buy.
The three British companies were far too slow to catch on to what was happening and pretty much got left behind.

Fiesta XR2's and Astra GTE's were the VW Golf GTI's poorer cousins.
Ford Capri 2.8's were being put in the shade by BMW's 325i, on both performance and handling.
Jaguar, up until the 80's the executive bosses favourite, suddenly looked poor value for money compared to the equivalent BMW or Mercedes, and the Jaguar quality was shocking in comparison.


As I said in My previous post, there were good, bad and great cars from every decade. The trick is to think of them in the context of the decade and the era that they existed in. Cross era comparisons boil down to a matter of personal taste only, as I see it.

[a8hex]

bamberwell said:

i thought the '80s were better than the '70s in every way ! well as lot more fun anyway

Oh, the 80s were far more fun than the 70s, but that had little to do with available cars and is probably not a fit topic for polite conversation.

I spent the 70s at school, I spent the 80s learning things.

[v46m4n]

4rephill said:

varsas said:

60's > 70's >80's

I'm sure we could all agree that the 70's where much better then the 80's, but not as good as the 60's. Can't we?

Not really, that's too much of a generalization.

You could as easily say that in the 60's, cars were stylish but slow, in the 70's the styling was modernized and the cars were faster but they lacked build quality, and that in the 80's styling took a back seat to function but the cars were quicker still and had good build quality too.

The 80's was the era that gave us the hot hatch (once people realized there was a big market for cars like the Golf GTI), it gave us the Q-car, saloons with supercar performance (as with BMW's M5), it gave us the prestige sports saloons (BMW's 3 and 5 series), it gave us reliability with the advent of fuel injection (no more turning the key and pumping the accelerator pedal three times followed by holding it halfway down whilst hoping the engine would fire up on a cold winters morning!)

In the 70's, if you wanted a family car or a company car, your choices were basically: Ford, Vauxhall or British Leyland (Rover). That was pretty much it! Between the three of them , they had the market sown up and as a buyer, you had to put up with shoddy build quality/ poor designs/ poor reliability.
Sure you could buck the trend and buy something foreign like a FIAT (as My dad did), or an Alfa, but these were worse still!
(MY dad bought a FIAT 128 2 door brand new in '76 and within a year it had visible body corrosion! Mind you, he rated the 1.6 engine as being as powerful as a Ford 2.0 and loved how it loved to rev).

Then came the 80's and the Germans showed up with high quality cars from VW, BMW, Mercedes (and to a much lesser degree at the time, Audi), that put the British three to shame.

This was followed by the Japanese turning up with cars that had decent build quality, great reliability and were cheap to buy.
The three British companies were far too slow to catch on to what was happening and pretty much got left behind.

Fiesta XR2's and Astra GTE's were the VW Golf GTI's poorer cousins.
Ford Capri 2.8's were being put in the shade by BMW's 325i, on both performance and handling.
Jaguar, up until the 80's the executive bosses favourite, suddenly looked poor value for money compared to the equivalent BMW or Mercedes, and the Jaguar quality was shocking in comparison.


As I said in My previous post, there were good, bad and great cars from every decade. The trick is to think of them in the context of the decade and the era that they existed in. Cross era comparisons boil down to a matter of personal taste only, as I see it.

[v46m4n]

4rephill said:

varsas said:

60's > 70's >80's

I'm sure we could all agree that the 70's where much better then the 80's, but not as good as the 60's. Can't we?

Not really, that's too much of a generalization.

You could as easily say that in the 60's, cars were stylish but slow, in the 70's the styling was modernized and the cars were faster but they lacked build quality, and that in the 80's styling took a back seat to function but the cars were quicker still and had good build quality too.

The 80's was the era that gave us the hot hatch (once people realized there was a big market for cars like the Golf GTI), it gave us the Q-car, saloons with supercar performance (as with BMW's M5), it gave us the prestige sports saloons (BMW's 3 and 5 series), it gave us reliability with the advent of fuel injection (no more turning the key and pumping the accelerator pedal three times followed by holding it halfway down whilst hoping the engine would fire up on a cold winters morning!)

In the 70's, if you wanted a family car or a company car, your choices were basically: Ford, Vauxhall or British Leyland (Rover). That was pretty much it! Between the three of them , they had the market sown up and as a buyer, you had to put up with shoddy build quality/ poor designs/ poor reliability.
Sure you could buck the trend and buy something foreign like a FIAT (as My dad did), or an Alfa, but these were worse still!
(MY dad bought a FIAT 128 2 door brand new in '76 and within a year it had visible body corrosion! Mind you, he rated the 1.6 engine as being as powerful as a Ford 2.0 and loved how it loved to rev).

Then came the 80's and the Germans showed up with high quality cars from VW, BMW, Mercedes (and to a much lesser degree at the time, Audi), that put the British three to shame.

This was followed by the Japanese turning up with cars that had decent build quality, great reliability and were cheap to buy.
The three British companies were far too slow to catch on to what was happening and pretty much got left behind.

Fiesta XR2's and Astra GTE's were the VW Golf GTI's poorer cousins.
Ford Capri 2.8's were being put in the shade by BMW's 325i, on both performance and handling.
Jaguar, up until the 80's the executive bosses favourite, suddenly looked poor value for money compared to the equivalent BMW or Mercedes, and the Jaguar quality was shocking in comparison.


As I said in My previous post, there were good, bad and great cars from every decade. The trick is to think of them in the context of the decade and the era that they existed in. Cross era comparisons boil down to a matter of personal taste only, as I see it.

The golf gti appeared in 1977, the germans had been building quality cars for years before the 70,s, if anything there quality standard dropped off in the early 90,s.
Datsun turned up in this country in the early 70,s offering dealer franchises for free, so as to get into the market, they were one of the first manufacturers i recall to offer 100,000 mile warranties in the late 70,s, It's a pity they hadn't thought about our weather here when they built them for the UK, they did rust.
There was some crap,BL produced most of it and ruined our motor industry. Leaving an open door for the japs and germans to take over.
There were some great cars of that era, which i think brought motoring to many more than previous decades, there was also some rubbish.
No doubt in 30 or 40 years time our children will be having the same debate

[LuS1fer]

Alfasud/Alfetta GTV
Fiat 128/Mirafiori TC/130 Coupe
Golf GTI
Droop Snoot Firenza
RS2000
Citroen GS/CX/SM
Audi Coupe
BMW 3.0 CSL
Datsun 240Z
Ferrari Dino/Daytona
Honda Civic
Lamborghini Countach
Maserati Merak/Bora
NSU Ro80
Opel Monza
Porsche 911 RS
Rover 3500S/SD1
Triumph 2500PI/S/Stag/Dolomite Sprint


...to mention just a few.

[Johnboy Mac]

Alfa Sud
Alfa Montreal
BMW M1
BMW 2002/Tii/Turbo
BMW 3.0Si/3.3il
BMW M535i
BMW 3.0CSi
Citroen SM
Fiat 130 Coupe
Merc S-Class 450SE/450SEL 6.9
Merc W123 280E
NSU RO80
Porsche 924/Turbo
Porsche 928
Saab 99 Turbo
VW Golf GTi

My winners of the 70's.



Edit: Should add the Toyota Corolla K20, my first experience with a Jap box and what a car, knocked spots off the competition.

Edited by Johnboy Mac on Monday 2nd April 19:14

[Rob Dicky]

Quote
Sure you could buck the trend and buy something foreign like a FIAT (as My dad did), or an Alfa, but these were worse still!
(MY dad bought a FIAT 128 2 door brand new in '76 and within a year it had visible body corrosion! Mind you, he rated the 1.6 engine as being as powerful as a Ford 2.0 and loved how it loved to rev).end quote


Also had a Fiat 128 in 1976 a 1300 estate car ( 1300 being the largest engine that Fiat fitted in the 128 ) very quick for a 1300 quicker the a 1600 Escort, but not comparable to a 2 litre Cortina. Had it for three years and about 60,000 miles lots of fun but rust took hold towards the end.

[LuS1fer]

The Alfasud 1200Ti was comparable to a 2.0 Cortina - except the sloppy Cortina wouldn't see which way it went, not even the very rusty dented one I had - didn't stop them trying though.

[5705]

Opel Manta A.

Still yearn for one.