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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Today we've got Exhibit A in the Datsun/Nissan Rebranding Story. It seemed like utter madness when Nissan decided to ditch the Datsun name they'd spent so much to build up, but that's what they did in the early 1980s. At first, they just added an inconspicuous "By Nissan" to their vehicles' emblems, and apparently they figured that, while they were at it, they'd also do a gradual transition for the model name of their big six-cylinder machine. So, for 1981, the full-luxe top-of-the-line 810 was sold in North America as the "810 Maxima." I found this car, with its brake lights in 24/7 "on" mode, parked on the same commercial strip that gave us the 1968 Mercedes-Benz 280SL . It's rough, but it's the first non-junkyard 810 I've seen in years. The 810 Maxima for '81 came with a smaller...
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newVideoPlayer("/80_ChevyMonteCarlo_494.flv", 506, 423,""); Back when Chrysler was getting bailed out by Uncle Sam and frantically readying their new K Car saviors, The General replied by re-blinging the Monte and adding a Malaise Grade 170-horsepower Buick V6. Nice redline!
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How much is too much for an interesting old car? The Renault Le Car (that's a Renault 5 to you Yurpeans) is pretty interesting, all right, but $5300.83? Nice Price… or Booth Numbah Two? We've had feel-good NPOCP votes the last couple days, with the 188-mile T-Bird and the 2,450-mile '85 RX-7 both winning Nice Price honors. For today, we've got a 53,000-mile 1983 Renault Le Car for the must-be-significant price of $5,300.83. It's got the sunroof, it's in nice shape, it drives, and it's way nicer than the other 48 Le Cars still traversing North American roads today. Whaddya say? [ eBay Motors , thanks to Jon for the tip] galleryPost('NPOCP83LeCar2', 20, '1983 Renault Le Car For 5300 Bucks'); $5300.83 for a nice 1983 Renault Le Car? ( surveys )
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The overwhelming majority of voters thought that the Callaway '83 Porsche 944 was reasonably priced at $45,000; not bad for a Late Malaise Era machine. Today we're going to ponder a car from the same era, and it may be even more rare than the Callaway 944: a really straight, all-original Chevy Chevette! I could have sworn that I'd already posted on this car, but I must be mixing it up in my memory with the $20,000 Pinto Squire . That was a full-on rock-smokin' price, but this Chevy is priced far more reasonably: $8,995. Sure, knocking the five bucks off the price to put it under nine grand makes it appear to be on sale at Nickel Nick's Gently Used Brougham Coaches, but the seller was able to take his or her eyes off the 16,700-mile odometer reading long enough to take note of the Chevette emblems on the outside. Just about all the other Chevettes were crushed 15 years ago, and the few that remain are sunk to their axles in trash-strewn lots- this is likely your only...
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What's a really cool used vehicle worth? Yesterday, 60% of you opined that 300 grand was too much for a beautiful Citroën DS21 Chapron Palm Beach , so today we're going with another much-beloved, yet more affordable, machine: a 1982 VW Rabbit Diesel pickup. It's had an engine upgrade and a ton of new parts, the interior is authentic Malaise Turquoise, and the whole package looks great. No doubt about it, this is the nicest example of a Rabbitamino we've seen in a long time. But… $12,000? What do you think? [ Craigslist San Francisco , thanks to Casadelshawn for the tip!] galleryPost('NPOCP82CaddyDiesel', 4, '1982 VW Caddy Diesel For 12 Grand'); Do you like 12 grand for an '82 VW Rabbit Diesel pickup? ( surveys )
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newVideoPlayer("/82_Starlet_JDM_476.flv", 506, 423,""); Those sand rails had better look out, because the Starlet- right off the boat from Japan and sporting JDM fender mirrors and right-hand-drive- now rules the desert! Never mind the fuel-economy thing; it's off-road prowess that gets Starlets off the showroom floor!
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newVideoPlayer("/82_Toyota_Celica_494.flv", 506, 423,""); The problem facing the producers of this ad was plain: they had a budget of roughly $2.99, yet needed to show how futuristic and advanced the new third-gen Celica really was. The solution? Huff paint until your vision goes all woobly, then start the cameras rolling! Arriving on the planet in a snow globe Space Sphere, the Celica awed the world with its quasi-flip-up headlights and ability to drive in a straight line!
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newVideoPlayer("/82_Nissan_Sentra_494.flv", 506, 423,""); Of course we realize that the books were cooked on that 58 MPG figure; the old EPA test had about as much to do with real-world driving as the image of Sea Monkeys has to do with real brine shrimp. Still, though, the '82 Sentra sipped gas through a cocktail straw, and entry-level econoboxes 26 years later are guzzling the stuff by comparison. Would present-day car buyers find this Datsun intolerably loud, cramped, and bouncy, pissing themselves in terror every time an Expedition loomed in their field of vision… and what's with the hand-cranked windows and lack of air conditioning? Yeah, a car like this would have no chance today, but let's see what happens when gas hits 10 bucks per!
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You ready for Nice Price Or Crack Pipe today? It's ready for you! Today we've got a really interesting one: the original prototype Gale Banks Buick turbocharged V6 engine- the one that led to the Grand National- installed in a Full Mullet Airbrush Mural Overload '81 Regal… and priced at two hundred grand. That engine, if legit, is certainly worth plenty, but that car somehow doesn't look six-figure-y. What do you think? galleryPost('NPOCPTurboRegal', 6, '200 Grand Prototype Turbo V6 In Airbrushed Regal'); Thanks to Gottsmack for the tip! [Freerevs.com] Is 200 grand too much for an '81 Buick Regal? ( polls )
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newVideoPlayer("/80_Pinto_476.flv", 506, 423,""); How about the Bauer family, with its ten Pintos in 1980? Hard to believe, but Pintos were once as common a sight as the Taurus is now. With 38 very optimistic highway MPG, these multi-Pinto families could thumb their nose at that damn Ayatollah and his gas-price-jacking hijinks!
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newVideoPlayer("/70s_Renault_18_Diesel_494.flv", 506, 423,""); When you've got 66 mighty horsepower clattering under the hood, you know no chains can hold you! Does the Renault 18 chained up in a Roman amphitheater symbolize some sort of Italian-French automotive rivalry? And how many clutch discs were destroyed during the filming of this ad?
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newVideoPlayer("/80_Mercury_Cougar_494.flv", 506, 423,""); Perhaps this ad is a bit lighter on the cocaine than the Hot Stuff '81 Mustang ad , but we're talking a few grams at most. Otherwise, it's all there: high heels, polyester, anorexia, miserable engine outputs... and the Ford Fox platform. The sad thing is that the Cougar's (claimed) 34 highway MPG would be pretty decent among the bloatmobiles that pass as "economy" cars today.
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A decisive 85% of you felt that the $39,975 Iran Khodro Paykan Deluxe required a major helping of Hubba Rocks to look like a wise investment, but today's choice might be more of a dilemma. Yes, the Cimarron was a total disaster for Cadillac, diluting its brand at the worst possible time, but that makes it a historically significant car… and Pixel has found this super-original, low-mileage example in a used-car dealership with an $8,995 price tag. You might be looking at the best Cimarron on the planet here; check out Pixel's Flickr sets , then make the jump to read his comments on this fine Cadillac compact and vote in the NPOCP poll. galleryPost('NPOCPCimarron', 3, 'Low Mileage Cimarron With Big Price Tag'); I saw this a week or two back at a Worcester MA car dealership and thought it might be right up your alley. It is an near-perfect all-original (less CD player) 1981 Cadillac Cimarron with 10,500(!) original miles. It may be most perfectly preserved example of...
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newVideoPlayer("/80_Fiat_Ritmo_476.flv", 506, 423,""); North Americans knew the Fiat Ritmo as the Strada , but did they realize that the little built-by-robots Bertone-styled machine was possessed by Il Diavolo? Just watch as the happy Ritmo-equipped family gets tailgated by a menacing Jaguar (or maybe it's a Daimler)… but then Papa stands on the gas, all sixty ramaging Italian horses kick in, and the Fiat lunges ahead!
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newVideoPlayer("/83_Camaro_476.flv", 506, 423,""); Whether you were grabbing a gear with the 190-horse IROC- oh, wait, you couldn't get the manual transmission with the Tuned Port Injection 305- or experiencing the joys of leaky rubber seals with your Berlinetta's T-tops, the 1985 Camaro let you live it! The glitchy VHS recording just makes this ad that much more Eighties, we think.
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