I’m willing to take your word for it, especially if the ‘green’ tilts towards ‘seafoam green’. Hate that color.
OK, yeah, that’s a bit tasteless, sure, and if it is just vinyl glued to the roof it’s tasteless in that special way that indicates a certain amount of brain damage on the part of the designers.
However, I have never claimed to have taste, and, to me, that car just looks rather bland and uninspired, as opposed to actively offensive.
Anyone know where I can get some Corinthian Leather?
My family has a '75 Chevy Nova. It’s got 174,000 miles, with the original engine. The only really major work it’s ever needed was about 8 years ago, when I had the transmission rebuilt.
Pulling away from a stoplight, it can easily outperform a third or more of modern cars–but the relative acceleration drops off above 35mph or so.
It has two features that are so convenient that I simply cannot understand why manufacturers stopped making them: (1) it has pull-knob vents underneath the dashboard along each side, and (2) the gas cap is in the back instead of being on the side. That way you can pull into the gas station any way that’s handy.
I have the original owner’s manual. The engine is 6 cylinders, 250 cubic inches, and the compression ratio is 8.5:1. And here’s an interesting bit of trivia–Chevy recommended 91 octane gas for it. However, it does just fine on 85 octane.
I’ve always wondered about the popularity of those vehicles (especially the early 70s Dart). I still see them regularly, which is odd for a car that was never had the cachet of muscle cars or Volkswagon Beetles. Was there any reason for their continued appeal when there were a lot of vehicles that outsold them?
Yeah, my last three cars have been an '86 Chevy Cavalier, an '89 Honda Accord, and now a '92 Merc Topaz, and I haven’t been able to figure out how to get plain old fresh air ventilation in any of them without rolling down the windows.
Slant six engines. Gutless, but bulletproof. They simply can’t be killed.
You don’t see many after 1975, because cars built on the Chrysler F-body platform (Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare) were some of the most unreliable that ever rolled off the assembly line in the US. Cite: Consumer Reports, and personal experience; the only car I’ve ever driven where the brakes completely failed on me was my grandmother’s 1976 Volare.
“And yet, there’s a large school of people that believe classic cars are more reliable than newer cars. I think it’s because they somehow feel sturdier, with thicker sheet metal and doors.”
I think it’s the way an old door sounds when it shuts. Makes you feel like it’s something built right, though everything else comes apart at the seams.
The Chevy Stovebolt 6 was a very good engine, as was mentioned earlier. Chrysler had a nice straight six back then as well.
Air conditioning eliminated those vents. It was hard to route air for both those vents and AC in the smaller cars and people found them noisy and drafty in comparison to AC. I liked them very much myself, especially in smaller cars where AC drags down so many of the 4 cylinder engines.
The Pinto killed the center gas cap. After that, car makers moved their gas tanks closer to the center of the car instead of right behind the back bumper. That required side fillers. Wish they’d make up their mind which side it goes on though.
Trivia fact: 27 people were killed as a result of Pinto fires. More than 90 died as a result of the recent Camry sudden acceleration problems.
Octane is rated differently now. There are at least three ways to measure octane. It used to be listed as Research octane, now the number is derived from the Research octane + Motor octane/2. I’m not certain, but I believe that the old 91 is equivalent to the new 85.
Part of it also was that the Darts/Valients were considered compacts back in the 60’s. When the energy crisis hit in the 70’s, used prices on old gas guzzling full-size cars (and some of the muscle cars) plunged, and a lot of them got culled out of the automotive herd. But the old “compacts” like the Darts and Novas were still reasonably efficient and could generally be had much cheaper than the super-inflated prices used VWs and such commanded during the crisis, so a lot more of those stayed on the road.
We have 2 “muscle cars” in the family. One is modern ('08 Challenger SRT8) and one is “Semi Modern” (Although the state of NJ classifies it as being an Antique since it’s 25 years old) 1987 Buick Grand National.
The Buick sat in my garage for 16 years relatively unused. I started it every few months and drove it around the block once a year. I am in the process of restoring it now and I can tell you for a fact that the plastics used in the '80’s was low quality and not designed to last. (Unless the plastics technology of the day were just not very good.) The car sat under a cover, out of sunlight and I still had to replace the dash cap, the headliner foam just disintegrated and the urethane bumper fillers are checked/cracking. I am stockpiling NOS GM parts for this car as we speak, since nearly all the parts have now been discontinued by GM.
My wife’s SRT8 is an absolute blast to drive. Much more fun to drive than my GN. (But I’ll never tell her this!) It has all the horsepower and torque of a “classic musclecar” yet has heated seats, a killer stereo, Nav, airbags, traction control. It’s a true daily driver that you can take to the track on weekends!
Hell, my Buick doesn’t even have a cup holder! :rolleyes:
I agree…with a few exceptions… that the mid 70’s to the late '80’s was a terrible time for performance cars. Even the Corvettes of the day were very underpowered. I remember when the Fox body Mustangs, IROC Z’s ,ZR-1 Corvettes and the turbo Buicks came out and I was really happy to see the resurgence of HP. I go to a lot of car shows and over the past few years I’ve started to see more of the late 70’s cars. ('Vettes , Camaro’s and the smokey and the bandit Trans Am’s) . I like seeing them!
From Chinatown:
Jake Gittes: “You’re respectable, Mr. Cross.”
Noah Cross: " 'Course I’m respectable. I’m old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."
in the “olden days” the dash coverings were usually a thin layer of foam rubber with textured vinyl on top of it. Vinyl dries out, warps, and cracks as it ages due to the plasticizers evaporating away. New cars typically use things like TPO which is over-molded directly onto the dash structure. TPO is very stable and resistant to weathering and degradation, can be foamed, and needs no top layer to provide graining.
The Darts were mechanically simple, cheap and easy to fix. My friend had one, and it would easily get 28 MPG on the highway. The “slant six” was not a high revving engine, but it gave decent acceleration. One other thing-the profile of the cabin was actually lower than that of a modern compact-yet the Darts seemed to ahev good headroom.
Why anybody bought a VW Beetle is a mystery to me-lousy heaters (your feet froze), noisey engines, and tons of road noise. Plus the engines were notorious oil burners-and they were usually shot by 60,000 miles.
Good seats, though.
That looks a lot like a Bricklin.
btw, Chrysler is bringing back the Dart.
http://www.motortrend.com/auto_shows/detroit/2012/1112_2012_detroit_auto_show_2013_dodge_dart/
Per Maxim magazine cars of the 70’s are coveted by collectors (mostly in the south) who convert them into Donks.
Doesn’t have quite the cachet of the 1961-62 Darts; in particular the 2013 lacks those funky shelves along the fenders.
I’m involved in what we call “closing efforts” from time to time. I slam doors, because it’s ingrained in me that doors need large effort to close. Modern cars, though, are specifically designed to not need much effort to completely close the doors.
In my role as a body-in-white guy, I can affirmatively attest that the sheet metal is thinner than ever – but also tougher and stronger than ever.
I drove a 72 Datsun 240Z for about 10 years. I forget the exact schedules, but the valves had to be adjusted regularly, head bolts had to be re-torqued regularly, and points had to be adjusted real frequently. That was part of why I loved it so much. Working on it and keeping it tuned up was a pride and joy thing. It would crank up with the tiniest bump of the starter.
Since then, I have become spoiled by air conditioning, power steering, anti-lock brakes and maintenance free mileage.