What automotive 'trends' do you remember clearly?

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Aftermarket turbos being sold through dealers was a great trend that I could never get my parents to bite to.

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I'll always remember RPO B2K in the Corvettes, which gave you a Callaway twin turbo kit,,factory installed.

 

[morepwr]

Fasten seat belt warning buzzers. I hate those things.

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: morepwr
Fasten seat belt warning buzzers. I hate those things.

That, and those motorized seat belts.

 

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: Robenstein
The 1980's digital instrument trend....a trend that was HORRENDOUS mostly because the high rate of failure with them. Dashes would look like something out of the cockpit of a starwars or battlestar craft.

Also back when I was a kid and we started metricification of domestic cars, American cars would have the engine sizes in liters via emblems on the car. I remember my 86 Buick Skyhawk had "1.8 Turbo" lables on it.



I would LOVE to get my hands on a nice Skyhawk turbo to complement my 87 Buick Grand National. I remember a friend having one with a 4speed manual and that little car (150hp if I recall) flat out ran hard. It was fun and his was black with a gray interior and looked like a mini Grand National. It was also a SCS edition which stood for 'southern california skyhawk"

 

[Chris142]

The guys from mexico used to have a cow on the door of their sentra's

 

[01rangerxl]

1990s truck accessories...net gates, various smoked plastic shades/deflectors, headlamp/taillamp covers, fiberglass running boards, etc.

An extension of that same trend, the "coversion" trucks common in the Southeast in the 1990s. Southern Comfort was one of the big companies and is one of the very few that remains. I remember C/K trucks with "Heartbeat of America" air brushed on the tailgates and Mark III Ford F-150s. Also, Centurion conversions.

My aunt and uncle had an early 1990s C1500 conversion. I specifically remember they didn't take it on long trips because the wood steering wheel (think Grant GT) would get uncomfortable.

 

[kmcavin]

Hideaway headlights on my '67 Riviera (I was born in '65). It seemed like one or the other would fail to work properly.

High/low beam switch moving from the floor board to the column.

 

[BikeWhisperer]

Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
The 1980's digital instrument trend....a trend that was HORRENDOUS mostly because the high rate of failure with them. Dashes would look like something out of the cockpit of a starwars or battlestar craft.

Also back when I was a kid and we started metricification of domestic cars, American cars would have the engine sizes in liters via emblems on the car. I remember my 86 Buick Skyhawk had "1.8 Turbo" lables on it.



I would LOVE to get my hands on a nice Skyhawk turbo to complement my 87 Buick Grand National. I remember a friend having one with a 4speed manual and that little car (150hp if I recall) flat out ran hard. It was fun and his was black with a gray interior and looked like a mini Grand National. It was also a SCS edition which stood for 'southern california skyhawk"


My Dad had a Pontiac Sunbird with that engine matched up with a 3 speed auto. He let me drive it on occasion. It went from little power to full power with massive torque steer so having both hands on the wheel was a must.

 

[mlatour]

Disappearance of manual locking hubs on 4X4's and advent of push button transfer case controls instead of a floor mounted lever.

190-225 CID inline-6 as the base engine of most cars.

 

[HangFire]

Car bras.

Endless Japanese to Japanese car style copying.

For example... a black stripe across the front of the car with pop-up headlights. I miss those headlights (thanks, US Gov't), but I never got the purpose of the black stripe, other than to make the car more ugly.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
1990s truck accessories...net gates, various smoked plastic shades/deflectors, headlamp/taillamp covers, fiberglass running boards, etc.

An extension of that same trend, the "coversion" trucks common in the Southeast in the 1990s. Southern Comfort was one of the big companies and is one of the very few that remains. I remember C/K trucks with "Heartbeat of America" air brushed on the tailgates and Mark III Ford F-150s. Also, Centurion conversions.

My aunt and uncle had an early 1990s C1500 conversion. I specifically remember they didn't take it on long trips because the wood steering wheel (think Grant GT) would get uncomfortable.


DeeZee running boards and Hella fog lights!

 

[01rangerxl]

Some pics of the trucks I was talking about in my last post...

These things were all over the South in the 1990s. Tacky as [censored] in a 1970s vanning kind of way, but they were the thing to have. Corded phones, wood consoles, and all.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

The rise and demise of tailfins. The acres of chrome, the demise of chrome, and the return of acres of chrome on pickups.

Running boards on pickups, the demise of running boards on pickups, and the return of running boards on pickups.

The rise of 4 cylinder engines, the move to 6 cylinder engines, the move to V8 engines, the return to 6 cylinder engines and the return to 4 cylinder engines.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Some pics of the trucks I was talking about in my last post...

These things were all over the South in the 1990s. Tacky as [censored] in a 1970s vanning kind of way, but they were the thing to have. Corded phones, wood consoles, and all.




Swear our neighbor had the one on the bottom.....

 

[toneydoc]

Man oh man. The good old days.

Well I was born in 1957. Guess I am getting old.

Back then we all had v8 engines. Well most of us. And gas was 40-50 cents a gallon. And our cars maybe got 15 MPG.

Then came the oil embargo in about 1973-1974 and gas lines, yes lines of cars would wait for an hour or more to fill up. And the price went to a buck a gallon or so. My memory is fading. Too much time and cerveza.

And then a car with name of Corolla and Civic came along. Made in Japan.. Oh God. What is happening here? And they had 4 cylinder engines. And only 1200-1400 cc engines. Not CI. Cubic centimeter. What the [censored] is that?

And they got many MPG Probably 30 or more but again I can not remember. Been a long time. And they were noisy. Only sheet metal. Light and easy to work on.

My old favorites were going out of style. The old Dodge Challenger, Charger, Malibu SS, Camaro SS, Corvettes were changing. And seat belts became mandatory. At least they were in the cars.

And then came electronic iginition. Points and adjusting were going away. How sad.

And then a computer in the cars or ECM. What is that. Well.

Now my Harley has fuel injection, ECM standard, and no throttle cable. Only sensors. Matter of fact, even the clutch has no cable now. It is hydraulic. And a electric starter.

What is next? A car that can drive or park itself? Wait it is coming No already here.

Man oh man I have seen some progress in my days. And yes they are largely, well mostly good progresses.

I am glad to be on this side of the dirt and look forward to some more progress.

Needless to say, safety is much improved except for the cell phone. What a piece of shyte. Now people can call you anywhere. Anytime. And they want you to answere it all the time. What is wrong with them?

And the phone and texting causes crashes. Get rid of them. Only kidding. They are great but do cause problems not associated with an autp.

And diesels and turbos. They are great. Expensive. But work well.
We did not have them back then.

I think I am getting old. Sound like my dad 30 years ago. Technology is great and doin great things. I hope I live 30 more years and get to fly a car soon. I will buy a flying car as soon as I can get my hands on one.

Hope I have a good landing area. Watch out Harrison, here I come down.

Chow

 

[Papa Bear]

I was born in 1944. I love BUBBLE SKIRTS

 

[aquariuscsm]

I always loved the digital dashes and the cars that would "talk" to you. My 86 300ZX turbo was like that.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
Originally Posted By: ls1mike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWF-hH1nloo


That commercial reminded me of a mid 80s fad,the two-tone paint jobs. I'd forgotten about those.

 

[jacky]

i would love a car with a digital dash, i owned a 1987 bmw 325 that had a light that came on when oil was a quart low, i think all cars should have that feature

 

[hemitruck]

i was born in 57. cars were huge in the 60s. the back seat was like a twin bed. cant forget "beetles" and ford country squire wagons with contact paper wood on the outside. and the mid seventies, super beetle.