What automotive 'trends' do you remember clearly?

[hpb]

Originally Posted By: exranger06
Originally Posted By: hpb
Vacuum operated "economy gauges" were common in the 70's and 80's. Thankfully, they're gone!

Umm, no, they're not gone. My mom's 2005 BMW has one, and my wife's 2014 Subaru has one.


You're kidding, right? Two of my neighbours have Subaru XV's (our version of the CrossTrek I think), I'll have to check them out...

 

[JetStar]

Geez I lived through the Landau top thing starting back in the 70's. The thicker the padding the better. All that padding held water, you know what happened then.
Opera windows?

First one that comes to mind are three spoke wheels, Nothing dates a car to the early 90's than three spoke wheels. Hate 'em.

Remember the chrome wheels with the fake spoke baskets?

 

[cjcride]

Side marker lights came in 1968. If a car has none you know it is pre 68.

 

[aquariuscsm]

My uncle had a green Buick Electra (60s I think) that had a needle you could set on the speedometer that would "buzz" at you once you reached that speed.

 

[JetStar]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
My uncle had a green Buick Electra (60s I think) that had a needle you could set on the speedometer that would "buzz" at you once you reached that speed.


My Dad had a Riviera with that feature.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: cjcride
Side marker lights came in 1968. If a car has none you know it is pre 68.


Around that era, parking lights stayed on with headlights too. That way if a car coming at you had a burnt out headlamp you wouldn't assume it was a motorcycle.

My 1982 Virago had front turn signals but no parking lights, so it was a sole headlight. Modern bikes are better at announcing, hey, I'm a bike!

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

Most of the big trends have been covered. I haven't thought about louvers in a long time. There was also somebody in my town with a Star Wars mural van.

I remember Mopars with turn signal indicators on the front fender corners.

Didn't some Chevies from the '80s have spedometers that tried to look like digital graphs, where a bar filled with orange to indicate the speed?

Also analog dash clocks--I don't think I ever saw one that worked.

Push-button radio presets. CB radios, anyone?

 

[DBMaster]

Originally Posted By: Rhymingmechanic
Also analog dash clocks--I don't think I ever saw one that worked.


The old mechanical ones would usually fail within a few years and most did not keep time accurately. I recall one of Infiniti's trademarks from the mid-90's (maybe still) was analog clocks. Of course, quartz clocks are accurate a reliable. I had a 72 Catalina as my first car. I got several mechanical dash clocks from salvage yards, cleaned them up and adjusted them, and tried them in my car, which did not come with the clock option. Most stopped within a few months. All required constant adjustment. One actually seized, with the second hand vibrating noisily in one spot.

 

[fdcg27]

American small car 1.0: Corvair, Falcon, Valiant, Chevy II, Rambler American, Studebaker Lark.
I learned to drive in mom's DD Corvair and always considered them cool. The Chevy II and the Falcon provided cheap platforms for the superficially cooler Camaro and Mustang. We had both Studebaker and Rambler drivers in our neighborhood.

American small car 2.0: Maverick, Pinto, Vega, Gremlin and various rebadged imports for Chrysler brands. Owned a Vega and my mom had a Pinto wagon as her DD for a while.

American small car 3.0: By this time, the Japanese imports were starting to put the hurt on American offerings. Gas prices were up and would go up more by the end of the decade. The cars were Omni/Horizon, Chevette and the Escort a little later. None of these were great cars, but the Chevette was actually the largest volume car in this country for a couple of model years.

Amrican small car 4.0: Citation and K-car, with Ford still flogging the Fairmont in competition. The Citation was a good design marred by cost-cutting in execution. The platform would go on to spawn a host of very sucessful GM models. The K-car is best remembered for having provided the original platform for ChryCo's highly sucessful original minivan.

What have I missed?

 

[Robenstein]

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"



Mine was a 3 speed auto. Went through 2 transmissions in it...kept knocking high gear out. When the turbo kicked in, the car would power steer so you had to hold on. It was definitely a step ahead in power compared to the Dodge Daytona turboss I messed around with. And it got UNGODLY good mileage. Well into the 30's even with no overdrive.

 

[Robenstein]

"Rich Corinthian leather"

That is another gimmick I remember.

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: Rhymingmechanic


CB radios, anyone?


Somewhere, I think at my parents house, I have the handheld part of a late 1970s Ford CB radio laying around.

 

[dishdude]

85 MPH speedometers with 55 printed in orange.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Originally Posted By: Rhymingmechanic
Also analog dash clocks--I don't think I ever saw one that worked.


The old mechanical ones would usually fail within a few years and most did not keep time accurately. I recall one of Infiniti's trademarks from the mid-90's (maybe still) was analog clocks. Of course, quartz clocks are accurate a reliable. I had a 72 Catalina as my first car. I got several mechanical dash clocks from salvage yards, cleaned them up and adjusted them, and tried them in my car, which did not come with the clock option. Most stopped within a few months. All required constant adjustment. One actually seized, with the second hand vibrating noisily in one spot.


My first car was a '70 Grand Prix, with what I saw referred to as a "Tick Tock Tach." It didn't work as either a clock or a tachometer. The "cockpit" of that car was cool, though.

 

[jacky]

i used to to believe a car registered for 120mph was always faster than one registered for 85mph

 

[Robenstein]

Here is one....T tops.

I have had them...I still have one car with them. Hate them.

 

[Kiwi_ME]

I don't think anyone's mentioned steering wheel knobs with naughty photos in them, common in the early '60s until they were outlawed.

Nor plastic engine covers - which must have been the result of someone in the marketing department stumbling upon the hood release handle one day and asking "what it's used for."

 

[Rick in PA]

Originally Posted By: Robenstein
"Rich Corinthian leather"

That is another gimmick I remember.


Don't forget to read that with a "Ricardo Montalbán" accent.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: Rhymingmechanic
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Originally Posted By: Rhymingmechanic
Also analog dash clocks--I don't think I ever saw one that worked.


The old mechanical ones would usually fail within a few years and most did not keep time accurately. I recall one of Infiniti's trademarks from the mid-90's (maybe still) was analog clocks. Of course, quartz clocks are accurate a reliable. I had a 72 Catalina as my first car. I got several mechanical dash clocks from salvage yards, cleaned them up and adjusted them, and tried them in my car, which did not come with the clock option. Most stopped within a few months. All required constant adjustment. One actually seized, with the second hand vibrating noisily in one spot.


My first car was a '70 Grand Prix, with what I saw referred to as a "Tick Tock Tach." It didn't work as either a clock or a tachometer. The "cockpit" of that car was cool, though.


I paid good money to get mine restored and modified to work correctly. Wish I would have trashed it for Autometers.

With regards to analog clocks, our Navigator has one. I don't trust it, but it seems to be on point.

 

[Claud]

Seeing an import on the road and saying to your friend "What was that?"
Being able to tell what make and model cars were just by hearing them.
That was in the Uk in the '60s.
In the '70s; Owning a car that could maintain being driven at the 70mph limit.

In the '80s; "Turbo" stickers on cars everywhere.
In the '90s; Ibought my first American car and stopped looking at anything else...........

Claud.