Originally Posted By: quint
Oh good grief, the 80's werent that bad. We had two Rx7's, three Honda Accords, a Crown Vic and a Caprice and they were all very reliable and drove well. Tried like crazy to kill the Caprice and Crown Vic but they simply refused to break, even by todays standards they would be considered very reliable. If you drove them like a regular human you'd get high teens or low 20's mpg's, not bad out of a car that big with a 305 or 302. And honestly the only major repairs for any of them were the Hondas, one needed a fairly expensive distributor and the other had a shuddering torque convertor I replaced only because it was annoying. Not one of the seven cars *ever* left me stranded, they all went deep into the 100,000's and both Hondas made it over 250,000 miles with just basic maintenance.
I do remember some of my family that had a few of the small Pontiacs and a couple of Dodges that had pretty dismal build quality, a friends 4 cyl Camaro that couldnt outrun a moped even with a tailwind and would rust and drop pieces of door trim if you looked at it crosseyed, and another that went through about half a dozen Chevy Blazers before he found one that would go more than 3-4 months without stranding him....somewhere. Anywhere. Every era had its turds. They werent ALL like that.
People get all teary-eyed nostalgic about cars in the 60's, remembering big block 400 hp whatevers while forgetting all the lumbering, ugly, overweight and underpowered garbage rolling around with them that would turn to rust if it drizzled. Every decade had its good and bad but there was still a good number of decent cars in the 80's.
I agree. There were some amazing cars from the 80s. The 302 powered Delta 88's,the 350 powered Caprice station wagons,the turbo Regals,the Z's,Supras,RX7's. The mid to late 80s GM 3800 Oldsmobiles and Buicks were amazing too. You're absolutely right,every decade has it's garbage.
The worst cars of the 70s and 80s were the domestic compacts,and like you said,the 4 cyl Camaros. A kid on a tricycle could outrun those pos's and they were ready for the junkyard as soon as they left the dealership lot.