...Looked much more conventional and sold quite a bit more, though of course the stigma of the original design kind of hurt sales compared to the Renault Scenic and Opel/Vauxhall Zafira, its main competitors in Europe.
Posted on 09/09/2007 6:36:38 AM PDT by shove_it
First front wheel drive car I owned, the 82. The boots on the front were really bad and could not take 50 below zero weather. Went through 3 sets in a couple of months. LOL!
Ford Aerostar...hands down.
...Looked much more conventional and sold quite a bit more, though of course the stigma of the original design kind of hurt sales compared to the Renault Scenic and Opel/Vauxhall Zafira, its main competitors in Europe.
That funny. My buddy had one. The door hands came off within a week. The window cranks the next week. It was dead at 7k miles!
Got it. The Model T was bad because it put us on the road to global warming.
Luckily this was early in the article so I could save myself the trouble of reading the rest.
Too bad the Mustang II never caught on as it was a fun little car to drive. Even with the standard V6 it had some kick to it.
Sad, but not surprising, to see the Triumph TR7 on there. I like wedge-shaped cars, and there’s still a 12-year-old in me who wants a first-generation RX7. I even had a ‘91 Mercury Capri, which was a bad idea.
But Triumph, oh, Lord. Between Lucas electrical systems and the never-ending dance the dual SU carburetors, not the best car for anyone who wants to spend more time in it than under it.
I had a Spitfire, and I would never own another British Leyland car unless everything in my house was repaired and renovated, every sock drawer sorted, my lawn and gardens immaculate, and I’d finished every book I’v thought about writing or reading. I would have to be that desperate for something to kill all the time on my hands.
“I’m beginning restoration a ‘66 Mustang and will be using Mustang II parts for my disk brake conversion.”
Sadly, you’ll have to buy reproduction Mustang II parts. The originals are long gone — the lucky parts went racing or hot rodding.
But, did you really want to use 30 year old parts in your baby anyway?
“...Chevrolet Citation, although I recall them having a sporty model that wasn’t too bad X-11?”
By the time GM got the X-bodies figured out, consumers had lost any trust in the GM small cars. Honda et al ate their lunch.
Another great example of 1980’s GM having a great car only after they’ve made hundreds of thousands of motorists into test drivers.
“Uh, didn’t the 850 feature the motor that you could lift out of the car w/o a hoist, and rebuild on your kitchen table?”
Probably. By the time I got rid of the car, it must have been rebuilt a half dozen times.
Now for the kicker; the guy I sold it to finally got rid of the Fiat and bought a Triumph MG.
As though he didn’t have enough problems with the Fiat...
You might want to try running Windows 95 for the same kind of time consuming fun. Anyone still using it?
The Pinto and the Explorer were both creations of the government. The 1970s government-manufactured “gas crisis,” Nader-inspired anti-corporatism, and the new regulatory state built aroud it led directly to the junk that Ford, GM, Chrysler and AMC were putting out by the mid-70s. No excuses for Detroit, but one can understand its confusion.
Look at any of the ‘75 lineup and you’ll see cars that are trying to please the government, the economy, and the consumer — which at that time were all at odds with each other. Japan, Inc.’s timing couldn’t have been better: they had one type of car, and it fit the model better than the others who were stuck trying to please the old with the new with the fantasy-world of central planners.
The Explorer solved the problem for consumers. Since trucks were exempt from CAFE and other regs, consumers were allowed free expression in demands for size, utility, and identity that the government-run sedan market had lost.
You talking about the Pinto Port-a-Pottie? My roommate had one but she was the only one with a car so we loved it.
Back when I was paying attention to cars and buying the auto mags, one review of a Soviet car was done half in jest, saying the extremely low positioned door lock, just a barely 18” or so from the pavement, was for KGB agents ducking down to remain hidden while slinking into the car.
My buddy had a Ford Maverick. Not sure of the year. The steering wheel linkage broke mid-turn. We ended up in a river.
“But, did you really want to use 30 year old parts in your baby anyway?”
Oh, my wife would probably appreciate it. “Can’t you find that USED somewhere?” Women. :)
Driving with a friend in his Fiero in a snowstorm, the wipers suddenly stopped working.
Reading the manual, we found out it was a “safety feature” built in so the wiper motor wouldn’t burn out. As if driving in the snow with no wipers was supposed to be safe.
But the DeLorean DMC-12? Son-in-law has one and loves it.
What really hurt Ford was that from the end of World War I to the end of the 1920’s, GM’s Chevrolet models were roomier, faster and more technologically advanced than the Ford Model T. As such, they became huge bestsellers for anyone that could afford them.
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