80s shite unloved shock

[hairnet]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22525103

 

harsh

 

i nearly thought that was triggers car

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Yeah, the Sierra build quality 'isn't great'. Why don't you buy a nice new Renault on finance instead?

[jonny69]

That's handy - I was going to watch this later because I recorded it at home.

 

"Is it difficult to drive?" -ok, glad I didn't have to ffwd through the tape to find that gem.

 

Yeah, doesn't surprise me much. Most 80's chod was paper thin, made cheaply and not screwed together very well. I think there will still be survivors though; owners know when their cars start to join the endangered list and begin looking after them properly.

[hairnet]

more sierras knocking about than french similar sized chod

 

not built that bad

[trigger]

i nearly thought that was triggers car

 

It nearly was my car.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

more sierras knocking about than french similar sized chod

 

not built that bad

 

Τhat may have had something to do with the sales figures. I bet the Sierra sold quite a bit more than the R21 in the UK.

Plus they're GR8 4DREEFT IN.

[Lacquer Peel]

Yeah, the Sierra build quality 'isn't great'. Why don't you buy a nice new Renault on finance instead?

 

Keith Adams seems to promote new British-made cars now. So it'd be a new Nissan on finance.

 

Think you did well to avoid that BBC Breakfast piece, Ian Trigger.

[Shep Shepherd]

Keith Adams seems to promote new British-made cars now.

 

Perhaps MG should hire him as their PR spokesman?

[Wilko220]

Does knocking a few Chinese kits together in Birmingham count as "British made" these days...?

[Lacquer Peel]

I think they just bolt the engines, wheels, and front clips on, if that even counts as a 'kit'.

[Negative Creep]

OMG ALL BRITISH CARS R RUBISH U SUD GET A ASTRA DEISEL ON FYNANCE ONLY COST ME £250 A MUNTH 4 THE NEXT 10 YEARS

[Lacquer Peel]

Ellesmere Port best.

[John F]

What's the deal with the Mk 3 Cortina in a programme about 1980s cars?

 

IIRC they were only made until 1976.

[dollywobbler]

What's the deal with the Mk 3 Cortina in a programme about 1980s cars?

 

IIRC they were only made until 1976.

 

I think the point was to compare it with the Sierra. People love Cortinas, especially people who work in the docks and wear dodgy jumpers. The Sierra is pretty much unloved.

[Guest]

Go to the West Midlands - they be lovin' their Metros there. I saw a very fine GTa on an H plate (ok, 1991, but 80s really) in Brummigem just this morning, and another less soupy-uppy Metro just down the road.

[willswitchengage]

I so wrote this link down on a post-it-note at work today!!!!111

 

They've failed to mention though that 80s cars look so much better when the suspension has been removed and fake ebay "BBS" alloys fitted

[trigger]

I've got home to watch this on my Sky+ and it didn't bloody record and it's not on the Iplayer. Gutted x2!

[Mash]

I think the fact that they ARE reliable and easy to drive makes them less of a draw because it makes for a more bland experience. Styling-wise there were some gems but again there's a lot of bland going on. The jump from then to now is not so large either in many respects. 90s cars will be even more difficult to accept as "classics" for this reason.

 

The biggest problem with cars from this era is that they are on the cusp of good and bad features. They are reliable and economical and easy to drive, comfortable and perform well but rust protection and construction was still a bit old fashioned. Exposed valances and minimal wheelarch liners don't help in winter. By the 90s this had all been sorted and fuel injection was the norm too. Driving a Mk3 Cavalier is I'm sure an extremely painless experience.

 

However.....I couldn't be without a car from the 80s. I'm nearly 40 and these were the vehicles I saw every day, that I looked at in Autocar every week, that I was taken to school in or went to look at in showrooms. My 1983 Sunny is one of the most boring cars ever to come from the decade but I love it. I like all cars from all eras but this is the one car in my fleet that holds the most nostalgia for me.

 

I don't really know what my point is but what I'm trying to say I think is that I understand why these cars are deemed to be unloved. What is odd, is that if you look at classic car mags from the 80s, a lot of the cars in them are only 20 to 25 years old yet had a big following. I still think the gap in technology between periods is the thing that defines what people find "old" and "modern" and therefore what is acceptable as legitimately collectable perhaps.

 

This could all be bullshit as I have been on the wine.

[dollywobbler]

Some interesting points Mash. I've been pondering it myself on my blog today, noticing that actually, quite a lot of 1990s cars ALREADY have a following. Mazda MX5s, Citroen Xantias and XMs, Rover 75s (ok, they're a bit late for 1990s), MGFs for instance. It makes you re-evaluate what a classic car actually is.

 

Perhaps it is blandness that makes 1980s cars overlooked, but the same was true of the 1960s for a time. Jaguar Mk2s were worthless, BMC Farinas totally boring grey porridge and everything looked the same (because Michelotti or Pininfarina had styled it). Then people start developing a liking for chrome and bling, and suddenly these cars are all popular.

 

I think it's already happening that people are developing a taste for cars that actually have glazing rather than gun slits to view the world through, and big obvious lighting rather than hidden jewellery. And engine bays where you can actually see an engine. Mix in the fact that 1980s classics are so driveable and practical and it has to be a growth market. Which may be bad news for us bargain hunters.

[Guest]

I have been noticing a lot more 80s and 90s cars on the roads lately. A friend of mine suggests that car design reached a sort of pinnacle in the late 80s and early 90s. Cars were light, had sensibly sized wheels and tyres, big windows, decent and usually fuel injected engines and five speed boxes, but were also usually reliable and not as rusty as older cars had been. Since then cars have become big, heavy, over wheeled and tyred, and you can't see out of them, or easily fix them when they break, which they still do, often because of some electro widget even when the engine is fine.

 

Mash makes a good point about old cars and childhood. Love of classic cars of any era is often, I think, associated with happy childhood memories. That explains why for me (born in 1962) the 70s are the uber-decade of the car.

[Joey spud]

A friend of mine suggests that car design reached a sort of pinnacle in the late 80s and early 90s. Cars were light, had sensibly sized wheels and tyres, big windows, decent and usually fuel injected engines and five speed boxes, but were also usually reliable and not as rusty as older cars had been. Since then cars have become big, heavy, over wheeled and tyred, and you can't see out of them, or easily fix them when they break, which they still do, often because of some electro widget even when the engine is fine.

 

 

I think your friend is bang on the money,have you seen how fat arsed and wide tracked the latest Astra's are...

[Six-cylinder]

I think there was a big transformation that took place at the end of the eighties, I think many late eighties introduced models were so good that the negatives to driving a late eighties car or a new car today are small. So for me the eighties was a very divided time period, early was still from an bygone era while new late eighties models still feel normal to drive today.

[fordperv]

80s shite will always have a warm place in my heart, I think it's because that's what littered the streets when I was a child, the build quality may not be the best but they are as cool as penguin piss and I love driving them

[Owain71]

This comes down to what does it for you as an individual.

 

My '86/D mk2 Cavalier went to the local Chevrolet dealership / Vauxhall Masterfit centre for it's MoT yesterday and, according to the Service Receptionist, it "created a stir" with even the MD popping down to take a look at it.

 

It's all paid for and makes me smile - I'd much rather own it than be a sheep driving a black mini-SUV "on tick"...

 

p.s. It passed first time!