1971 Vs 1991

[trigger]

I've just scanned this from a 1991 issue of CAR magazine, looking at what advantages have been made the 20 years between '71 & 91 by car manufacturers, seeing that this is 23 years old I wonder what cars you could use if you ran the same feature today?.

 

Mk1 Clio 1.4 RT with a new Clio Dynamique, The Mk5 Escort RS2000 with a new Focus RS or even maybe the Citroen Xantia 1.9TD SX with a C5 1.6 HDI 16V VTR?.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sloth in a bowl]

Great article Trigger. For those that want to convert 1991 prices to 2014 then multiply by 1.9.

[Spiny Norman]

I was reading that one just a few weeks ago and wondered the same thing.
How would a Mk3 Cav do against an Insignia, or a Peugeot 205 against a 208? Not very well I suspect, although I'm sure in terms of driving pleasure the current 5 series would give the E34 a run for its money, or the current Audi A7 against the old A6.

[Junkman]

With the exception of this inexpressibly dreadful She-Type, everything was better in 1971.

[londonm]

I should imagine the rustproofing was better on the 91 cars, but the 71s looked much nicer.

[brickwall]

The E-Type should've disappeared  by '71

[Youngsod]

Trigger, what issue is this? I'm off up to the loft...

[trigger]

June 1991

[cort16]

The old 3 door xr4i was very similiar to the old Mondeo ST220 for performance I remember that. It's kind of unfair comparing a 20 year old car against a new one too unless you get one fresh out the box.

I bet a mk3 Cavalier  straight out the wrapper would compare to an Insignia pretty favourably if you discount the interior.

[mat_the_cat]

I had the very same issue! As I clearly remember cutting out photos of the GS and Alfa 33 to stick on my bedroom wall as a 12 year old...

[Justin Case]

If Car were depressed by the Audi 100, an A6 would make them positively suicidal On the other hand it would be interesting to haveToyota Corolla v Toyota Prius and see if hybrid technology really has any benefits, or Jaguar XJ v Jaguar XJ to see whether  modernisation of the design has worked. Best of all, put the clock forward a few years so that they could compare 1998 Focus v 2014 Focus; I can't see the latter winning in any of the rounds.

[Stroller133]

I think the 1998 Focus was amazing. I didn't like the look of it at the time, but even still I realised it was a great car. My mate worked in the bodyshop of a Ford dealer and somehow got one overnight within a few weeks of launch. Parked up outside the pub it really stood out - everyone looked as they walked past. Then after I'd had a few beers and my mate a few cokes he dropped me home at my village 7 miles out of town. I remember feeling a bit pissed and glancing across to the speedo on windy A road and seeing 90mph and thinking this should feel a bit scary but it feels safe and steady. The 2014 Focus looks like the Kia Cee'ds poor relation.

[Stixy]

1991  was great   , i really had a good year 

[Sudsprint]

Great article. Some all time greats in 1971.

[forddeliveryboy]

Innovate, expensively-engineered cars for the masses are no-brainers, from the manufacturers point of view. Ford realised that at year dot. But there were still such offerings in the 1980s, bargains (especially when three of four years old) for those in the know. Didn't Gavin Green suggest these were 'golden years' at a much later date?

 

A sensibly-priced family car could be either a Cavalier, BX, 405 or a Saab 900. A Jag XK40 was available from £16k, £3k cheaper than a Granada Ghia. Once-great manufacturers offered the Alfa 75 and CX25 Turbo. A 2cv or Mini could be bought new for very little

 

I did find the 90s as paradise as a buyer of older, total bargain machines. Interesting that cars as mundane as the Reggie Super 5 are fetching reasonable money. No crash protection, just an enjoyable, economical, reliable and charming machine.

[gtd2000]

I've not read the mag articles but looking at the photos the registration numbers suggest none of the "1971" cars are of 1971 vintage other than the Jag?

 

'75 through '79 surely for the NSU & Alfa?

[laser wheels]

This is something I sometimes wonder about myself. It seems to me that there has been far less progress in the last 20 years than the 20 years before that. Let me put it this way. In the mid-90s, when my friends and I were finally old enough to drive most of them had as a first car something like my friends MK1 Fiesta. At the time that was a near 20 year old super-mini with a sub-1 litre engine, four gears, no carpets, no radio, pretty much no sound proofing at all, definitely no power steering and pretty much no crash protection at all. It was literally a tin box with an engine and wheels. Oh, and of course it had holes in the floor you could quite literally put your hand through. What I'm saying is, the difference between a car from 1975 and 1995 back then - at least to us - felt pretty damn big. Fast forward another 20 years - and Christ that makes me feel old - and some young whipper-snapper today would probably expect airbags, power steering, five gears, power windows, crash protection, CD player, and most possibly alloys as well on their first 15 to 20 year old car. Basically something that would still feel modern today!

 

I suppose what I'm trying to say, is that the gap between MK1 Focus and MK3 Focus feels a helluva lot smaller than the gap between MK1 Focus and a MK3 Escort!

[TagoraSX]

I've not read the mag articles but looking at the photos the registration numbers suggest none of the "1971" cars are of 1971 vintage other than the Jag?

 

'75 through '79 surely for the NSU & Alfa?

'68 to '77 for the NSU.

[Sudsprint]

Wankel woes aside can you image just how far ahead of everything else on the road an RO80 must have felt in 1968? 

[garethj]

And how far ahead it looked too.  In 1968 you could park it next to a new Austin Cambridge

[gtd2000]

'68 to '77 for the NSU.

 

What I meant was that the NSU was an N reg (say '75) and the Alfa was a V reg (say '79), so neither of them were '71 vintage - I'm pretty sure there were some changes to the specification in the interim years from 1971?

[gtd2000]

Wankel woes aside can you image just how far ahead of everything else on the road an RO80 must have felt in 1968? 

 

There were a couple of NSU cars in the village in the late 60's/ early 70's when I was a nipper.

 

One of my mums friends had an NSU Prinz and one of her other friends husbands had the NSU Ro80. I'm pretty sure that particular Ro80 wasn't far ahead of anything at all, because from what I remember, there was always something going wrong with it.

[forddeliveryboy]

Wankel woes aside can you image just how far ahead of everything else on the road an RO80 must have felt in 1968? 

 

Or a DS in the 50s? Phil Llewellyn's description of his first sighting of one, as a lad in the back of his parents car has lasted in my mind - as did a lot of his CAR contributions, Something along the lines of a rapidly-approaching object which resembled a flying saucer more than a motor car, obviously not in contact with the ground given its lack of vertical movement - which was gone in the blink of the eye. One can only wonder what it must have felt like to be at the wheel on a fast A road, maintaining an easy 80-90mph past crashing, lurching post-war chod. Only thing which would have easily kept up (on the smoother bits) would have been a XK120, I'd've thought.