What shite would you be driving in 1979?

[vulgalour]

Winding the clock back 40 years is easier than expected on the current fleet.

I'd like the Princess replacement to be a Princess, but realistically since mine is an HL it would more likely be a loved old 12 instead, maybe a 10.

I'd miss out on a hydropneumatic Citroen, so I'd have to make do* with a Traction Avant instead.

I can live with that.

[anonymous user]

Currently a 17 year old small Citroen van, so I guess it would have to be a 2cv commercial from 1962 . In reality I was driving a 1963 Morris Mini Traveller and a 1968 Triumph 1300.

[406V6]

As I currently drive a 19 year old Peugeot the nearest equivalent in 1979 would be a 1960 Peugeot 404. What I'd really like to drive from 1979 is an FD or FE Ventora but I'd be concerned about rust problems. Alternatively a Renault 30 would do nicely.

[Six-cylinder]

I was being a clever dickie with my first reply where I was able to provide a picture of the actual car I was driving in 1979!

 

Maybe more in spirit with the thread my current long term daily is a 14 year old Range Rover and my current go to is a 22 year old Citroen XM.

XM is easy, in 1979 22 years old would make it a 1957 car, Citroen Tractions were still being sold new and the DS had been introduced. As the XM is well into its model life I think this means I would have been driving a Traction Avant.

 

Range Rover is much harder as SUVs had not been invented in 1965 the year of the equivalent 14 year old RR! So what would I have that was 14 years old in 1979? Series Land Rover possibly, but my RR does more service as a large posh car and tow vehicle than it does off roading.

I suspect it would have been something like a Jaguar S Type?

 

Open to ideas.

[AnthonyG]

I remember a similar question about 1968 or 1969, to which the answer for me (the entry level Jaguar from a few years earlier) would have been easy - a 2.4 Mk2 or even better one of those run-out 240s with vinyl seats.

A 2.8 XJ6 doesn’t really feel right, they were definitely a whole class up from the Mk1/2, so I think a 1973 Rover 2000 or Triumph 2000.

My interest in a reasonably priced Mx5 Mk2 to fill my new garage would translate to finding the best* Frogeye Sprite for £150 or whatever the equivalent of £1500 was in 1979. 

[vulgalour]

Maybe for your Range Rover equivalent, you bought a Jeep Wagoneer from a US military sort that wasn't taking it back with them?

[iainrcz]

A Celica Supra, or a second hand 2000 GT

 

The AE86 hadn't been invented then.

[Six-cylinder]

9 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

Maybe for your Range Rover equivalent, you bought a Jeep Wagoneer from a US military sort that wasn't taking it back with them?

You would have had to be near a US  base to even know they existed

 

 

[puddlethumper]

In 79 I had a 68  Vauxhalls are shite Ventora. Which was ace. Jacked rear with big 

fuck off wheels, as was the style in those 'back in the day' times.

That is what I WAS driving in 79. Forty years before that was 1939 and would 

therefore be a Vauxhall 10-4 I reckon. 10-4 good buddy.

Now it's an 88 305 van so an equivalent would be a 48 Juvaquatre.

I would have any of them right now.

 

[sheffcortinacentre]

Same as now MK3 Cortina.

If you'd said 89 it would be, as had a p reg 1.6L & it would be 5 months away from the 72 MK3 GT I still own as bought it sept 89.

[STUNO]

Today I drive a 25 year old Mazda Lantis as daily

In 1979 my daily was a 1969 Holden Special station Wagon with dreams of something Jaguarish which became a Daimler v8 a year or so later.

So 25 years before that was 1954 so it would have been something with 2 wheels and 2 pedals

1954 family car was a 1953 Vauxhall Velox and in 1979 it had turned Japanese with a 1979 Toyota Cressida which replaced a Datsun 180B

[catsinthewelder]

I'm currently using an 8 year old Focus so I make the equilalent mid size Ford to be a 71 Cortina.  The Focus is a Sport model with the 1.6 TDCi lump so the Cortina would be a 1.6 GT if such a thing existed.

The currently absent 405 would be a Ryton built mid size estate so Hillman Minx mkV11 based Husky

From 1995 is the Rover 220 SLi,  What could be small, posh, fast and broken from 1955 that was built in Longbridge?

I'm going to cheat a little with the ZA Magnette

A broken 93 Land Rover could only be a broken 53 Land Rover

The Mighty Dacia is tricky,  most of the Eastern Bloc peoples cars entered production in the 60s and being a 1990 car I need a 1950 equivalent so

[NorfolkNWeigh]

My 2014 Merc E class, 2011 Merc ML and 2001 Merc CLK cabrio, could become;

But, oiks like me didn't drive Mercs in 1979, taxis even posh ones ,weren't Mercs in the UK . No the equivalents would have to be British and mass market.

Does anyone rember Butterflies? Well the posh smooth bloke trying to get into Wendy Craig's knickers was driven around in a Granada, so that seems a likely equivalent work car for me. Cars didn't last as long and companies got rid of them at much lower miles in those days so I think a 1976/7 3.0 GL would fit the bill.

As for the ML, a posh 8 year old " lifestyle" car could be;

and a knackered old rusty convertible

[Lord Sterling]

Right. Let me get this right now....

22 year old Rover Sterling now. In 1979, it would be a 1957 Rover P4;

16 year old BMW 316i SE now in 1979 would be a 1963 BMW 2002;

A 14 year old Vauxhall Vectra estate now in 1979 would be a 1965 Vauxhall Cresta estate;

I'd have had a pretty cool mix of cars then!

[Eyersey1234]

It's just occurred to me that if we are taking age into account my 1979 car wouldn't be a Mk2 Escort Estate but an Anglia Estate, Mk1 Cortina or possibly a Mk1 Escort, did they do a Mk1 Escort Estate? 

[SierraMikeHotel]

I was born in 1979, so thanks for the reminder that I turn 40 this year...

 

12 year old Mercedes estate in 1979 would have been one of these:

 

 

I love it, but I suspect it would have been rather more rare and expensive than mine is now so perhaps not a direct equivalent. I imagine something like a Cortina would have been more likely.

 

 

 

[LightBulbFun]

its interesting how people interpreted the question

as in "I have a 20 year old car so whats the 20 year old equivalent in 1979"

or "I have this car what would of been its equivalent in 1979"

[Mr A Lawrence]

If I was driving the '79 equivalent of the cars we have today it'd be a mini 1275GT Crayford convertible and a Mercedes benz G wagon. 

Today's cars are a bmw mini convertible and a Mercedes benz gla. 

[sporty-shite]

15 year old Clio 172. So....

1979 - approx. 15 years, French, small, fast, fairly common..

Dauphine Gordini? 

 

But what about the 406? 

1979 - approx. 17 year old French coupe?

 

 

[ProgRocker]

Had I been born 20 or 30 years earlier, able to drive in 1979 and earning the square root of fu k all like now, I think I'd probably be driving something common like a Viva, Escort, Avenger, Marina or maybe a Datty 120y.

[richardmorris]

My actual 1979 car.

 

[Eyersey1234]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

My actual 1979 car.

 

Nice car, to be honest I didn't know Raleigh made those. Wonder how many were made and what they are worth now

[richardmorris]

 

 

 

My actual 1979 car.

The one on eBay is £200!

 

 

a future executive with carphone!

 

 

 

 

And the current fleet on the same drive.

 

[eddyramrod]

Ford certainly did make an estate version of the first Escort; I had one!  It looked very much like the mk2, because from the A pillars back it was exactly the same car, as it was behind the revised front end.

[stuboy]

'tina

[Eyersey1234]

48 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Ford certainly did make an estate version of the first Escort; I had one!  It looked very much like the mk2, because from the A pillars back it was exactly the same car, as it was behind the revised front end.

Thanks eddyramrod

[Bradders59]

I was 19 in 1979 and was driving a 6 month old Vauxhall Chevette HS, Having just paid five grand for it and £635 for third party insurance.

I could have bought a house instead, but what does a 19 year old petrol head want with a house ?

I wish I was as solvent now. My last car cost less than I paid for insurance for the Chevette. 

[Roobarb]

1973 I was cruisin’ the Midlands in this...

‘79 on a green Grifter. 

By todays standards (lightly sporty fancy Toyota) this...

[vaughant]

Mercedes 200d (current car C220CDi AMG Line).

Also have an Avensis Estate so something like a Toyota Crown Estate, Seat Ibiza cupra, equivalent golf GTi Mk1, sapphire cosworth, no real equivalent, suspect a Lotus Cortina as mentioned previously.

[Steve79]

Based on the current fleet vs equivalent fleet age in 1979, would look something like this

2019 Volvo V40

1979 Volvo 345GL

1995 BMW 518i

1954 BMW 501

2002 Rover 75 1.8T Club SE

1972 Rover P6 2000 TC

1985 BMW 520i

1946 BMW 326

2005 Saab 9-5 2.0 Vector Turbo

1953 Saab 92b