"bad"'70s cars that...

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cfz2882

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...actually were nice rides:Ford Granada,Chrysler Cordoba,Cadillac Seville,AMC Pacer and others that top the poo-poo lists :)GM colonnaide cars (73-77 midsize) used to make the list as well,but those are starting to get some appreciation lately.Granada is one of the more commonly derided of these "malaise era"cars,but I thought they were pretty decent-at least as experienced in the mid-80s as a car often handed over to teenagers in the '80s :)
 
At least here in California, any U.S. made car from '71 - '74 suffered from poor performance due to their suffocating anti-smog systems.  That's on top of  lousy fit and finish and manufacturer arrogance even though Hondas, Toyotas and Datsuns were stealing market share at a steadily increasing rate.
 
I owned a ‘71 Ford Maverick that was a great little car. I bought it used in Nov’81 for $1295 and drove it for 5 years. The only problem I had with it was that the linkage to the clutch broke once when I was stopped at a red light.

But I drove it 15 miles home in rush hour traffic with no clutch. I just shifted it like I always would have by the sound of the engine and speed I was traveling at and didn’t grind the gears once. But it sure felt strange to be shifting it without using the clutch. The pedal was laying on the floor board. It was a very nimble little car and really easy to drive for a stick and I really only needed to shift between 2nd and 3rd once I was under way. Much easier to drive than a Volkswagon and better HP too. I got an average 25 mpg all the time.

Eddie
 
Anything from England, France, and Italy was 100% shite and to avoid. German cars esp Mercedes diesels were tanks, Japanese cars were just coming into their own with decent styling and a reputation for reliability and quality but still considered tin cans, and anything was better than the smogged out trash Detroit was pushing.
 
The 1970’s wasn’t the finest hour for American made vehicles but as robbinsandmyers mentioned, the majority of cars from Europe with the exception of a few were even worse around that time and the British car industry was no more by the time the 80’s came around.

This isn’t from the malaise era, but I’d gladly would take a ‘66 Ford LTD 4 door hardtop over anything made today. Sure, it doesn’t have airbags, ABS, traction control, but more than makes up for it in terms of outward visibility. It’s all relative to the era it was made in.

Btw, I suggest you guys check out the channel on YouTube called Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History.

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My grandparents had a 1978 Ford Granada with a 302 V8, C6 trans, and limited slip 9" rear end through 1992 which was replaced with a Lincoln Towncar. It was pretty decent vehicle for being smack dab in the malaise era and was comfortable for what it was. I can still hear that loud buzzer 3 decades later, lol. Also, the killer door locks were interesting. Pull the door handle up and the door lock automatically disengaged and opened the door. Convenient for an adult but a late term external abortion option for children.
 
In the mid 80's I needed a new car. I test drove a '77 Ford Granada w/302 V8. A little soft for my taste but rock solid and was rather pleasant on the highway, which was most of my driving at the time. I thought about it for a couple hours then called the seller to tell him I'd take it. It was gone :-(

A friend's parents had a late 70's Cordoba. smooth, quiet. The only downside was the distinct lack of legroom in the back

A friend had a '76 Pacer. Guzzled gas but roomy and gave a good ride.

IMO, it was the downsized GM cars that were the disasters: Full sized starting in '77, mid-sized starting in '78........ Just awful in every aspect. I remember many people saying never again about GM.
 
I still have my 1964 Plymouth Valiant with the legendary Slant Six motor, and the Torqueflite automatic transmission. I bought it from the original owner around 1976. Made a lot of trips in that Plymouth - down to LA, up to the ski country, even to Portland, Oregon and back. And of course to commute to work and back for about 20 years. I learned how to work on cars with that Valiant.
 
With all the talk about Granadas and Monarchs it reminded me of the robins egg blue 1976 Monarch an uncle bought new. He was a die hard Merc guy and still is. When the paint wasnt blowing off it in sheets it was popping in reverse from park, or it had some electrical issue. The 66 Ford reminds of the black 66 Custom 4dr a neighbor had in the earky 70's. My dad drove his 66 Caprice wagon he bought new until 1979 when he figured he dodged a bullet by then and bought a 79 Estate wagon.
 
Daddy had a 1978 Ford Fairmont. He drove that car to death, then had the engine rebuilt and kept driving it. Eventually he sold it to buy a 1987 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Brougham with leather seats. He loved that Olds...it got much better gas mileage and would go in the snow without chains. He commuted 33 miles each way from TN to AL for work at Reynolds Aluminum.
 
That's the type of cars that were everywhere when I started driving. I didn't know we were in the "malaise" era. I just thought of them as what cars are.
In my early days of driving, I was only interested in owning big cars. A Cadillac was always a dream, but I've never owned one to this day.
I can remember lusting for a 1969 Chrysler Newport. Never owned one of those either, but I did briefly own a 1969 Dodge Monaco. That car seemed so cavernous inside. It felt like you needed an intercom to communicate with someone in the back seat.
Today, I have the strongest desire to have a car from that era again. Except now, I want the ones that I missed out on when they were plentiful.
I would love a Granada/Monarch. I would love a 1975-1979 Chevy Nova. I'm partial to the four-door, and to the '75 and '76, because of their dashboard design. My favorite uncle had a '75 that we went on so many fun family outings in.
Unfortunately, now all of those cars are gone. At least, in this part of the country. New England winters are not kind to bodies and undercarriages.
I remember an aunt having an early Dodge Aspen or Plymouth Volare. The tops of the front fenders started rotting away when the car was only a few years old or so. If I'm not mistaken, that was such an issue with those cars that Chrysler had to do a recall or something and replace the front fenders.
Man. I could go on for hours on this topic.
I won't, but I could!

Barry
 
1977 Granada Ghia

In 1977, my dad leased a 1977 Granada Ghia. Dark Jade Green Metallic with two-tone leather interior.
It had every option except moonroof, four wheel disc brakes and, oddly, remote trunk release.
It had numerous assembly issues when delivered. Broken visor mount, side marker light bulb hanging by wires in the wheel well, and a few others.
After the lease was up, dad bought the car and gave it to my mom to drive.
It suffered from many issues over the years - transmission rebuild, leaking fuel lines, air conditioner compressor, and more. And it had low miles - not driven hard and well maintained.
A great looking car but very trouble prone - at least in this case.
It had the 302 V8 with the California only "variable venturi carburetor". Also a trouble area.
It got a repaint after about 6 years due to the original paint not holding up well over the years (outside most of the time...)
When mom got her new 1987 Mercury Topaz LS, my younger brother got the Granada.
He didn't have it long before selling it off for something more reliable.

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the legendary Slant Six motor

I had a slant six in Plymouth Duster purchased from a local junkyard for $300. Never changed the oil and ran so low once the engine locked up and stalled. So I topped off the oil, turned the engine over by hand with a breaker bar and she started right up. Drove it for another year after that..

Also had a 1976 Pontiac Catalina (paid $300 for it as well) 400ci engine, A/C worked great and was ice cold. Never changed the oil in that either and the front brake pads got so worn down they cut into the cooling fins on the rotors..

This was in the 80's and 90's when used beater cars were cheap. Easily affordable by broke teenagers and college students.

There were others such as another slant six Plymouth Volare wagon and a Cadillac with a 500ci engine that I had to sell after a month because the gas mileage was bankrupting me. All $300 or less.
 
Bill,
Yup. Even with its problems, I'd take that Granada in a heartbeat! Although, I don't think I'd like the California carb.

Ken,
I had a 1977 LTD Landau four-door. I may have paid $350 for it. It was one of my favorite cars.

Douglas,
I had a slant six Duster too. I think it was a 1975. I loved the looks of them, and I always heard how bulletproof the engine was. Leave it to me, I must have gotten a Monday car or something. Isn't that what they used to call them? Mine never ran right. I eventually gave up on it and sold it to my brother. I don't know what he had done to it, but I believe he got it running better.

My teenage dream car was the mid '70s Monte Carlo. Over the years, I was fortunate enough to own three different ones. First was a 1976. My second one was a 1975. And my third and final one was a 1977.
The '76 was one-year-only color, that I want to say was lime green metallic with a white vinyl top and white vinyl interior. (Two-toned with sort of an avocado green.)
The '75 was dark blue metallic with a white landau vinyl top, and white vinyl swivel bucket seats.
The '77 was a sort of copper/orange metallic with a tan landau top, and tan cloth interior. I think that orange color was a one-year-only also.
All of mine had the "Corvette style" rally rims. The first two had whitewalls. The '77, I bought a set of white lettered radials for it.
I loved every one of them. The '76 was in the roughest condition. But, being my first Monte Carlo, I thought it was awesome.
The '77 had the least power/torque, as it was the only one of mine that had a 305. The other two had the 350.
I traded that one in, it must have been in 1987. I replaced it with a 1982 Buick Regal coupe that I bought to get the attention of a female co-worker. Her parents had a nearly identical car.

Barry
 
Pete, whatever the dealer body shop had to do didn't take long to correct. I'd have to ask Wanda to be certain, but it may have just been the nameplate that had to be switched. I don't know if any other side trim was different between the two models. Evidently someone at the factory didn't read the order right, or picked up the wrong parts. May have been at the time of a switchover on the assembly line. The car was ordered from the factory, not dealer stock. They kept it about 10 years.
 
My dad bought a pre-owned 1969 Continental Mark III, literally in the dark.  He went to see it at night and bought it on the spot.  Don't ask me what he was thinking, but he clearly wanted a Mark III badly.  It was the classic color combo from the the full width magazine ads:  burgundy with a black vinyl top.  When he got it home, I immediately noticed it had a Thunderbird emblem on the steering wheel.  It also had eliminator pipes that did away with two of the four mufflers, and had wheel covers off of a '70 or '71 model, which were entirely different looking from the '69 covers.  One day we were out in the car and spotted a Mark IV on a small used car lot nearby.  It had '69 Mark III wheel covers, which looked hideous on it, so we stopped and proposed a trade.  The dealer didn't hesitate to make the switch on the spot.

 

That Mark III drove beautifully and rode like a cloud, but it was otherwise sketchy.  Once when it was parked on the driveway, which was fairly long, my dad started it and while it was sitting there running at a fast idle from the cold start, it popped out of Park and into reverse (automatically releasing the parking brake), backed down the driveway at a pretty good clip, started heading into an arc and barely missed the front of the house, proceeded across the front lawn and if not for a young Mulberry tree in the parking strip, which it hit with a loud cracking sound (the tree survived with a scar that remained for a several years), the car would have headed into the street to raise havoc and likely trigger some serious insurance claims by the neighbors.

 

There was no visible bumper damage.  My dad was working out of town frequently at that time, and he instructed me to sell the car.  Some guy came along and I got him to pay more than my dad did for the car.  Apparently he wanted a Mark III really badly too.  I wonder when, where and how that cycle finally ended.
 
Fords "popping" out of PARK

Yes, Ralph - Ford had a BIG issue with the late 1960's and early 1970's automatic transmission selectors (on the column) "popping" out of PARK when running.
My mom had a 1968 Falcon Futura Sports Coupe (bought new) and after a year or two, she had to hold the gear selector "up" into PARK when starting it. If not, the car "thought" it was in gear and would not crank.
Later, Ford issued labels to all known owners of the automatic column shifted cars of that era warning NOT to leave the car unattended when the engine was on.
Many others experienced the episode your dad did - sometimes with deadly or injurious results.
I'm sure many owners never bothered to stick that warning label on the dash.
 
I’ve heard Fords from the 60’s and 70’s had a tendency to pop out of park as well. There’s a ‘66 Ford Galaxie 500 (similar to the LTD above but in the Galaxie 500 trim) that I want to try to get and if I do, I will for sure use the parking brake just to be safe. There’s even a neutral safety switch where it won’t start unless in neutral.

It’s interesting how Ford was the one to use Park Reverse Neutral Drive Low from the beginning with their automatics in the late 1940’s and very early 1950’s though it was only Park Reverse Neutral Drive, Low was added later on. GM in their infinite wisdom used all kinds of weird patterns for the gear shift in their cars in the 1950’s and early 1960’s before they went to the typical PRNDL, they probably got complaints from people who thought they were putting the car in reverse but ended up putting it in neutral or ended up putting into park while driving ruining the transmission.
 
Yeah Bill, I remember the news stories about Ford's rogue reversals, so when it did happen it was for sure alarming, but I chalked it up to another statistic that fortunately didn't require reporting. 

 

The '60s Ford products with shifters on the column all had issues.  My dad's '65 Continental required holding the shift lever up to the top of the Park position in order to start it.  I followed instructions in the shop manual to adjust the switch at the bottom of the steering column, which was an exercise in contortion and was apparently written under the assumption that everybody had three hands to hold a contact post in place while sliding the entire switch assembly and tightening down two hard to reach screws.  No matter how many times I adjusted the switch mechanism and tightened it down, the problem would recur after a while.

 

The '69 Mark's shifter was a lot easier to adjust.  No screws involved.  Just zip a plastic tab on the switch assembly with your finger and allow it to snap back.  And the intervals between the adjustments were much longer.  Your mom's Falcon probably employed that same system.
 
Most of GM's early automatic transmissions from 1939-1964 (Dual band Hydramatic, Dual coupling Hydramatic, Dynaflow, ect) had reverse at the bottom so one could easily shift from reverse to low gear in order to rock a vehicle out of the snow. They universally adopted the PRND21 with the TH400 in 1964 and soon after, the TH350 in 1969 although the Powerglide was using it way back in the early 50's.
 
71 duster

The crap we had back then.
No EFI. No air bags. AC was still an option. Catalytic converters didn't start until 1975. No real responsible child seats. No full head rest support. No compact fuel efficient cars. No rear brake lights and taillights in general were often dim or small. Ashtrays all over the inside. Poor fit and finish. Noise control was not a priority.

The smugness of Detroit's auto industry was palpable.

Thank-goodness for Ralph Nader.

I didn't start taking an interest in vehicles until 1982.
Things were better by then.

One thing we did have though which is missing today was an effort to isolate the car chassis from the road. We had cars that rode like a dream. It was so nice and cushy.

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This may be where the Torqueflite transmission has the edge. The controls are located on the left side of the dashboard. There's a big lever that you bring down to put it into park, and it has a detente to keep it there. I've never heard of a Torqueflite transmission popping out of park/neutral into a moving gear. Sounds like Ford screwed up big time.

 
 

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