mid-80s cars...

[countryguy]

I lived with my uncle & aunt in Toronto for a couple of weeks when I first moved there in 1981. My uncle had a Lada. It was a very basic car as my uncle was very cheap when it came to spending money on anything. I remember him telling me that the Lada came with its own tool set as well as a hand crank for starting the engine in case the electric start did not work.

Gary

 

[cfz2882]

Lada tool kit,hand crank

Yes they did and also a few spare parts-light bulbs,belt and possibly some other parts -A little Chinese made bulldozer I have came with tool kit,grease gun and a bunch of spare engine parts including valves and head gasket A 2nd Lada appeared at a damaged car auction in my local area: a 1995 "Niva"-a small 2 door 4x4 car with lockable center diff-I was about to go camping,so did not try to get it-Niva had been rolled and was bent up some.

 

[ragnboneman]

I had an 84 Skylark
Quite simple so I was able to get it to hoble a long a far number of years more than most cars I have ever owned..
84 GMC half ton that was a very good truck everythign about it was easy to get at to fix.

Lada and Niva.
Basic cars, my Dad called the drivers communists lol
My Aunt had one in the late 70s.
Not a bad very basic car.
Not great build quality.

Good heater, suspension was more robust and taller than a Canadian or other import.
I don't recall much about it but the funny plastic smell when it was new.

If I could buy a new one today I would in a heart beat get a niva with optinal radio lol.
Roads are worse now and the cars to day are even lower and more likely to suffer pot hole damage than before.

 

[mopar65]

80’s vehicles

Had so many 80’s vehicles I can’t even remember them all. Definitely don’t miss working on some of them though newer cars are even worse.
The best vehicle we had that was in those years was a D150 sl6 we used to tow cars, it finally gave up after being overheated till it seized at almost 700,000 miles.
The pictures are of the 86 Chevy 3/4 ton that I was almost killed in, the 85 New Yorker was my parts runner that my mom convinced and later was hit by a young girl.
The only 80’s cars I have left is the 85 Chrysler Laser XT and 89 D100

 

[cfz2882]

a couple bad wrecks...

looks like that truck rolled after the side impact? Very cool that that laser was preserved in nice condition

 

[qsd-dan]

Those slant 6 engines were absolutes beasts. It's a shame Chrysler never put a multi port fuel injection setup on them. I don't think they ever put a 4 speed automatic transmission behind them either but Chryslers overdrive automatic transmissions never did hold up well, which is still the case today.

Both of those wrecks look horrendous. You and your mom are lucky to be alive, what were your injuries?

 

[maytag85]

Reply #44

Another engine that was just as strong as the Chrysler slant 6 was the Ford 240/300 inline 6 along with the Ford 221/260/289/302 V8’s. As long as they had oil, they would just run and run forever. No SOHC or DOHC will ever be able to compare to a pushrod engine in terms of reliability, the more parts an engine has, the higher probability of something breaking down.

 

[mopar65]

cfz2882

Luckily it didn’t roll after the side impact, the truck was hit by a arrowstar. Had a car on a dolly at the time as well. Was lucky that I wasn’t wearing a seat belt and flew out the window lol.
Was able to buy the Laser from the guy it was sold to in 2019, I didn’t most of the work on it when I had the China virus. The engine that’s in it was the one I pulled from the yellow New Yorker after that accident.

 

[mopar65]

add-dan

You are definitely right on that, absolutely a shame they never made the sl6 mpfi they make as much power as one with a four barrel with the economy of one with a two barrel. The slant in the gray truck I made port injection some years ago but recently put it back to a one barrel and points. From rebuilding auto transmissions what I find kills most is lack of filter and fluid changes. Some transmissions have better filters than others, the ones that have a higher particulate filter have a higher failure rate because of lack of service. That being said Chrysler was one of the first us auto manufacturers to adapt to a high particulate filter as in theory the transmission should last longer but the customer will have to adhere to the recommended service schedule (60,000 to 75,000) was the recommended service for the transmission most customers never serviced it or they did and never again after dealing with the absolute terrible service department.

 

[mopar65]

Maytag85

Absolutely. All us auto manufacturers had a very strong inline 6 and small v8, sadly they were dropped due to manufacturing costs and emissions. Even Toyota had a good inline 6.

 

[combo52]

My other almost 80s car

It was built in 1989 but sold as a 1990 model because sales were slow..

It was one of just 500 built with the 5 speed trans. I bought it with just 700 miles on it and sold it with around 5000 on it 12 years later, it was just too fast for my tastes and you could not fit appliances in it, LOL

John

 

[cfz2882]

whoa...

... very cool that Laser is a resto-and looks like the VFD digital dash all works too! Does it still have original cassette radio with the joystick fader control? The Chrysler TC in #49 is plenty cool too

 

[cycla-fabric]

I have to say I really like the cars from the 80's, as we really had cars that had style and character and you could tell what car was from what brand. Maybe the quality wasn't there, but it was getting better and better with every year. It was nice to see new models come out and see the commercials on tv promote the new cars which was exciting to see. Today it's boring, everything is an SUV with no style they all look the same, even with backup cameras people can not back up with them to save there lives. Who are these companies surveying to find out what colors are in style? Its just cheap for the SUV companies (no longer car companies)to have boring colors of black,silver and gray, with 2 interior colors of black,tan or maybe brown but that is only available on the most expensive model for the interior. Sorry for the rant, but I guess this is progress for today and the people of today couldn't care less as long as it looks pretty they are happy.

Doug

 

[pulltostart]

My two favorites

I had several new autos during the 1980's, but my favorites were 1) my 1983 Toyota Tercel; black coupe with manual transmission, sunroof and louvers on the hatchback - that car was FUN to drive; 2) my 1989 Jeep Grand Wagoneer; I felt sooo butch driving that car.  It was white with a light tan interior, had a 360 V8, 4 bbl carb. 3-speed automatic, 4-wheel drive and a 16-gallon fuel tank.  It got HORRIBLE gas mileage, I couldn't drive it from Birmingham to Mobile on one tank of gas; but it was an awesome car.  It had two nicknames around the office - in polite company it was referred to as 'The Chuck Wagon'; among close friends it was 'The Gran Effing Wagoneer'.

 

lawrence 

 

[petek]

My boss back in 87 had a blue Grand Wagoneer. Must say it was a beauty. He also had a blue 85ish, 5th Ave. his wife mostly drove Nice but sort of over the top interior. Old people on the prairies loved their 5th Avenues.

 

[askolover]

My first new car was a 1987 Chevy Nova also known as a Toyota Corolla. Built in the GM/Toyota joint venture plant called NUMMI in Fremont California, which is now the Tesla factory. I never had any trouble with that car. Very basic 5sp with AC being the only option it had.

 

[jeff_adelphi]

1986 Chrysler Laser

Here's an article a friend wrote about my 86 Laser turbo for Old Cars Weekly Magazine.

 

[ea56]

Re:#55

Jeff,
Good for you hanging on to your Chrysler Laser all these years! In ‘85 we went to Idaho to visit David’s parents for his Dad’s 70th birthday. When we got into Boise I had reserved a rental at the airport Hertz agency and they only had a Dodge Aries K car available. We drove it to his parents home in Homedale, ID, and didn’t like it at all. We had planned on going to Sun Valley after my FIL’s b-day. So on our way we stopped at the Hertz agency at the Boise airport and I requested an exchange, I didn’t want to drive that K-car to Sun Valley.

Well as luck would have it they had a Red ‘85 Chrysler Laser which I was happy to drive off the lot. The trip to Sun Valley from Boise is about 185 miles and after you get out of Boise and start to climb into the mountains the road at that time wasn’t heavily traveled and was really nicely engineered.

As I recall the speedometer only went to 85 mph, this was the early 80’s remember and the national speed limit was 55 mph. Well I was driving about 70-75 mph. Every time I got behind another car David said “pass that car, pass that car” and I’d floor it and in seconds the speedometer needle was buried at 85 and that Laser still kept accelerating I have no idea how fast I was actually going. But that car held the road flawlessly and was a real treat to drive. I learned to drive on the mountain roads of the Northern California coast and love to drive fast on curving roads. All the curves on the highway to Sun Valley are banked very well and designed for high speed driving. Our car at home at the time was a ‘71 Ford Maverick 6 cyl with 3 on the tree. So driving that new ‘85 Laser was a real step up.

I hadn’t thought about this road trip for years until I saw your post. Thanks for the memories.

BTW, when we got to Sun Valley and we were parking the car at the hotel we happened to see Clint Eastwood and two younger men getting out of a metallic blue ‘67 Buick Sport Wagon station wagon and they were carrying golf clubs.

Eddie