1971 Chevy Vega Longevity in 1970s

One way to tell if an older car was at least decent for its time is to go to an area where older cars can persist. These include the SW US, parts of CA, etc. where they don’t salt the roads and rust isn’t as much of an issue. If the old car still runs, it likely isn’t terrible.

One car that I haven’t seen in years is the Dodge Omni/Horizon. Same with the Ford Escorts of that time period… These were cheap, they made a ton of them, and yet you don’t see too many remaining. I am in MO where they salt the roads so that kills them off but do these still exist in more favorable climates?

I also think cash for clunkers removed some of the real bad cars from the road in my area. Of course these were all the large inefficient boats, many of which burned oil and smoked pretty bad. I don’t see near the number of oil burners that I used to and figure this is for several reasons.

  1. Engines and oil are made better so last longer.
  2. Modern cars will likely foul the emission systems pretty quickly and made it hard to continue operation of the car if it is smoking that bad.

I’m not sure about those old Escorts, but I can tell you that in my area it has been–probably–20+ years since I saw an Omni/Horizon. And, I haven’t seen a Volare/Aspen for even longer.

Maybe the Pontiac Aztec. :laughing:

No, he wouldn’t like that model because it didn’t have “superior” :smirk: drum brakes in the front.
Everyone else would avoid it because of its incredibly ugly design.

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Agree it put the ug in ugly. :laughing:

… and, in the aftermath of that model’s failure in the marketplace, everyone in a position of authority at Pontiac and GM claimed that they had not approved it. Apparently it was the only model ever manufactured without approval from any executives.
:smirk:

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My mother had a Pacer wagon. I thought it was hideous and couldn’t believe she bought it. When my mother died a few years later, I graciously let my sister have it. She had to be desperate to take that thing and drive it (she did).

For those who are hankering for a really basic but durable car that may (or may not) be legendary:

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Similar to the Pacer, in that there was nothing fatally wrong with the car aside from the fact that it was just ugly.

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Daniel Webster, when discussing Dartmouth College in a court case, said…
“It is a small college, and yet there are those who love it!”

I will paraphrase old Dan by saying that the Studes of the late '50s may not have been beauty contest winners, but there are those of us who love them.

I found a junkyard on a backroad not too long ago with a nice collection of junk cars from that era. There was even a Yugo! I need to go back and see if it is still there.

I think the Citroen 2CV is one of the ugliest cars ever, yet a number of folks that stop here often think they are good looking.

It just helps to prove that old saying…
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Also on the negative side for those old 2CVs was their incredible lack of power. The largest 2CV engine had an output of 29 hp, making the VW Beetle look like a hotrod by comparison.

On the plus side was the availability of parts. Even fenders could be bought at hardware stores in France, and virtually any 2CV owner would have been capable of replacing a dented fender himself.

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A classic-car magazine writer in the UK has a 2CV, fully restored. He says his 2CV makes him understand the problems of being a celebrity. Every time he stops for gasoline he’s approached by the 2CV curious, and to be polite he fields a bevy of questions, when instead he really should be back on the road to get to his next appointment on time.

Back when I was about 14 years old, as part of a family vacation trip through New England, we stopped for a few hours at Tanglewood–the summer home of the Boston Symphony. My parents wanted to hear one of the free concerts, but I wasn’t really interested in classical music at that time, so I just wandered around for a few hours, snapping photos of the scenery.

My most prized photos were of a 2CV that I found in one of the parking lots. I had never before seen one, so it really grabbed my interest. My pics of the 2CV probably faded into yellowed glory many years ago, and I have no idea where they are.

I live in southern AZ, and cars here do not rust. I don’t believe that I have seen a Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon for at least 15 years. I still see the occasional late 1980’s to early 1990’s Ford Escort, and I still see the occasional Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance. Very rarely, I still see a Ford Tempo or Mercury Topaz. I still see the 1988-1992 Toyota Corolla and Geo Prizm fairly often, and the 1987-1991 Toyota Camry even more often.

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There’s a Camry of that era in the San Jose area, see it frequently, that looks brand new. Must have been well cared for all these years. Camry’s from that time period had good styling, BMW/Mercedes look-a-likes.

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Also a plus is that the 2CV was a reasonably good off road car. IIRC I saw Jeremy Clarkson driving one across a farm field to illustrate that point.

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There must have been something in Roger Moore’s contract when he performed as James Bond 007. In the movie, the Man with the Golden Gun, he “jumped” an AMC Hornet in a 360 degree flip over a river…

From the Post, What could go wrong…

Now, we have somehow brought up the subject of the Citroen 2CV and would you know it, it also has the notoriety of also being in a Roger Moore James Bond Movie, For Your Eyes Only and the CV jumps another car, not as spectacular, but still fun.

When I was stationed in Italy at NATO, my neighbor had a Citroen 2CV, the Italians called it “due cavalla” which translates to “two horse”. The French called it something similar in French. But by the way they rate engine power, the air cooled, two cylinder put out 2-horsepower. It was also called a rolling umbrella because of its roof. I drove it a couple of times, it rolled like it had no shocks, it accelerated like you had your grandmother pushing it, but it was fun to drive…

Here is the YouTube CV Jumping…

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GM developed nicasil cylinder plating the super slick and hard coating which made cylinder liners obselete!The tooling for the silicon aluminum alloy injection molding process alone cost over $150 million to develop, this was back in the 60s! Mercedes continued on with the tradition and made several engines without liners with great success.