If you are interested in antique cars, you might want to go to the website “www.gus-stories.org”.
These stories that appeared in each monthly issue of Popular Science from July of 1925 to June of 1969 are about a fictional mechanic, Gus Wilson, who was the proprietor of the Model Garage. I started reading these stories in 1953 when I was in junior high school. I gained a good understanding of how an automobile functioned. Gus diagnosed fuel, ignition, internal engine and driveline problems. The explanations of how Gus would solve a problem where other mechanics failed is a good exercise in logical reasoning. The stories were always entertaining as well. Gus, with his expert knowledge of automobiles, helped police solve crimes and saved the town by fixing the fire engine in an emergency. It is interesting to read how the cars became more sophisticated from the mid 1920s through the 1960s.
The price of buying an older car is becoming intimately acquainted with all the problems older cars will have.
Here in NH…you can get Antique plates for any vehicle 30 years or older. So go find a 1980 Toyota Corolla and slap some antique plates on it.
Technically I guess I would own an antique car. Aesthetically… not quite the same.
When they first passed the law here to allow cars over 35 years old to be tagged as antiques, those cars were made in 1923. Most '23 models were not something anyone would have been likely to hop into and drive on a trip, or even to work in 1958. Now a 35 year old car is a 1980 model. If it is in good condition, it is fully roadable at highway speeds. It will have seat belts, although not all the more modern safety equipment like airbags.
I wish they’d change the law to make antiques 50+ years old, but I don’t think it’s likely. Of course I’m a bit of an antique myself.
No comparison, man.
I doubt they change the antique laws either, MG.
If I’m not mistaken in Arkansas a car only has to be 25 years old to get antique plates. I could get a 1990 model. Wheeee… a real classic!
I keep jokingly telling my nephew he ought to take my 1987 Olds Ciera that I gave him in 2007 to some vintage car rallies around town given it is 28 years old. He says when it reaches 35 years he’ll consider doing so.
Maybe to a kid a 1980 Toyota really does look like an antique. I can’t imagine it, but I’m sure they must look different than modern cars if you aren’t used to being around them. I’ve noticed a few times over the years where a car suddenly looked very dated to me, something fifteen or twenty years old that I hadn’t seen in a couple of years and that used to look contemporary all of a sudden looks very odd. It can happen just about overnight if I find myself actually looking at a car that used to just be part of the landscape. That started happening with first generation Tauruses a few years ago. They look very strangely old now. Before that it was all of the circa 1980 cars with flattish front ends, often angled back, but flat side to side.
Right now what I’m noticing especially that I didn’t used to is the very low beltlines of many eighties cars, Hondas more than most. Cars have gotten so much taller and the greenhouses a lot shorter since then. I also notice how much lower the trunk lids are. They now look droopy. A decade ago I was struck by the wide black rub strips on so many eighties cars, and the black bumpers. They looked ancient overnight. In the nineties I would see a seventies car and suddenly notice the huge overhangs, especially in the rear, and how far in the wheels were from the sides. Things that looked perfectly normal in 1975. In a few years all the stupid faux fender vents of a few years ago will jump out at me. I thought they were pretty stupid when every car sprouted them a decade ago, but they don’t pop out at me yet. But I know they will.
That’s why I wonder what looks strange about a 1980 Corolla to a kid. At the time it was a decent design, much cleaner than the very busy Japanese cars of earlier years, and it has held up pretty well for me. But I was in college when they came out.
I think all the early 80’s cars look odd due to angularity. No curves; plenty of creases and edges. More so the Japanese, but domestics, too.
And then, circa 1987, it stopped, just like that. Definitely helps “date” a car–if it’s all angles and edges, it’s from the early-mid '80s.
Early 80s cars are not only often ugly, they are pigs, too.
@jtsanders The 70s and 80s cars were generally nothing to write home about. A lot of things like FWD and rack & pinion steering went through their teething problems as did fuel injection.
@Docnick, all the things you mention are some of the reasons why those cars were slow, cumbersome, and gas hogs. Without those first steps, we couldn’t have the great cRs we have today. But they were awful in general.
Maybe but my 81 Olds diesel got 27 mpg and rode like sitting on the living room couch. Pretty good sized trunk too. Not that I would want it back but it did serve its purpose at the time and was a pretty good looking car. Plus heavy bumpers.
Gee, I think a Supra, RX7, or CRX would be a nice car to own today. Fox body Mustangs are still pretty cool, too. Emissions controls hobbled cars, but the “iron” in question is often the same as in preceding years. I see no good reason why you couldn’t make a hot rod out of a 3rd gen Camaro, as opposed to a second gen…
Yes, right about when the Taurus came out and suddenly cars were very rounded. The creased look first showed up in the late seventies as a reaction to the horribly exaggerated voluptuous excess of so many cars. Automakers started downsizing and cutting out the most conspicuous flab. Crispy folded cars emphasized that these were new models, like the new models like the full-size GM models and the Ford Fairmont. Some of those cars were quite handsome, but others were weirdly angular, like origami. On the whole I preferred those to many of the bulbous cars that followed.
The 1991 Chevy Caprice looked dated when it was brand new. I always thought it looked like it should have been the younger brother to my bathtub Nashes. Today those Chevys seem to me to be sought after by lovers of “old school” cars.
There were some cool cars in the 1970s. I think any of the early 70s models of a Dodge Challenger would be a fun car to have. But they have a totally different vibe than a big old grandiose family car from the 1950s.
The year when things really went downhill was 1973, with the big bumpers and tighter emissions controls.