James Bond might have driven Astons, but George Smiley was a Rover P6 man. Alec Guinness gave Smiley international TV fame two years after Star Wars, and two years after P6 production ended. Guinness was…
Posts tagged 1970s
Cadillac Seville Mk1: Arriving in Style
Usually, big corporate decisions aren’t made on the Friday before Christmas. But in the case of the Cadillac Seville, that’s exactly what happened. Circumstances dictated the urgency. On December 21, 1973, a breezy, cold and…
Flashback: The Yaki Imo Man’s Suzuki
Feeling down? Need some comfort food? Don’t worry, the Yaki Imo man is here to help. In this flashback, we take a trip through the OldMotors archives to Japan, circa 1976, and this Suzuki Carry…
Ford Fairmont: The First Fox
The Ford Fairmont was Dearborn’s first “downsized” car. Unlike GM, Ford started at the middle of its lineup post-OPEC and worked outward. But like GM’s “Project 77” cars, what became the Fairmont actually started off…
1980 Pontiac Yellowbird: Birds of a Feather
It sure is yellow! And appropriately so, since this is a Pontiac Firebird “Yellowbird,” a one-year-only special model for 1980, obtained by checking off RPO W73. By this time the 2nd-gen Firebird was ten years…
1978 Oldsmobile 98 LF9: Distressed Diesel
By 1977 it had plenty of hsitory. Oldsmobile’s flagship Ninety Eight dated back to 1941 (spawned to replace the 1940 series 90) and had ridden GM’s big C-body with Cadillacs and primo Buicks ever since….
Volvo 242 GT: Adding Spice
You never hear about it now, but the mid-to-late 1970s were a really rough time for Volvo, both in Europe and North America. One response to trying to improve things was the short-lived but flamboyant…
Mini Down Under: Leyland Mini Clubman Van
Eagle-eyed British Leyland fans will also notice that this is not a Mini Clubman estate – although you can be forgiven for the assumption. In fact, it’s not an estate (er, wagon) at all but…
The Bustle: 1986 Lincoln Continental
Sometimes you lead, and sometimes circumstances dictate that you follow. In the case of the mid-eighties Lincoln Continental – the first “small” Continental – Lincoln was often labeled a follower. But after being caught out…
The Blue Oval’s Supermini: Ford Fiesta Mk1
“Mini cars,” Henry Ford II famously once said, equal “Mini profits.” That was on May 13, 1971 and said in reaction to the early sales success of the Pinto. It came at the end of…
Too Little, Too Late: Austin Marina
Like so many vehicles created in changing or troubled times for their manufacturer, the Morris Marina was intended as a stopgap model. It was meant to last only four, maybe five, years and was aimed…
The Malaise Mazda: Cosmo AP/RX-5
It was planned when Mazda was riding high on Rotary success in the early 1970s. That decade was the golden age of “personal coupes,” be they Toyota Celicas or Lincoln MkIVs, so it made perfect…