When the second-generation Honda Prelude came along, it defined the car. Sure, the first generation had been modestly successful, but the sedate Mk1 Prelude always drew complaints that it wasn’t fast enough or sharp enough….
Posts tagged Cars of the 1980s
Nissan Stanza T11: The Wallflower
First things first. 1. “Sport” is definitely a misnomer here. 2. No, you can’t save this yellow car, these are old photos and this car has long since shuffled off to beer-can land. Too bad…
1982 Buick Riviera: Convertible Comeback
American convertibles had been all but dead for six years when, at the Chicago Auto Show in February, 1982, Buick debuted a brand new droptop Riviera.
AlfaSud Ti: The Pocket Rocket
If Starsky and Hutch had been from Napoli instead of Bay City, this is how they would have rolled – in a striped, souped up AlfaSud Ti. The front-drive AlfaSud wasn’t quite as tail-happy as…
BMW Z1: The Ultimate Dreaming Machine
The tall sides and wedge shape may say “eighties,” but the BMW Z1 still looks like the future even 30+ years after it broke cover. Z is for zukunft – German for future – and…
1987-93 Pontiac LeMans: Partners at Odds
It seemed like a great idea – take a respected small car designed in Germany, where engineers know about good dynamics and quality cars, manufacture it cheaply in South Korea, then sell it in America…
Infiniti M30: The Leopard’s Different Spots
It was new to Americans, but the Infiniti M30 was almost half a decade old when it first appeared in what were then brand new Infiniti showrooms in 1990. Baseball-loving Japanese would refer to the…
Subaru Justy: The Little Guy
It was basic transportation in the eyes of American consumers. As small a car as you could get, with as small an engine as many of them could remember. The Subaru Justy, which arrived on…
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…
Peugeot 604: Sochaux’s Chief Executive
The 604 was Peugeot’s first “executive car,” and the first time in 40 years that it had fielded a large car at all. Though the 402 was a fairly big car for a pre-war European,…
Decade: 10th Anniversary Mazda FC RX-7
Everybody’s celebrating “100 years of Mazda” this week (though it did not build any vehicles until 1931) so here’s an actual anniversary Mazda – 1988’s 10th Anniversary RX-7. Mazda’s road to recovery from its slump…
Fiat Brava: Could’ve Been a Contender
A trip to the film archives takes us back today to OldMotors’ very own 1981 Fiat Brava, then just an unloved old car from a largely forgotten make. Better known as the 131, Fiat changed…