Post Favorite Malaise era Car/Truck

It was a tough time for car lovers, but all these years later some of these look pretty good, like old childhood friends. I love the '75 Buick Century Pace Car "Free Spirit".... What's your favorite?

 

Never owned any, but the GM Colonnade A-bodies (73-77) always seemed to be pretty good cars to me.

 

I learned what the term "malaise" meant when I was in high school. Someone had brought a late model (mid 70s) El Camino into auto shop for a tune up, and I got to work on it. And I got to take it for a test drive. It had a 454, and I could not believe how slow that truck was! must have had 2.56 gears or something.

 

73-77 Collonade body Chevrolets. Chevelle and Monte Carlo!

 

Not my favorite Nova.

 

Dad had a 1973 GMC sprint. It wasn't very cool looking, his was burnt orange, station wagon fake wood and ''boat rails'' along the bed sides. Also the weird turbine wheels with the flexible urethane fins. He built a 400 SBC for it with headers & an RV cam. Hauled a lot of stuff with that car.

 

77-79 ford Thunderbirds...

 

Also the Ford Elite.

 

Out of anything from that era, I would have to pick a small AMC car. Be it a Gremlin, Hornet or a Pacer.

 

I had one of those, it was a triple black 75 with a much hated rim blow horn! It was only half the normal width in the middle due to someone blowing a stop sign at 75 mph and trying to park a 73 Buick Electra 225 in the passenger side. It was a decent winter beater for a year until the 351 lost all oil pressure. Filled the crankcase with 90-140 and sold it for $300.00.

 

I hate to admit it but I'm kind of an expert in this era car I cut my teeth working on them when they were just late model used cars.
I don't hate on these cars, trucks and vans. My only complaint is the engines have potential to be high horsepower but I can't do anything to him because I live in California where we smog everything 1976 in newer.
My late fathers 1978 vette he bought for my mother (who has multiple sclerosis unfortunately and can't drive so I am her and the cars caretaker hince the wheel chair rack on the back)... The rotten cheddar yellow van (that another friend named moldy cheddar) is my buddy's 1975 Ford boogie van It's a real one from the era and he is slowly acquiring all the stuff to bring it back to its former Beaver shack roots.
I also have a 1973 Lincoln that ironically I don't have any pictures of on my phone that I have had since I was 19 years old The poor car has been through hell but it's on its way to being a nice car again It just takes tons of money and I have a bad habit of buying hot rods and on topic cars.

 

This was well before my time, but my parents who had just married had one of these pace cars. It only was the 4 cyl version, but still pretty cool.

 

My dad bought one of these new in 79. Surprisingly fast and agile for a big car. I had been out of HS for two years and no longer living at home so I only drove it a few times. My brothers that were 4, 7 and 10 years younger than me all spent a lot of time behind the wheel thrashing on it and getting the occasional tickets.

My dad gave the car to my oldest son when he turned 16 (he's 43 now). Despite the abuse by my brothers the car was still in excellent condition. My son wrecked it no too long after getting it.

 

First car that I did metal work on.(not this one)

 

'81/'82 AMC Eagle Kammback wasn't horrible, but MN winter salt/magnesium chloride destroyed it.
'70 Riv too.
Loved me the '68 Eldorado...
Marcus...

 

I had the pleasure to work at a shop that did auto repair on all those cars. They were good for my pay checks.
I also bought and sold old performance cars, and parted hundreds of them out. The cars from 75 to the mid 80s was very good for my old late 60s and early 70s performance era parts and cars side line business. I specialized in Mopar cars and trucks, I bought a lot of the late 60s and early 70s Mopar cars and trucks. I parted out the junk ones, and repaired, sold, or traded the good ones.

The reality was, outside of the stupid combination of attempting to squeeze another mpg out of them, and the choking epa regulations, many of the drive trains were solid once decent rear gears were installed and the tune ups were properly done. Most people thought you could just take the emissions stuff off and the cars would work, but found out that didn't work, you had to tweak what was there so it worked at its best. Definitely a summer tune and a winter tune in those days. The bodies were not very well designed, they trapped water in many places, so rust was a real issue, even on a car that was only a couple years old.

Personally, I held out on the early 70s stuff as long as I could, and was really picky about which ride my wife was in when I finally had to pick something from that era. The mid 80s couldn't come fast enough, I still ended up with at least one of those piles of junk for a couple of years.

I can't look back and say any company made a great car, a few made pretty good trucks, but even then, you had to buy the car or the truck that was the best shape of any choices available. Pick any car or truck line, and 50% were just plain junk that barely made it to the end of the payment book, if they made it that far (some car and truck lines, those numbers were closer to 90% junk). 25% were fair and you could get by with one for a few years, and 25% might be OK. At the end of the era, only the top 25% were the only ones still around from the beginning of the era. You really did have to pick the correct single used car or truck.

 

These were pretty cool... All they needed was a pair of RAM AIR III heads and cam to really get them movin'.....

 

The earlies car I remember mom driving was an early Collonade LeMans:


I remember the day she traded that one in on a brand-new 79 Thunderbird:


Hers was the same red, but with gray cloth. That car served us well until 88 or so.

I am partial to either of these, or any IH trucks or Scouts from the era.

 

I really like the Fox Body wagons and the Zephyr and Fairmont Futuras.

 

T-Top Cordoba with the finest Corinthian leather.

 

I would love to stuff a Windsor in a 2-door....

 

My dad really enjoyed light sporty cars and was a Ford man.
When the mid 70s came along, he had an Alpine as his daily driver. He decided he wanted a new car. The Mustang II was boring/heavy/ugly. Then he heard about the new Fairmont. Lighter, sleeker and still came with the V8. He ordered one special, and over the years swapped on wheels, konis and a custom steering wheel. The VV carb was poor for his commute, so the 2 of us swapped in a 1965 289 with the usual goodies that met smog compliance due to year of engine (1983 was last year for this). It was really nice.
The following year (79), the fox Mustang came out on the same platform. They will take a 460 pretty easily.

 

Those are interesting, but the MII and Bricklin are all the things wrong with the Malaise, heavy, under powered and poor dynamics (brakes, suspension, steering).
The Vega had more issues with the block than the head (both bad) so the Cosworth was a solution to the wrong half.
The OG Mustang came from basic roots, but that generation was a mess. If GM had dropped the F body and called the Monza (oversize Vega) a Camaro, it would have been bad. Yes, I'm aware of the MII suspension use later, but the car itself was not great.

 

As far as an actual car: My Dad's '76 Gran Torino Brougham he bought new. He gave it to his mother in law (my Grandma) when she needed a car in the '80s, left the Rocket Cragar look-alikes on it and the glasspacks. She used to take us to school and church school in it, and she'd light a burnout whenever she left if we asked her to, much to the delight of our friends. Little brother got it from her, we built a 429 for it and redid the whole thing. Then he sold it (like a moron). Took me forever to track it back down. It was stolen and lightly crashed, and left outside for the last 20 years. Finally managed to buy it back, and we're going to do a full resto on it now. Pic of a pic of when my grandma brought my cousin and my aunt home from the hospital when he was born in '88, when we got it done the first time circa 2001, where I found it sitting in the middle of bum-fuck Montana, and how it is now....there's "cooler" cars from the era out there, sure, but not to me there isn't.

 

Bought this one over 40 years ago, my daughters the caretaker now and we take our cars to local shows a couple times a year

 

^ No T tops, good deal!