Quote:
Originally Posted by burn_this_city
The 1970s and 80's were the dark age for vehicles. I don't get the love for boxy unstylish cars that looked like shadows of the vehicles produced in the 50 years prior. Manufacturers became obsessed with safety and fuel economy and churned out some pretty sad looking and poor performing cars.
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The only reason they were obsessed about safety in comparison, is that they never gave two craps about it before!
I'm going to assume we don't have the same taste in cars (from what I recall you seem to be more of a truck/muscle guy), but you are really shortchanging the 80's if you think they turned out sad looking cars. Sure there was a lot of crap (wood panelling wtf?), but imo there were way more distinct cars built in that decade then there are these days. I would challenge you to find as many unique and original shapes from the last 10 years as there were in the 80s.
Apologies for the photo barrage, but one thing led to another and I started looking up some of my favorites from the decade:
The classic Saab 900 - I can only wish that Saab would go back towards the wedge shape...make it happen Spyker.
BMW e30 - Simple classic, and a favorite amongst BMW fans.
190e - Another small classic. Mercedes still considers their late 80's cars to be the company at it's peak.
I was living in Europe at the time, but I remember coming across cars like this as a kid and being amazed. This to me was what America was all about. What a beaut!
I love the original Cherokee....when SUV's were still made for people who actually used them for their purpose.
Even exotic cars looked unique back them. Remember when Ferrari's actually had unique personalities looked different from one another?
My favorite Porsche's are from that era too:

as well as looker 928
Anyway, maybe I romanticize these cars because they are from my childhood, but you gotta give the 80's some respect. They might not have been the strongest or the fastest, but there was some really original thought back then....which I'm not sure I can say of todays cars.
I was gonna do the 70's too, but I didn't feel like killing the server...