1975-1985 Domestics---the Doomed Decade?

gshumway1

When there was such an abundance of Maverics and Comets of the day!

ballpark

Actualy there is a beautiful resto-mod out here in Rancho Cucamonga Ca. Candy apple red, new chrome all around. Best of all the only place I ever see it is out on the road, being driven about.

But to answer your question, even though the underpinnings are all Mustang, they are not a Mustang, and I'm a Mustang nut.

jrosasmc

I don't recall which edition it was, 1998 or 1999, but I vividly do remember seeing what was then the highest-mileage American car in the world in the Guinness Book of Records. It was a 1979 Cadillac Sedan deVille owned by an older gentleman from Kentucky. He bought it brand-new and had rolled up 679k miles on it the last time I checked. The caption even said it had the original 425 V-8 engine in it. For an American car to reach over 300k miles, let alone one from the '70s, on the original motor is truly an achievement. What do you make of this?

jrosasmc

I don't know if that Caddy is even still running, but I'll look into that.

Mr_Shiftright

Well it could have the original engine block in it, but it was probably rebuilt. Back in those days, you could bore out an engine 2-3 times. Nowadays you can't.

a_l_hubcaps

"For an American car to reach over 300k miles, let alone one from the '70s, on the original motor is truly an achievement."

I do know one person who almost achieved this in an American car with original engine and transmission. It was a 1982 Pontiac 6000 LE. My friend's father bought it new in 1982, used it for commuting, and gave it to his daughter in about 1996. She used it to drive long-distance to college for several years. It was finally junked in 1998 with 282,000 actual miles. It was still running; the problem was that the floor had rusted out so completely that the driver's seat had detached and there was no good metal left to bolt it to. It's a wonder the car didn't break in half first!

As for Mustang IIs, I love them! I think they're easily the second-best-looking Mustang style, surpassed only by the original '65 type. I much prefer the "notchback" Mustang II over the "liftback", as the latter looks too much like a Pinto.

-Andrew L

dgraves1

You and Ballpark could from the world's smallest car fan club.

andre1969

I'd think that the Caddy 425, along with the Pontiac 400 and Olds 403 would be good candidates for long-lived motors. By the late 70's, none of them really put out much hp, so you had a big, understressed engine pushing around a relatively lightweight car. The engines just never had to work very hard.

Now I'm probably the only person that would use "lightweight" in conjunction to a late '70's DeVille, but compared to some of the earlier 70's cars, they WERE light. I think a full-size '77 DeVille weighed about as much as a '77 Seville, which was considered a compact! The weakest points on a late '70's Caddy would probably be the electrical system, and the transmission if they ended up slipping in a TH200 behind one of those 425's. Also, some of them had fuel injection, which bumped the 425's hp from 180 to 195 hp, but I'd guess it was more troubleprone than the standard 4-bbl carb.

Also, an older guy most likely isn't going to take it out and flog it like some younger guys might. That's probably part of the reason that guy's '79 went for so long. He probably kept it, partly out of necessity as well! I could see someone like that turning up their nose at the shrunken '85 DeVilles, yet at the same time being scared off by the sticker shock of the remaining RWD Brougham: "Whaddya mean it's $25,000?! Why that's over twice what I paid for mah '79!!"

jrosasmc

You said it right, Andre. We ended up with our '87 Cutlass Ciera because the Fleetwood Brougham cost $27.5k that year, and we simply couldn't afford the payments. My mom wanted a Caprice Classic, but my dad insisted on the smaller A-body Cutlass.

verozahl

My parents traded their twin Vegas in for late-1970s Cutlasses... then the 1982 Honda Accord and BMW 3-Series appeared in the driveway of their new (second) house. Oh, I also appeared in 1982.

GM-Ford product has been shoddy overall compared to import-nameplate competition since 1972 or so... that's thirty years. At least Chrysler figured out some styling and reliability clues in the 1990s.

rea98d

At one point, I was standing in a spot where old cars were all I could see. They had lots of old iron from the late 70's and early 80's. I counted 6 '75-'78 Grand Marquis's (same as my car) including a '78 that was the same color, trim level, & everything, as mine (of course, it was missing the drivetrain, significant portions of the interior, and the paint was all but shot). Unfortunately, two '77's had already been sent to the pancake-o-matic. And I saw some pieces on them I could have used had I got to them in time. I think I'm going back to that green '78 and snag the trim off the doors. Anyway, there were more, cars from the "doomed decade" than newer cars.