I Came of Age During the Malaise – IOTW Report

I Came of Age During the Malaise

Saturday, 9 December 2023, 15:00 Dr. Tar Uncategorized 25

Capitol One

Car enthusiasts often use nicknames for certain eras of automotive history. There’s the Brass Era of the early 1900s, for example, and the 1980s and 1990s are sometimes referred to as the Rad Era. When we talk about the period of automotive history from the middle 1970s through the middle 1980s, we call it the Malaise Era. I’m something of an authority on the Malaise Era, because I’m the automotive journalist who invented the term. Here’s what it all means. More

Here’s a nice video describing what lead up to the Age of Malaise. Watch

25 Comments on I Came of Age During the Malaise

  1. What lead up to the Age of Malaise was Jimmy Carter. We corrected it temporarily under Reagan and then went nuts under GHWBush, Clinton, GWBush and Obama. Short respite under Trump followed by a complete mental breakdown under Joe Numbnuts.

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  2. General Malaise: you’re dead-on. Then there’s what lead up to Jimmy Carter: the Vietnam War. And what led up to the Vietnam War?: McNamara and the liberal idiots behind him.

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  3. I’m positive the Lord let Jimmy (the peanut farmer) Carter to live long enough to lose the title of ‘The Worst President Ever’ In my book he is now #3 behind Biden and the imposture in chief Barry Soetoro

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  4. This should be used as a text book example of a repressive Government ruining a market and or product. I believe it was 1964 that the Corvette with a 327 was getting 20 plus mpg and turning a sub 14 second quarter mile. If Detroit gave buyers a choice between something soundly engineered and manufactured vs the Governments version of what turned out to be a smog hog, whats the general population going to purchase. I’d bet good money that 1964 327 burned lots cleaner than anything for 1973 to 1985.

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  5. You just don’t see too many Cars from that Era…Grandma had a 80 Ford Fairmont…

    (Mercury Zephyr was the Counterpart) Have not seen one on the Road.

    I was just Home from Korea in 84, and bought a 83 GT Mustang with only 10K on it

    for $7500 Cash….It was a Bad Ass little Car…Didnt hurt that I was now

    Stationed in Homestead AFB (Miami) Still miss that Car….Used to Drive to

    Key West at 85 MPH + on the Weekends….Even the State Troopers had Stangs..

    Damn….Memories of Spring Break in Lauderdale in that Fire Red GT…

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  6. @Brad,
    Almost every car built between 73 and 85 had some “pollution control” device fail within the first year, causing the car to pollute worse than if there were no controls at all. My Dad’s 74 Ford F100 was a perfect example – so many random hoses under the air filter housing that we could never figure out where they all went…

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  7. 1986 Dodge Charger was a complete DISGRACE on the year & turned 16.
    (no, I never owned one)

    I thank GOD that my parents let me borrow the 9 seat 1980 Pontiac Station Wagon once in a while.

    5

  11. We went from a huge black Chevy impala that we would sit 7 in for 1,000- mile road trips to a gutless Oldsmobile with a V6 that couldn’t get out of its own way to clunky K-car to a Ford Tempo in the 1980s that would blow an electronic engine module when you’d least expect it. My Mom bought a Saturn new and after about 10 years went to Subaru.

    One way or another we only buy American now for the huge people carriers (Expedition or Suburban) as a work horse on the property and drive them till they stop running.

    I’ll never buy an American brand car for steady transportation again. For me the Malaise Era in American branded cars never ended.

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  13. Until we moved to FL in ’17 we had lived in Michigan all of our lives. Most people where we lived worked for GM, in other areas Ford, and some for Chrysler. If people didn’t work for one of the “big three”, they worked for a supplier.

    Stories were abundant about the shit that went on behind the scenes. The following is one of those stories but I heard it third hand so true or totally factual, I can’t say.

    Shortly after 0bama took office he sent some of his enforcers to tell the auto giants how things were going to be. That they would be building cars and right soon that were going to get some astronomic mpg. They told the auto people that they were in bed with big oil and that that was coming to a halt. That they were producing cars that consumed far too much fossil fuels to keep their big oil buddies fat and lazy, blah, blah, blah.

    The auto people listened and when the enforcers were done, explained that their demands, especially when coupled with the safety requirements of big gov, were impossible because of the laws of physics.

    That’s when the enforcers told the auto people that they, the enforcers, as members of big gov had the power to change those laws.

    Imagine sitting there and having to listen to morons telling you what to do.

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  14. I skipped all that. Started driving in ’84… Went from a ’65 VW to an ’88 Ranger. Both were so simple I could maintain them myself. Still have a 2001 Excursion 4×4 7.3l that my son drives. Best engineered crumple zones available to protect your teenager, and they’re self-upgrading. They’re built in to all the other cars!

    KR

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  16. We can all relate, and we all hated the damn 55 mph speed limit. It seemingly took forever and a day to go from Spokane to Seattle on I 90 back then. There is nothing worse than driving at 55 mph thru the Columbia Basin between Ritzville and Ellensburg, Wash. just pissing along with sagebrush everywhere. My dad was President of local gasoline dealer’s association at that time, and he hated the gas crisis because he had to continually explain to a lot of moron TV reporters why the price of gas was so high. Most of the American cars from 73 on until the early 90’s except for the Japanese cars and my 69 VW beetle were absolute POS’s and were garbage mobiles. I don’t miss that era one bit even though I was in my 20’s and early 30’s then. My brother-in-law who was a Seattle Police officer would drive between Seattle and Spokane as fast as he could and if the cops pulled him over, he would show them his Seattle PD badge and usually they gave him a pass, professional courtesy and all. The 70’s and 80’s sucked although it got far better after Reagan became President and Mr. Malaise the peanut farmer was gone, thank God.

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  19. I had a very used ’73 Cutlass Supreme with Keystone wheels and 60 tires on the back, jacked way up with air shocks because they didn’t fit inside the fenders, with a 350 dual exhaust 4bbl and all that emissions shit ripped off of it.

    The thing weighted near 2 tons but would absolutely scoot. You were good as long as you didn’t want to turn too quick, and paying Reagan-era pump prices for the many, many gallons it inhaled…

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  20. 1964 Chevy pickup 283/powerglide easily got 20 mpg, 2012 Jeep 3.7, 17 mpg, if in old fart mode. One of the best was an Olds Delta 88 Diesel, easily 30 mpg at 80 mph. But the diesel failed because to many people made short trips, which is death for a diesel.
    All new vehicles run rich so there is enough fuel to make the catalytic converter run hot enough to work.
    All vehicles could get better mileage, but the public wouldn’t tolerate it. Look up “hypermiling”.
    Engines could be made to last longer with a simple oil switch. The engine doesn’t start until oil pressure is positive.
    I also have a couple 1960’s Honda 50cc motorcycles that will easily get 90 miles to the gallon, so long as you’re OK driving 45 mph. I’ve had one of them up to 70 mph, down a big hill, laying on the gas tank.

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  23. Cmn¢¢guy – I had a 1964 Honda Hawk and in the manual they said that 45MPH was the optimmum speed for the best milage. That still holds true to a certain extent because wind resistance hasn’t changed.

    One of the best cars I had way back when was the 1964 Olds F85 (bought used) It had the 330CI with dual exhaust, a 4 barrel and the 2-speed tranny, but with the variable pitch torque converter (otherwise known as the Super Turbine 300) Wish I still had it today!
    But yeah, the 74 – 85 stuff wuz gutless, bottom of the outhouse crap that I have no desire to own as a classic.

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  25. Jethro, I watched a youtube about a mid 70s VW Beetle found abandoned on a farm. The reason the thing didn’t run was the vacuum hoses were all in the wrong ports. The guy who found the car set up the vacuum correctly, changed the oil, put some petrol in it, and it started right up.

    It ran like ass for a few minutes, but once the carb settled in it was fine. It had been abandoned under a tree for decades for the sake of mis-routed hoses.

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