History Repeats...

[LTVibe]

Auto Industry Déjà vu

Quote:
The price of crude to U.S. refineries increased tenfold in the 1970s, from an average of $3.58 per barrel in 1972 to $35.24 in 1981.

By the late 1970s, automakers had become convinced that higher fuel prices had forever skewed the market. Here are some of their responses:

• Around 1980, GM was the only domestic automaker that had any money, and it charged into the fuel economy game like the 1st Cavalry. GM inserted an electric car into its product cycle plan to debut around 1983 and began intensive engineering. It designed a new generation of V-6 diesel engines for passenger cars and erected a new plant near Lansing to build them.

• Volkswagen's Rabbit sedan, especially the diesel version, was so popular that the company invested in a second U.S. plant to assemble them.

• Ford put out four-cylinder versions of its main family sedans and offered a diesel version of its Escort subcompact. Chrysler planned a diesel version of its Slant Six engine for cars and scheduled assembly over in Windsor.

All of this was good money poured right down the drain, as each of these projects was abandoned.



Don't think this part of history will repeat:

Quote:
But cheap oil returned, and we know the story.

 

[blackcherry06]

My boss rationalized his recent (yesterday) purchase of a Cadillac STS with his speculation that the prices we see now are only temporary and will eventually come back down. I begged him to guy a 4-cylinder Accord to make his 54-mile one-way commute to and from work daily because I really didn't want him to saddle himself with a V8 to commute with.

I wonder if he needs to update the prescription on those rose-colored glasses.

 

[pbm]

GM's diesels were GARBAGE. VW's diesels were fuel efficient and reliable and VW is now a leader in passenger car diesels.
I think the price of fuel will be lower a year from now but that shouldn't stop the quest for more fuel efficient vehicles.

 

[jazztrumpet216]

Do I think we'll ever see gas under $1.50 again? Very doubtful.

Under $2.00? Maybe.

I do think $2.50 a gallon is attainable, though. While I hope fuel prices come down from where they are, I also hope they settle into a happy medium where people don't immediately start to head out and get back into their gas guzzling SUVs that *most* of them don't need.

 

[shero]

where i am (Perth Western Australia) it's a $1.60 per litre.

 

[addyguy]

I think that the early 1980's was the best periods of 'innovation' in the domestic auto industry in response to the second oil shock of the 1970's, in 1979.

GM had downsized its full-size and mid-size cars in 1977 and 1978, They brought out the family-size, front drive 'X' cars in 1979, and followed that up with the compact front-drive 'J' cars in 1982. in 1982, the 'X' cars morphed into the A-bodies...most of these cars, or their 'decendants', are still with us.

Ford brought out the smaller Fairmont in 1978, they brought out the 'global' front-drive Escort in 1981, and they brought out the 'Aero' T-Bird in 1983.

Chrysler brought out the K-cars, and made extreme use of 'platform engineering' to bring out the FWD 400, 600, LeBaron, New Yorker, Charger, Daytona...a lot of these also used the 'economy and power advantage' of turbo charging the engine to boost output.

A lot of these innovations are still with us, and just being updated...Turbo Ecotecs, 'EcoBoost' Fords, global platforms....

 

[JTK]

Oh man, how COOL would a diesel slant-6 have been!

Joel

 

[blackcherry06]

I think the most surprising and polarizing change from GM is how drastically they downsized the Cadillac Seville in 1986. Fans of the K-body Cadillacs were put off. I liked it a lot better than those overweight, underpowered slugs from the early 80's, but I was in the minority.

 

[Kestas]

I was actually working on diesel designs for Chrysler back in the early 80s, which included the straight six. Chrysler was forecasting a market of 25% diesels back then. But then came the class action suit against Olsmobile passenger car diesels and cheap gas. That, and the public didn't want smelly diesels. All the work my colleagues and I did was shelved.

 

[Shannow]

If anyone knows how I can find a 324TD engine for my E-30, that would be sweet.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: shero
where i am (Perth Western Australia) it's a $1.60 per litre.


What does that convert to in terms of $ per US gallon? Up here in Toronto our price has gone as high as $1.30 per liter recently, which works out to $4.92US per gallon (the CDN dollar is currently on par with the US dollar)

 

[Steve S]

All those cars were garbage . That is when the Japanese cars were the ones to buy

 

[firemachine69]

Originally Posted By: blackcherry06
My boss rationalized his recent (yesterday) purchase of a Cadillac STS with his speculation that the prices we see now are only temporary and will eventually come back down. I begged him to guy a 4-cylinder Accord to make his 54-mile one-way commute to and from work daily because I really didn't want him to saddle himself with a V8 to commute with.

I wonder if he needs to update the prescription on those rose-colored glasses.



If he's single and doesn't have any extra expenses... I can't see why that's a bad idea...

 

[INMY01TA]

Originally Posted By: blackcherry06
My boss rationalized his recent (yesterday) purchase of a Cadillac STS with his speculation that the prices we see now are only temporary and will eventually come back down. I begged him to guy a 4-cylinder Accord to make his 54-mile one-way commute to and from work daily because I really didn't want him to saddle himself with a V8 to commute with.

I wonder if he needs to update the prescription on those rose-colored glasses.
I'll take an STS over a Civic any day. I like your boss.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Steve S
All those cars were garbage . That is when the Japanese cars were the ones to buy


The Japanese cars of the 80's weren't all that great. Comparing an '88 Civic to an '88 Escort and the Escort is a nicer car IMHO.

And I don't believe Honda even MADE a car that could touch the luxury of a Town Car, Cadillac....etc at that time.

That being said, GM's small diesels were pretty awful, but the gasoline engines of that era, including Ford's 2.3L (and the 2.3T that was available in the SVO and Thunderbird Turbo Coupe) were [censored] good little motors.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: blackcherry06
I begged him to guy a 4-cylinder Accord to make his 54-mile one-way commute to and from work daily because I really didn't want him to saddle himself with a V8 to commute with.

You'd rather have him fall asleep behind the wheel?

 

[BrianWC]

I dunno. My parents two early mid 80's American car purchases were awful. My mother got a LeSabre as the family car in 82. It was a horrible car. It was always in the shop for something. She only kept it for 5 years before buying a Bonneville. It was a tad better but went through at least 3 alternators and a couple of fuel pumps in the 8 years she kept it.

As for my father, he got a Chevette in 84. It was a piece but he drove it into the ground, putting 476k miles on it in 7 years. The thing used more oil than gas.

One set of neighbors bought a Maxima in the mid 80's and another neighbor bought an Accord around the same time. They both only sold those cars within the last 6-7 years and both bought the newer models of each car. Quite a better impression than my family's 80's GM cars had on us...My parents finally switched to an Accord in 04.

Matter of fact, no one even in my extended family (even though my uncle was the local Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge dealer from the 60's-80's) drives anything domestic with the exception of GMC/Chevy trucks.

I, too, have been thinking of all the parallels between the 70's and the current crisis. We just got performance cars to a level unrivaled by the legendary cars of the late 60's/early 70's and here comes the end of the party, once more....

 

[Audi Junkie]

Mom got a 1986 Accord at my prompting. To me, that car was amazing and very modern and comfortable.

I'd rather do a 50 mile commute in that than some sofa-on-a-poop-deck Lincon.

Why?
Hint: Double Wishbone.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
Mom got a 1986 Accord at my prompting. To me, that car was amazing and very modern and comfortable.

I'd rather do a 50 mile commute in that than some sofa-on-a-poop-deck Lincon.

Why?
Hint: Double Wishbone.


Just don't let that 4,000lb Panther chassis car run into you, or you'll be fished your teeth out of your rear-end in that Accord.

That being said, you do know that the Panther chassis cars DO have double A-arms up-front right? Obviously still Ford's [censored] modified 4-link out back at that time though. Later replaced by true 4-link with a PHB.

My old Townie is actually a blast to drive. I upgraded the suspension to Police Interceptor shocks and springs, polyurethane sway-bar mounts, PI rear swaybar, 17x9 Cobra R rims with 245's on the front, 275's on the rear. It has factory 3.27's with T-Lok, and an HO conversion with Cobra 1.7 roller rockers, Explorer intake, MAF conversion, Mark VIII Electric fan...etc. Gets decent gas mileage if you keep your foot out of it, and hauls it's 4,500lbs of fun around with relative ease. It also handles EXCEPTIONALLY well for a car of it's mass and would likely destroy that '86 Accord on a road course.

Now of course it's not stock, but it's body has held up better than that Accord's ever could, and it's on a platform that has been the predominant choice of law enforcement, taxi cabs and limousine services for well over a decade.

These cars were SEFI when Honda was still in the "Age of the Carburetor".

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Patman
Originally Posted By: shero
where i am (Perth Western Australia) it's a $1.60 per litre.


What does that convert to in terms of $ per US gallon? Up here in Toronto our price has gone as high as $1.30 per liter recently, which works out to $4.92US per gallon (the CDN dollar is currently on par with the US dollar)


$5.80/Gal at current exchange rates.

Diesel is $1.84/l ($6.66 US/Gal) at present