Old Photo - College Parking Lot c. 1980

[Number_35]

My sister sent me this old photo, from the archives of the school she works at. I'm guessing it's from around 1980.

I had fun trying to identify the vehicles.

L Row
- Aspen/Volare wagon?
- Mercury Capri?
- VW Rabbit
-Dodge van

Centre Row
- VW Rabbit
- Fiat X-1/9?
- VW Beetle
- Ford F-100 or F-150

R Row
- Chevy or GMC truck, or possibly a Suburban

Any corrections or clarifications or confirmations?

 

[wings&wheels]

Tr7, not an X1/9 in the center row. Great pic for auto content. Where was it taken?? Heavy mix of low-mid foreign….college town?

 

[clinebarger]

R Row
- Chevy or GMC truck, or possibly a Suburban

1968, '67 didn't have side markers & '69 & up had a slightly different hood & fender

 

[Number_35]

Tr7, not an X1/9 in the center row. Great pic for auto content. Where was it taken?? Heavy mix of low-mid foreign….college town?

I wondered about it being a TR7, but remembered them as having graphics on the front fenders. I also wondered if it could be a Datsun successor to the Z cars, or a 1st-gen Mazda RX-7, but rejected both of those as possibilities.

The campus is Cariboo College, Kamloops BC.

Kamloops was not a college town back then, but is moreso now. Cariboo College at the time was a combination university-transfer school (offering the equivalent of 1st and 2nd year courses) and a vocational/trade school.

It became University College of the Cariboo (UCC), a full degree-granting university, and was later renamed Thompson Rivers University (TRU).

 

[Cujet]

TR-7 I think. The bumper and side window shape are good clues. The RX-7 was shaped a bit differently at the bumper and window.

 

[daves87rs]

Very cool though!

 

[BHopkins]

My recollection of the X1/9 was that it was more angular. the hood was a little flatter. The roofline was also flatter, as was the windshield.

The TR7 was a little more muscular looking, with more bulge in the hood. So I'm with @wings&wheels and @Cujet on it being a TR7.

It would be fun to have either one, but I do prefer the TR7. Not that the TR7 was any speed demon, but the X1/9 was as underpowered as a car could be. Much like the Opel GT, all looks and no go.

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

TR7 between the VW's. It has the TR7 big beefy bumper and you can see the louvers in the hood. Always thought they were cool looking and wanted one, but needed a car that could be repaired within 150 mi of where I lived.

 

[fantastic]

They started making the 300Z's in 1983 I think but Datsun could have made them before then? Old iron from the era. Neat pic.

 

[Kira]

My recollection of the X1/9 was that it was more angular.

The X-19 was quite small, too.

What do you think happened to the VW and was the RF suspension involved?

 

[Nukeman7]

It looks like a Chevy K5 Blazer and a S10 pickup just past the F-100/F-150 in the middle row.

 

[doitmyself]

Vs. today............our local university parking lot: (fewer beaters)

 

[Kira]

^^Rellies once lived near a cliff in the Bronx where Fordham Rd. meets I-87 (the Deegan Expressway).
A larger apartment building was fitted into the irregularly contoured parcel decades after the rest of University Heights was developed
The inhabitants were younger, more educated and way more varied than the rest of those you'd find in any city neighborhood.
It was astounding how the parked cars reflected this younger and more mobile demographic.

They weren't taking the subway to vanishing manufacturing jobs. Instead, they were walking to the nearby Metro-North train station or jumping on the highway; with some apparently traveling great distances given how early the streets would empty.

Wish I took pictures.

 

[Number_35]

TR7 between the VW's. It has the TR7 big beefy bumper and you can see the louvers in the hood. Always thought they were cool looking and wanted one, but needed a car that could be repaired within 150 mi of where I lived.

The TR7 had an extraordinarily bad reputation for reliability, almost right from the get-go. I never worked on one, so can't comment on whether they were dealer-only vehicles.

 

[Number_35]

The X-19 was quite small, too.

What do you think happened to the VW and was the RF suspension involved?

I wondered if if was a Super Beetle, with front MacPherson struts.

 

[Number_35]

It looks like a Chevy K5 Blazer and a S10 pickup just past the F-100/F-150 in the middle row.

You have good eyes! I didn't even attempt to identify them. When was the S10 introduced - around 1984? If that is an S10, it would be very new, and the photo would be newer than I'd thought.

 

[Nukeman7]

You have good eyes! I didn't even attempt to identify them. When was the S10 introduced - around 1984? If that is an S10, it would be very new, and the photo would be newer than I'd thought.

Wikipedia says the S10 was initially manufactured in 1981 and sold as a 1982 model.

 

[Number_35]

Vs. today............our local university parking lot: (fewer beaters)
View attachment 261166

I was a student there for two years, from September 1975 through April 1977. I drove two cars during my time there, first a 1970 Corolla 1200, and later a 1971 Corolla 1600.

My friend's cars, also found in the parking lot in that era:
Gary - 2nd-gen Envoy Epic (HB), replaced by a larger (2 litre?) Envoy
Real - 1969 Toyota Corona
Mike - late-'60s Triumph Spitfire, replaced by a 1974 Dodge Colt
Bruce - 1960ish Vauxhall, replaced by a '76 Chevette

Profs' cars:
Linear Algebra - VW bus
Psych #1 - '68 Biscayne
Psych #2 - VW bus
Chem - Citroen DS
Physics - Mazda 1500

Truth be known, I'd rather have some of the cars of my student days than anything modern. (Yeah, I know, rose-coloured nostalgic glasses ...)

 

[2005jettatdi]

With that green Rabbit there, I had to really look to confirm it was not mine. My first VW was a green 75 VW Rabbit. bought it March of my senior year. It did not have a rear window wiper.

 

[BHopkins]

I wondered if if was a Super Beetle, with front MacPherson struts.

Perhaps my memory is faulty, but IIRC, by the time the Super Beetle was introduced, the Beetle had a curved windshield. That one looks like it has a flat windshield.