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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Cadillacs sold pretty well, even after most of a decade of Malaise-y gas prices and general sense of diminished expectations, so you could still buy a great big angular slab of rear-wheel-drive Fleetwood as late as 1984. Here we've got a raggedy '79 Fleetwood that's been sitting on a major commercial strip for a couple of weeks now. This stretch of road is a popular spot to park cars for sale, since the traffic is so heavy. This Caddy, however, has no For Sale sign in sight; it may belong to the resident of a nearby apartment building, or it may be abandoned (this car has the telltale purple window tint, indicating that it is probably on its last owner). The APD is vigilant about this sort of thing, so a date with a tow truck may be in the offing. These things listed at $21,735 from the factory, or about 65 grand in 2008 dollars. Power...
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I'd really like to shoot more Malaise Era Civics, but it seems most of them have been crushed by now, victims of their own reliability. The problem is that these cars just did their jobs without showing a huge amount of lovable personality, and thus it wasn't much like shooting Old Yeller when an owner's coldhearted fix-it-or-scrap-it calculus came into play on a broken 20-year-old Civic. Well, that's my theory, anyway. So, here's a '79 that's beaten all the odds and kept on doing its job; I photographed this car just across the street from the '77 Volvo 244DL , making this block a little museum for Malaise Era imports. I've driven many of these Civics, and they're actually pretty fun to drive. Noisy and bouncy, sure, and other vehicles tower over you, but the late-70s Civic didn't feel stricken by the same level of Malaise that was hammering American and European cars of the time. The CVCC engine meant Honda didn't have to put catalytic converters...
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We've already seen a 928 in this series, but I always consider the Malaise Era 928s to be the best ones. Sure, the later 928s were way faster, but late-70s car freaks didn't have much reason for optimism during a period of declining horsepower, disco tape stripes, and huge bumpers, and the then-new 928 was one of the few bright spots. So here we go with another JFG / DOTS combo car, which I found parked near the 1970 VW Transporter pickup . The 219-horsepower V8 in this car doesn't sound like much today (and, yes, you Yurpeans got more power in your 928s... and dirtier air), but [insert horsepower rating of any 1979 Detroit V8 here] . That power didn't come cheap, however; you'd have to move a lot of white powder to come up with the $28,500 (about 84 grand today) list price of a '79 928. You could get yourself a new Ferrari 308 for about the same price... or three Corvettes. This example is a little battered, but it moves frequently enough to indicate that it runs...
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Remember Malaise Era rear-wheel-drive econoboxes from Detroit? A couple of decades back, Pintos and Chevettes were buzzing all over the place, cheerfully dropping drivetrain parts and rusted-out body panels on the pavement in the process. By now, just about all of them have met their fate in the cold steel jaws of The Crusher. Given that the average lifespan of a Chevette was best measured in five odometer figures (and many of the survivors are now getting raced to death), it was quite a pleasant surprise to find this '79 four-door in Alameda's West End (not far from the very UnMalaise 1960 Chevy Bel Air ). The MSRP for a '79 Chevette 4-door hatch was $3,914. That's pretty much as cheap as you could get back then, although you could spring for an extra $300 and get a '79 Fiat 128 hatchback! Hmm... This one is in standard beater condition; the only reason it hasn't been crushed is most likely that nothing expensive has gone wrong with it for 15 years. Hey, this would...
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So we had our Favorite Detroit Malaise Car poll last week, from which the '78 Cadillac Eldorado emerged triumphant (the combo of a 500 cubic-inch engine and T-tops proved unbeatable). But what about Malaisemobiles from across the waters? This poll includes the rebadged imports sold by Detroit as part of their "if you can't beat 'em, put your name on 'em" strategy of the era, in addition to straight-out imports. Jump like a UH-1 leaving the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon to see the contestants! Note: Since we've got two apiece '74 Porsche 911s and '77 Toyota Celicas, I'm choosing one apiece (yes, we have two '78 Colts, but one is a sedan and the other is a wagon). Now on with the Malaise! 1973 BMW 3.0CSi 1973 Capri 1973 Datsun 610 1973 Ford Courier 1973 Volkswagen Thing 1973 Volkswagen Squareback 1974 Porsche 911 Targa 1975 Datsun B210 1976 Honda Civic 1977 Toyota Celica 1978 Dodge Colt 1978 Dodge Colt Wagon 1978 Honda Civic 1978 Jaguar XJ...
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With the Malaisetastic '80 Plymouth Fire Arrow that we saw yesterday on my mind, I got to thinking about the meaning of the Malaise Era, specifically about the American-built vehicles sold during that period. Not captive imports like the Fire Arrow or quasi-domestics like the Capri, but real Detroit (or Kenosha) machinery. And, yes, I know that Jimmy Carter never actually uttered the word "Malaise" in his so-called Crisis of Confidence speech in 1979; what started as a joke term for the cars of the 1973-1983 period has now hardwired itself into my brain). Then I realized that I've forgotten the quasi-tradition of having a Friday poll for the readers to vote on their favorite DOTS machine of the week, so I owe you some DOTS poll action. That means it's time to jump like the late-70s inflation rate to pick your favorite of Alameda's Malaisewagons! Looking at these cars, I realize that I've been remiss in not photographing early-80s Detroit iron on Alameda's...
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87% of you said you wanted to see some Malaise Era Mercedes-Benzes in this series (the '72 280SEL we saw a couple weeks back is technically pre-Malaise), and now that time has come! Here's a car that laughs at mere 300,000-mile odometer readings: Get to 500,000 miles on the clock and then we'll talk , I imagine this car saying to today's Japanese claimants to the car-longevity throne. Now that's a freakin' hood ornament! This car listed at $26,265 when new, which is about $75,588 in 2007 bucks. 75 grand! The funny part is that the owner came out while I was photographing his car and offered to sell it to me for $600, which means its value has depreciated about 99.2% since new. Hmmm... knock off $100 and it's 24 Hours of LeMons ready! This car has the turbocharged version of the unkillable Mercedes 5-cylinder diesel engine... an engine that deserves mention as a Workhorse Engine of the Day, when we continue with that series. This example is on the rough side,...
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Since the readers have spoken on the DOTS Pickup Truck question, we're going to look at another old truck today. And, since we're turning Japanese this week, we're going to make it a Japanese truck! And not one rebranded with some Detroit carmaker's name; no, this is a genuine 200-proof Datsun. The old Toyota trucks get all the press, what with their being the vehicle of choice for strongmen and warlords the world over, but Nissan made some pretty solid ones as well. Check out those funky tailgate latches and plywood bed cover. It doesn't matter what continent it comes from- this thing kicks shit! Ahhh, take a whiff of That Junkyard Car Smell: mildew, sun-baked plastic, and decaying foam rubber. This truck probably has 500,000 miles on the clock and no doubt will start right up after sitting immobile for six months. It's a damn shame that you can't buy a truly small, simple Japanese pickup these days. Why, even warlords insist on AC nowadays! This truck parks next to the 1976 Monza we saw...
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It's been over a month since we've seen a Porsche in this series, and even longer since we've seen a 911SC , so let's take a look at this '79 911SC on this fine Wednesday morning. I spotted this car in Alameda 's East End, not far from the 900 horsepower...
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