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The Malaise Era Japanese cars are just about all gone by now, and it's especially obvious with Datsuns. The Datsun-Nissan changeover happened during the early 80s, just as digital engine controls and less restrictive catalytic converters signaled the end of the Malaise Era and the beginning of the Turbo Mullet Era (feel free to start throwing that name around). Today we're going to look at one of the last of the rear-wheel-drive econo-Datsuns, sold during the crazy gasoline price spikes of the 1979 Energy Crisis . Yes, back when disco was king and the echoes of Jimmy Carter's Malaise Speech were still reminding us of the diminished expectations that lay ahead. Malaise or not, the B310 Sunny (as it was known in Japan) got the job done. You got the gas-sipping 1.4 liter A14 engine and pretty solid reliability. It was crude by the standards we've come to expect in an econobox these days, but you weren't paying to haul around 800 pounds of sound insulation and fake wood...
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Plymouth might not be the first brand that comes to mind you when you think "pickup truck," but in fact there were plenty of Plymouth-branded trucks sold in the pre-World War II period, and you could get a badge-engineered Ramcharger called the Plymouth Trail Duster in the Early Malaise Era (yes, they just loved that Duster name at Chrysler). And you want to talk confusing branding, let's look at this '80 Arrow pickup. It's a Mitsubishi Forte with Plymouth Arrow badging... not to be confused with the Plymouth Arrow car , which was a rebadged Mitsubishi Celeste. All we can figure is that someone at Chrysler really, really liked the Arrow name and decided to apply it to any vehicle that would hold still long enough to get the plastic emblems glued to its flanks. Not that it matters much, since the Arrow name was dropped by '82 and all the rebadged Fortes were sold as Dodge Ram 50s after that. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi started importing them as Mighty Maxes. Anyway, as...
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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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You know what the problem is with this country? You can no longer buy road vehicles made by a manufacturer of farm equipment , that's what's wrong! Maybe it's time for Ford to bring back the Fordson tractor, though that wouldn't be the same. I was reminded of the sad lack of vehicles with combine harvesters in their lineage when I ran across this 1980 IH Scout , and since our last few DOTS trucks were a GMC , a Ford , and a Dodge , today seemed like a good time to go with a non-Big Three American truck. Unless someone has grafted the grille off an '80 onto an earlier Scout II here, we're looking at the very last year of the Scout. This one has the optional Nissan 6-33T turbocharged diesel, which was good for 101 horsepower and 175 ft-lbs of torque. Oh yes, and it's the "Limited Edition," which means that less than an infinite quantity of them was available. This one is in very nice condition- not a speck of rust and a very clean interior. Don't...
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