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Post by Cartman on May 23, 2021 20:28:14 GMT
Reading through the 1978/9 car mags I've got from eBay it's struck me that some stuff which you used to see on the road then had totally vanished and is pretty much forgotten about. In the classic car spotting thread we see some old cars, which are still going in some numbers and are well remembered, most of these are British, with a few foreign ones, such as Volvos, VWs etc.
I think the ones which have completely fallen off the radar are mostly French. When did you last see a Simca, or Renault 12, for example? Japanese ones too, I can't remember the last time I saw a Datsun 140J, or 120Y, both used to be quite common. East European ones are similar, Moskvich, Wartburg, and others.
I think the thing with the Japanese ones was rot, the bodywork was poor, but they were reliable, with the French ones, I think it was a case of no one was ever interested in them and they never attracted an enthusiast following. East European ones have a small following, but all are now rare. Even at car shows you don't see any 70s French cars really.
British ones probably attracted the interest of enthusiasts, which is probably why some survive.
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on May 23, 2021 22:10:24 GMT
Even best selling cars like the Renault 5 are few and far between.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 24, 2021 5:44:39 GMT
Fiats, and Italian cars in general, have also disappeared. Fiat 127s, 128s and 131s were very common in the 70s, and I haven't seen one for years. Like the Japanese cars, rust was a big issue with them.
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Post by Sam Tyler on May 24, 2021 8:37:45 GMT
Also from Fiat was the Strada. The Abarth version was supposedly a match for the Golf GTi but to me they were an easily forgotten dull shopping trolley of a car: I remember the advert at the time (now posted in the Car Adverts thread) with the tag line of "Hand built by robots" being the subject of a p*ss-take by Not The Nine O'clock News with their "BL Ambassador - Hand Built by Roberts" sketch. A quick look on How Many Left shows that there were just 32 variants of the Strada still on the roads last year. Sam.
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on May 24, 2021 9:23:34 GMT
FIATs from those times are indeed really rare. I'm amazed there is 32 Strada's left ! I liked the styling of the FIATs but they definitely had that questionable build quality. A family member had an UNO in the early 90s and that had noticeably thin panels. The doors made a ringing sound when you closed them Same can be said panel wise for the Peugeot 205s we had.
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Post by D.C. Burtonshaw on May 24, 2021 16:07:19 GMT
A family that my family were friendly with had a T registered Fiat 128 estate, awkward looking styling I always though. In a couple of Sweeney episodes in the 1st series, you can see a while one parked in the street occasionally (maybe a filming crew members car).
The families one, failed the MOT in 1987, not sure what on, but the dad I think just simply scrapped it about 8-9 years old, possibly a bit of welding was needed, and it was going to cost what the car was worth, so that was it. He replaced it with a big Y plate MK2 Granada 2.3 next.
I had my early experience of practicing driving a car on another friends private land in 4 scrappy French cars, which were MOT failures, which another friends dad had been using as cheap runabouts, which he ran into the ground. All went very rusty, there was a H reg early Renault 6, with the round headlamps (they were square on later ones, another friend had an N reg one for a couple of year in the 80's). That model was intended as a replacement for the 4, but the 4 ended up outliving it. They had a T reg Renault 14 I sampled too.
I also got practice on an L reg and T reg Simca 1100's. Tappety sounding engines on them, a small/medium early form of hatchback when new. The bigger versions of the engines which were still in the use in the 80's Talbot Horzons, Alpine and Solaras. I remember the T reg one, although with a nicer interior, being the GLS version, had far worse bodywork and was already a wreck by the time it was 7 years old, I'm sure the drivers side front wing was moveable in and out! The later ones could have been made from inferior steel. I also remember the estate and van versions, as well as a bigger box shaped van too, and a pick up. The commercial versions I think were still made into about 1982.
Chrysler/Simca of France built a large and probably comfortable 4 door saloon called the 180, then later known as the 2 litre. It was surprisingly kept in production a long time, 10 years I think. British designed, but French built, it had been intended to be a new V6 Humber, but Chrysler pulled the plug on that idea, with the Humber name dying in 1976 with the last Hunter based Sceptre. The 180 ended up with French engines, and was never a great seller. Although was popular was Spanish taxi drivers I believe. Plans for estate and a 180 based 2 door coupe came to nothing. Was replaced by the equally nearly forgotten Tagora, also sadly a flop and dropped after 2 and a half years.
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Post by Sam Tyler on May 24, 2021 17:35:02 GMT
Another forgotten motor that springs to mind (so not really forgotten!) is the Renault Fuego which was based on the Renault 18. As a two-door coupe it hardly set the world on fire with its performance and apparently the handling wasn't up to the promise of the coupe styling either. A further search on How Many Left indicates that there were just 19 examples of the various models remaining on the road last year. Sam.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2021 18:21:30 GMT
Didn't realise they were so few left! It's quite addictive the How many left app' we had a Renault 14 when I was a kid! guess a similar shape to the 16. it was weird, my dad bought it new in 77' I went with him the night he bought it, he was so happy, but unfortunately by 1979/80 it was so rotten underneath, ya could almost push ya finger through! he tried to return it but he got nowhere in the end..
GC
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on May 24, 2021 18:37:23 GMT
Also from Fiat was the Strada. The Abarth version was supposedly a match for the Golf GTi but to me they were an easily forgotten dull shopping trolley of a car: I remember the advert at the time (now posted in the Car Adverts thread) with the tag line of "Hand built by robots" being the subject of a p*ss-take by Not The Nine O'clock News with their "BL Ambassador - Hand Built by Roberts" sketch. A quick look on How Many Left shows that there were just 32 variants of the Strada still on the roads last year. Sam. My sister had one in 80/81, fairly horrible plastic thing I thought.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 24, 2021 18:53:03 GMT
My wife's dad had a Renault 14, a metallic brown, I drove it a couple of times and wasn't impressed with it. Don't know exactly why but I just don't like French cars. The only old French cars you do occasionally see are Citroen s, the odd 2CV and the even more occasional DS19. Peugeot s, Renaults and Simcas have totally disappeared. To me, Sam's description of dull, shopping trolley cars sums them up. Somehow, even basic British stuff like Mark 1 Escorts, 1100s, Vivas etc still had a bit of charisma and style. On a slight tangent, I was filling up this morning and a new Rolls pulled in, it was a two door coupe type and it was all Matt black, no chrome at all, black wheels too. I thought it was just about the ugliest, most sinister looking car I've ever seen, it was horrible, and must cost what? £100000 plus? I'd rather have something like a Hillman Imp
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