The horsepower war is winding down, the broughams are preparing to strike with opera windows, super-fluffy seats and padded roofs, and gas mileage is officially becomes a factor when purchasing a vehicle. The 1970s weren’t the greatest time for cars, were they? That doesn’t mean that the advertising agencies in charge of helping manufacturers move cars off of the lots weren’t trying their best. From simple and classy pieces to some of the strangest ads we’ve ever seen, we have to give credit to those who tried their best.
Comparing a Ford Granada to a Mercedes? Yeah, that was stretching it just a little bit. No amount of dressing up would have convinced a Mercedes owner that he wasn’t sitting in a re-hashed 1960 Falcon, and Mercedes didn’t have that pesky “pop out of Park” deal going on.
“The Japanese are coming! They are gonna ruin us all!” Comparing the G-body Grand Prix to a Toyota Celica? Really? Nobody…and I mean NOBODY…was comparing Grand Prix to a Celica!
…the jokes just write themselves, folks. Especially the one about not being able to fit all of myself into it.
Dodge’s big deal in late 1970s was the “Adult Toys” line, which were disco-tastic renditions of the D-series, B-vans, D-50 truck, and the hot Aspens and Volares. Here, soak in the new sin bin, the StreetVan.
One issue General Motors had was how sure of themselves they were. They weren’t wrong about the 1957 Chevrolet being a popular used car, but comparing it to the U.S.S. Impala in the foreground might have been a stretch. You know who remembers a 1974 Impala best? The guy who got slammed by one in a demolition derby.
“World car”? The X-body Nova as a world car…sorry, not seeing it. Though, I saw plenty of Novas and A/G-body Malibus. They were painted white with orange fenders front and rear…meaning they were taxis.
This is an interesting take on the advertisement: laying out all of the specifications of the car being shilled, as in this Opel GT advertisement. Clear and refreshing, with one good picture.
Another good one, this time from Chrysler. The Cordoba-based Chrysler 300 wasn’t that remarkable of a car, but the advertisement was straightforward: refresh the reader of the 300’s history, explain the new car, and two photos: one of the car, and one of the dashboard, showing the driver what to expect.
Datsun fought hard to make it in the U.S. market, and the 240Z was a great step forward. It had the looks, it had the performance, and it even had the fuel economy…it practically sold itself.
Taking a not-so-subtle dig at the Volkswagen Beetle, this ad for an early 1970s Leone, the tag line was an excellent shunt: “At 70 MPH it doesn’t even breathe hard”.
American Motors sold the Pacer in France through Jean-Charles. Apparently Jean-Charles didn’t perceive the Pacer as the fishbowl, like the U.S. did. Or maybe he had a fixation that needed to be dealt with.
Mazda did rotaries before the RX-7, but the eye-catching part of this advertisement for the RX-3 SP isn’t the car itself, but the flame-trail tire tracks. I wonder if that was cribbed for a certain DeLorean…
Had to laugh at the RX-3 ad. As if that torqueless POS could light the rear tyres. Known as “chookcookers’ here.
It took me almost 10 seconds to notice there was a Pacer in that AMC ad…
What Pacer?
Yeah, looks like a pretty common sort of fixation to me!
GM ads and promotional materials were, from the early-’70s on, just dumb. Dumb, dumb, year after year, it was embarrassing sometimes. That one with the Japanese guy was a great example…yeah you can bet there weren’t many Celica GT owners who gave a flying f- about anything GM was selling that year, and the Japanese guys in nice suits were laughing at Pontiac, not standing there looking quizzical.
As far as the “Concourse” goes, out here we knew Novas not as taxis but as cop cars that hauled ass pretty well for the time (and I recall back-seat room as being reasonable). Wrap that Camaro suspension/X-chassis up with a Seville body and get one of the most well-liked cars of the era.
I’ve never heard the words “luxury” and Nova used in the same sentence until now.
It\’s humorous the Chrysler 300 ad mentions the 55 having 300 hp, but neglect to mention the 79 packing only 195. I guarantee everything about the 55 was better.
Oh, come on! If you found any one of these on craigslist tomorrow for under 4 grand you couldn’t get your wallets out fast enough. 😀