I’ll let you in on a little secret about testing cars for manufacturers: they don’t like it when you are nice and honest with the cars you drive. Nowadays, the main bitches of testers tend to stem around colors, the feel of interior materials, and how irritating the infotainment system is to operate. To be quite fair, even the most bucks-down machine you can buy off of the lot today is leaps and bounds ahead of what kind of quality you would be paying for at the start of the 1980s. I relish in verbally kicking the crap out of the Mitsubishi Mirage, but do you think the Chrysler New Yorker from 1979 was any better? We promise, it wasn’t, and the same goes for most of the vehicles you’d find on the lots. Look to the past with rose-colored glasses all you want, but there were issues back in the day. If your paint had orange peel and that was it, you considered yourself lucky.
Bob Mayer served at WTVJ in the Miami area for over forty years and during that time, consumer reports was one of his segments. Part of those reports involved him driving the latest and greatest machines that he could slip behind the wheel of. And this dude didn’t hold back, even in his concise and simple reviews. If the paint sucked, he’d say so. If the suspension made noises like a dying camel while turning, he’d call it out. His MPG tests combined city and highway driving with air conditioning use, giving decent figures to go by. And while he would keep a positive attitude towards the whole affair, you walked away wondering if the first step you needed with your new car was to find a very skilled mechanic for a second look.
So, with that in mind, let’s see what car Bob is testing today….oh. The 1980 Chrysler Cordoba. Twin to my Imperial, but cheaper. This ought to go well…
People definitely think American made cars were better than they were, quality wise going all the back to the 80’s. Could be just patriotism and brand favoritism.
I knew a guy who talked like this about his dad’s ’64 GTO convertible he special ordered new. When his father finally passed him the keys and paperwork to the car going back to new, he realized his memory was somewhat jaded over the years. Specifically, was the quality of the car when his received it brand new. He took it back to the dealer a week after receiving with a list of 46 problems with the car. He showed me list and it included everything from splotchy paint, windows rattling and not even close to being aligned correctly, lousy panel alignment, and the console not even being screwed to its mounts. His took it back four more times before it was correct.
He admitted his memory as a kid to how great the car was from new was very selective.