1st Feb 2013, 09:20
First of all, the Cruze is selling no better than the Cavalier did in the 80's and 90's; in the mid-80's it was the best selling compact.
Second, why do you keep saying GM interiors were so bad and full of plastic, when your beloved Toyotas are no better? How much plastic and cheap materials are used in your Tacoma?
The 80's? I remember my old 84' Grand Prix was a base model (manual windows, locks and so on), but the interior was still nice quality, with comfy cloth seats and hardly any plastic except for maybe the A/C vents and a small portion of the lower door panels.
I remember my dad had two top of the line Buicks in the 80's; an Electra from 1982 and a LeSabre from 1985. Both of those cars had identical interiors, again hardly any plastic, but they did have high quality couch-like seats, lots of chrome accents on the door panels and dash, handsome wood grain, chrome window and lock switches, and so on. It looked like time was actually taken to design them, as opposed to today's bland cheap looking and boring colored interiors that you would find in most of the current European models, that are also very uncomfortable.
1st Feb 2013, 08:04
I am the original reviewer here of my 78 Continental, and I am simply shocked after reading page upon page of comments about some very "off topic" stuff that doesn't even relate to my review at all. I am also surprised on how many people have commented as well.
The car has needed a lot of work in the last 2 months. I replaced the water pump, water outlet housing that cracked, a couple of belts, brake pads/rotors, a leaky freeze plug and a few other things.
If there is one major advice I'd like to give to people here is to make sure you change your coolant! Never add straight water to the cooling system. After I flushed my car, the water pump started leaking, freeze plug started leaking and the amount of rust and corrosion coming out of the water hose was ungodly GROSS! Keep this in mind, please!
What is so great about this car, is that I repaired everything myself. That is the joy of owning an older vehicle like this; everything is a lot more accessible and the parts were dirt cheap. The more I drive this car, the more I love it, it's an amazing feeling getting behind the wheel of a car of this magnitude. I read a lot of hate on here from people that are talking trash about these big cars, well maybe it's not your cup of tea, but it sure is mine! We need to at least allow ourselves to experience something different, something out of our comfort zone in order to appreciate, and understand how and why certain people like what they like, and why people like myself and others that love these big classic luxury cars of the past, we can't get enough of them.
Regarding new cars. I believe nothing has really changed in the last 30 years when it comes to interior materials; plastics still rule at the end of the day, even in my 78. But the difference is the quality of the plastic, the PVC material has vastly improved in new cars of today compared to the cheaper, extremely flimsy plastic of cars from the 80's-90's in American cars. The fitment and rigidity of these new plastics are also far superior in some aspects to the older cars and will not crack over time. But not all is great, you can still find some "cheapness" in all new cars of every make, some things are still flimsy, but not nearly as horrible as in some 90's cars that I can remember. Foreign makes like Honda and Toyota didn't suffer from this problem as they focused heavily on quality in the 90's compared to Ford, GM and Chrysler.
That being said, the 70's weren't known for great interior quality either. The door panel quality on the these old 70's Lincolns are solid and plush feeling compared to Cadillac for instance of a similar vintage. No cracks in the vinyl, or flaky material coming apart. The chrome trim looks very nice and of good quality. Even the some of the fitment is solid and tight, but other parts of the interior like the dash is not. The dash may look nice, just don't go about pressing on it with your finger or else you'll start to hear creaking or plastic flexing. I fixed all that with some foam tape I stuck in between some gaps in the dash to quiet things down. But I feel that I shouldn't have to do that in any car, especially a luxury car. This is a 70's car after all, so it still suffers from certain 70's era things.
This car still triumphs many cars I have owned in the past in overall enjoyment. Although it's slow as hell, it rides like a dream, and commands a presence that the majority of modern cars today simply don't have. Oh yeah, and the vacuum controlled headlights are awesome! It's cool to hear it operating when you pull the knob to open and close the headlight doors! I really like small things like that in old cars, it brings out its character that cars now lack severely.