Edit: great responses, Reddit. People have largely addressed the form factor aspect of my question. But am I wrong in sensing that cars from the late 90s seem to be more reliable and functionally acceptable in 2022, than most cars from the 70s were in the 90s? Was there some engineering breakthrough that made them more long lived?
In: 91
The diode. It changed everything. The addition of basic electronics for controlling fuel, spark, and transmission operations resulted in vastly more reliable vehicles that last much much longer.
Contributing to other factors stated here I’d also like to add that many are now built with fibreglass bodies. The “Classics” we all know and love have steel bodies. 80s was probably the last of steel bodies.
Wondering why I mention steel? Research ‘post atomic steel’.
Ever ponder the fact that we can dig up steel swords & such from wars long gone but everything now instantly turns to rust….
You absolutely cannot overstate the importance of the Ford Taurus in the epic transformation of the entire auto industry. This first part of this video is fantastic and really gets into why. (The latter part of the video is about a quirky, rare version of the Taurus called the SHO)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VTRhCC3gZI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VTRhCC3gZI)
its because the big industries played to the cool crowd in the 60’s n 70’s
the cars were bad ass
then the bean counters got onboard in the 80’s
then you get civics and pinto’s
in short
from the imortal mouth of homer simpson
Rock n roll was perfected in 1973
Cars from the 70’s had a much shorter life, overall. Anti-corrosion coatings, improved machining tolerances for engine components, computer control (both to alert and prevent bad things from happening), and general advances in materials have all made a big difference. My first car was a ’75 I got in 85 with pretty low miles, and it already was well on it’s way to terminal rust. They were simpler to work on, however.
Haven’t seen it yet here, but two major things that changed how cars look are modern metal and plastic forming that changed exteriors/interiors and ergonomics studies going into interiors.
If you look at old cars, many things were done by hand in many cases, they look great. Flowing lines, interesting shapes, lots of details. Then come early robots and casting, and suddenly all cars are boxy dreadful (mostly, some became classic) and extremely oversimplified designs to fit into this automated production. Similarly interiors were created to fit early robot and plastic molds. Noone cared if this looked cheap and boxy…
Modern cars look modern mostly because even cheap brands can afford lots of details on the outside with modern metal and plastic methods and good, well thought out interiors (at least sometimes) made around ergonomics of using everything inside.
So old old cars look great because they were made by hand, and cars from turn of the century, at least some, look modern because they used modern production means. The early automation period mixed with global economy driving the sells of cheap cars gave us dreadful ’80s and ’90s shoeboxes…
In the 90s, there were still 70s cars beating around fairly commonly. The ones that were classics, were looked after and usually higher trim/gt models.
The same is happening now. There’s still commonly 90s cars on the road (more so due to better reliability and rust protection), but the higher performance cars or luxury cars that have been looked after really stick out and can turn heads.
In Australia, a 95, clapped out V6 Holden Commodore is just a beater, but a V8/GTS version is a classic and in another decade or two, the beater will be scrap and the GTS will be in a garage becoming a true classic.
In the early 90s throughout the developed world, car safety standards evolved rapidly. Airbags, anti-lock brakes, extra crumple zones all became mandatory standard features.
To fit all this extra gear, and because safety features vary little between makes and models, cars generally became more bulbous and generic.
Japan learned how to build cars from Americans, and then greatly improved on the production process. They not only ushered in a new era of cars but also a new era of production management practices and theories as a whole. They found ways to make the cars more practical, cheaper, and safer. People really wanted vehicles to get from point A to point B, even if they were “boring.” The things that people were paying American companies for like design and style and muscle, were not needed by the average American or global consumer. Toyota et all saw this and moved in. New materials could be safer and also lighter which added to the lower price. Flexible production methodologies meant that new innovations could be added easier, to include new changes to fuel efficiency crucial with the 1970s oil shock. American car buyers, many of them suburban or urban baby boomers looking for something new and practical, not needed for the country roads, flocked to them. This greatly disrupted American corporations’ grip on the car market. For competition, instead of looking for newer design styles, a lot of things converged on a sedan or new egg shaped style for their smaller engines and curved surfaces. Some have said it’s boring and all that. Many say this is what got millions of people around safely and economically and it’s nothing to complain about.
Improvements in reliability is probably the major factor. In USA in 1990, the average age of cars on the road was 7.6 years. Today is 12.3 years.
In 1990, nobody wanted to drive a 1970s car. They were slow, unreliable, inefficient, and had probably rusted away. It just wasn’t worth the effort keeping them on the road unless it was something really special.
Now, a 20 year old is probably just fine. It’ll probably be on it’s 4th or 5th owner. But for somebody without a lot of money, it’ll get them around.
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