Irish motoring in the 1980’s

colm_mcm

road_high wrote: »

I remember them being fairly popular late 80s. I was only a chap and my aunt had a new Gemini. The 1.5 diesel. They had a Trooper as well. Then they just faded away

There was the Aska as well

Strumms

My aunt had a Toyota Corolla which was a company car, I thought it was luxury.

We had a bright red Mazda 323 for about 8 years, a very good car. It was replaced with an Opel Corsa in 1992 which was even for a brand new car, a skip on wheels compared to the Mazda. Mazda was very comfy, nice finish inside, reliable, the opel was a brand new car but plastic, basic, uncomfortable and like a box...any long journey was a pain in the hole, quite literally. To this day I’d never buy an opel.

road_high

Strumms wrote: »

My aunt had a Toyota Corolla which was a company car, I thought it was luxury.

We had a bright red Mazda 323 for about 8 years, a very good car. It was replaced with an Opel Corsa in 1992 which was even for a brand new car, a skip on wheels compared to the Mazda. Mazda was very comfy, nice finish inside, reliable, the opel was a brand new car but plastic, basic, uncomfortable and like a box...any long journey was a pain in the hole, quite literally. To this day I’d never buy an opel.

No offence but that was a crazy change! The Corsa was outdated by then (ten years old) and from the class below. Mazda would have been much better finished, equipped and advanced even by then

road_high

colm_mcm wrote: »

There was the Aska as well

Remember them. Bigger car farmers liked them for a time. Diesels

Duke O Smiley

There is a 1989 Isuzu Gemini diesel hatchback still in regular use around Dublin 3. Also, I think if you bought a Hino truck back in the day from Pino Harris, you could get a very good deal on an Aska, so they were very popular with truck drivers.

Strumms

road_high wrote: »

No offence but that was a crazy change! The Corsa was outdated by then (ten years old) and from the class below. Mazda would have been much better finished, equipped and advanced even by then

Probably but in those days cash determined. I think after a while everybody regretted the change though. The opel was reliable but a box on wheels, zero comfort, plastic interior... thing I used to hate was in the winter mornings the car needed to be driven for about 15 minutes to get the heating working.

Strumms

Strumms wrote: »

...........
We had a bright red Mazda 323 for about 8 years, a very good car. .............

A couple living near my Dad had a 323 from the 80s on the road up until a few years ago. I'm not sure if the car is still about or indeed if the couple are now that I think of it. Still, was 30 odd years old last time I saw it and it was still very presentable.

zilog_jones

colm_mcm wrote: »

There was the Aska as well

Maybe not very obvious, but the Aska was built on the GM J-car platform. Basically an Opel Ascona C with a nose job (different rear end too), though Isuzu used their own powertrains. Side profile looks very similar.

I assume the Piazza was never officially sold here?

cml387

Talking as you were about Mazda, and it's just about 1980's, there was the 323F aka the hairdresser's Porsche.

Looked best in black. Popup lights. You'd never sleep alone again if you had one of them.:)

coolbeans

road_high wrote: »

Remember them. Bigger car farmers liked them for a time. Diesels

I seem to remember every single Aska blowing black smoke out the pipe as a matter of course. Tis funny the things that stay with you.

Old diesel

road_high wrote: »

No offence but that was a crazy change! The Corsa was outdated by then (ten years old) and from the class below. Mazda would have been much better finished, equipped and advanced even by then

I'm not so sure.

8 years owned in 1992 means the 323 was 84 or older and thus a gen 1 or 2.

Not a huge difference between those 323s and a Corsa imo. Id say the Corsa would definitely be ahead of a Gen 1.

There was a new 323 (Gen 3) in around 1985 - that was a decent step forward for the 323 in terms of interior etc.

Just my two cents .

Always thought the Corsa A was a decent car myself although the saloons look meh.

Arthur Daley

cml387 wrote: »

Talking as you were about Mazda, and it's just about 1980's, there was the 323F aka the hairdresser's Porsche.

Looked best in black. Popup lights. You'd never sleep alone again if you had one of them.:)

Just about crept into the 80s. Launched in 1989.

If you weren't quite brazen enough for one of them Toyota did the Corolla Sprinter. An E90 for non conformists

KevRossi

Wishbone Ash

cml387 wrote: »

Talking as you were about Mazda, and it's just about 1980's, there was the 323F aka the hairdresser's Porsche...

My brother had two of them. They didn't do it for me - I thought they were awful yokes.

colm_mcm

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

My brother had two of them. They didn't do it for me - I thought they were awful yokes.

They had pop up lights and Aston Martin DB7 taillights though

Wishbone Ash

colm_mcm wrote: »

They had pop up lights...

Yes - tat of the highest order. Nearly as bad as electric aerials.

colm_mcm

Ah stop. They were of their time!

Wishbone Ash

Speaking of pop up headlights, was it possible to 'flash' your headlights? I can't recall.

colm_mcm

They had a lovely dash for the time,

TrailerBob

A neighbour had one new back in 1991, we thought it was the bees knees. But then pop up headlights were enough to make 8 year old me happy

colm_mcm

I remember a relative who worked ‘in de bank’ had one. Might as well have been a Ferrari in our eyes.
Compared to Kadetts, Escorts, Corollas etc.

Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

My brother had two of them. They didn't do it for me - I thought they were awful yokes.

One of the ones my brother had had only 600 miles on the clock when he bought it. The previous owner had parked it somewhere in the city centre and a scaffolding pole fell on the bonnet. The previous owner just went off it straight away and sold it for 'half nothing' as my father would say. Brother just replaced the bonnet and that was it.

beachhead

Licence amnesty was mid 1980's

colm_mcm

beachhead wrote: »

Licence amnesty was mid 1980's

1979?

Charles Babbage

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

My brother had two of them. They didn't do it for me - I thought they were awful yokes.

I had one (in the 90s) for about 8 years. Grand car, pleasant to drive, moderately nippy, not hard on the juice and reliable. Maybe not your thing, but hardly awful by a reasonable measure, at least compared to Kadetts, Escorts, Corollas etc. In the 00s I bought a Focus which was a good follow up.

alias no.9

colm_mcm wrote: »

They had pop up lights and Aston Martin DB7 taillights though

The Honda Integra got out there first with the pop up headlights on a 5 door hatchback. Even as a kid it seemed strange that the CRX had fixed headlights but the Integra and Accord Aerodeck hatchbacks got pop up headlights.

In reality it was probably 90s before I saw 1980s CRXs, Integras and Aerodecks in the wild in Ireland.

Wishbone Ash

beachhead wrote: »

Licence amnesty was mid 1980's

October 1979.

earlytobed

My abiding memory of driving in the 80s was when I was in the army in Dublin. One of the lads had an old Datsun 120A which had a broken accelerator cable. He had the cable fed through the dash and wrapped around his left hand(which had a leather glove on it). He would revv the car with his hand and the front seat passenger would change gear on his command.
This went on for a couple of weeks until he got it fixed

I Was VB

earlytobed wrote: »

My abiding memory of driving in the 80s was when I was in the army in Dublin. One of the lads had an old Datsun 120A which had a broken accelerator cable. He had the cable fed through the dash and wrapped around his left hand(which had a leather glove on it). He would revv the car with his hand and the front seat passenger would change gear on his command.
This went on for a couple of weeks until he got it fixed

Excellent!!!

RandomViewer

alias no.9 wrote: »

The Honda Integra got out there first with the pop up headlights on a 5 door hatchback. Even as a kid it seemed strange that the CRX had fixed headlights but the Integra and Accord Aerodeck hatchbacks got pop up headlights.

In reality it was probably 90s before I saw 1980s CRXs, Integras and Aerodecks in the wild in Ireland.

Honda's were pretty common in the late 80's , think the pop up light Integras came about around 86, they were sold here new , the later coupe Integra with the big taillights would have been imports, early Accord dash was peculiar shade of blue as I recall but an excellent car.