Irish motoring in the 1980’s

TrailerBob

Some brands were hugely popular in Ireland then that have gone into decline. Opel were massive then, as we're Fiat. Renault has made a comeback of late back to its 80s levels. Nissan algadva great selection in the 80s compared to the limited range they have now. Patrols were cheaper than landcruisers too which helped sell them

Mech1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckw4tXKSdiM

Mech1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWUferyKCww

Mech1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZNBRCRMjW4

zilog_jones

TrailerBob wrote: »

Some brands were hugely popular in Ireland then that have gone into decline. Opel were massive then, as we're Fiat. Renault has made a comeback of late back to its 80s levels. Nissan algadva great selection in the 80s compared to the limited range they have now. Patrols were cheaper than landcruisers too which helped sell them

That's more the general situation of those brands rather than their performance in Ireland specifically - Opel/Vauxhall and Fiat have been in dire straits recently, and both have been acquired by PSA Group. Nissan's vast model line-up was a contributing factor to their financial troubles in the '90s and subsequent "alliance" with Renault. Mitsubishi seem to have largely forgot how to make cars - I couldn't name a single model in their current lineup besides the Outlander.

Renault were just selling a lot of ****e cars in the 2000s. Things like the Megane II seemed like nice cars, but had too many niggly faults. I think similar can be said for Peugeot for most of that decade, all the x07's were bland and not particularly reliable, lots of lemons out there.

Sir Galahad

I left schol in 1979. In 1980 i bought a Renault 4 van from Clarkes Bakery on the NCR Phibsboro for £400. Put two armchairs in the rear for my friends and had lots of fun. Then I bought my dads Toyota Corolla in 1981. Fell asleep driving it home one night from a "young lady's house" :pac: and wrote it off. The got a Fiat Ritmo 130 TC, 2L Twin cam. Ah yes good times.

griffin100

I remember my Dad's cars from the late 70's - 80's:

Mark 2 Escort
Fiat 127
Hillman Hunter
Datsun 200L - his favourite ever car. I remember how cool it was. It seemed to be enormous after a Fiat 127.

The my mother learned to drive and we had Fiesta's, Starlets and Corollas.

Feisar

JoeA3 wrote: »

It was grim... very grim in my household, we had 2 Lada's in the late 1980's :pac:

This was back in the day when you could buy a new car in September and drive around until January with "For Reg" scribbled on the bumper lol. Then you got your new January plate on a car you've already covered 10k in.

I remember the first Lada was bought like that in late 1987 and my mother crashed it while still unregistered. Long story short, it was repaired but the problems were only beginning. A litany of "lada jokes" problems, the doors wouldn't close, the ignition went on fire, it was rusting before our eyes... My Dad took it all the way to Lada HQ, managed to get most of his money back and then bought another one lol. The 2nd one was actually solidly reliable and I learned how to drive in it on Achill beach. Fond memories!

Drove in you mean surely!?!

I remember being in my cousins house and his ma said she was buying a Lada and my cousin started crying!

AlfaZen

I remember many cars from my childhood in the 80's. My parents owned a few ropy cars but my Dad had access to company cars from time to time which were often something special.

Owned:

Red Chrysler (Hillman) Avenger with a black vinyl roof and a hole in the floor 1980 FIAT 124 - I remember been given out to for making the rust holes with my fingers :eek: White Chrysler Sunbeam with red plastic seats that would scald the arse off you in summer but it was ok - it would never start. I think the guy that bought it off us turned it into a rally car 1987 - Toyota Corina Liftback - First brand new car we owned - very exciting. 1990 - Toyota Corina Saloon -

Company/Managing Director Cars that we regularly had for weekends/holidays:

Gold Rover SD1 Metallic Blue Pontiac Trans-am T-top with American Eagle decal on the bonnet/Hood - that thing was not built for Irish streets or roads Silver 1985 BMW 535i - that thing was a rocket Green 1986 Jaguar XJ6 1987 Red Saab 900 turbo - 3dr 1989 Dark Blue Mercedes SL convertible Plus various Toyota Hi-ace vans that would bring the football team to matches

Wishbone Ash

RandomViewer wrote: »

They gave out licences a few times when the backlog got too big, people with HGV licences who never passed a test

There was only one amnesty and that was in October 1979. Contrary to popular belief, you could only benefit if you were on a second provisional licence in category C (now category and had applied for a driving test by the cut off date which was six months before the announcement was made by Sylvie Barrett. There are so many myths and untruths told about that amnesty such as people rushing out to apply the day of the announcement. Bullshít. I'd say less than 1% of current drivers benefited.

Regarding HGV's - I'd say you are confusing the amnesty with the pre-test era. Prior to 1964 there was no driving test. You simply bought the licence and ticked the categories you required. My mother had all the categories even though she never drove.

L1011

zilog_jones wrote: »

That's more the general situation of those brands rather than their performance in Ireland specifically - Opel/Vauxhall and Fiat have been in dire straits recently, and both have been acquired by PSA Group.

Opel were acquired by PSA.

PSA/FCA is a proposed 50/50 merger; not a buyout of either by either.

swarlb

AlfaZen wrote: »

I remember many cars from my childhood in the 80's. My parents owned a few ropy cars but my Dad had access to company cars from time to time which were often something special.

Owned:

• Red Chrysler (Hillman) Avenger with a black vinyl roof and a hole in the floor
  1980 FIAT 124 - I remember been given out to for making the rust holes with my fingers :eek:
  White Chrysler Sunbeam with red plastic seats that would scald the arse off you in summer but it was ok - it would never start. I think the guy that bought it off us turned it into a rally car
  1987 - Toyota Corina Liftback - First brand new car we owned - very exciting.
  1990 - Toyota Corina Saloon -

Company/Managing Director Cars that we regularly had for weekends/holidays:

• Gold Rover SD1
  Metallic Blue Pontiac Trans-am T-top with American Eagle decal on the bonnet/Hood - that thing was not built for Irish streets or roads
  Silver 1985 BMW 535i - that thing was a rocket
  Green 1986 Jaguar XJ6
  1987 Red Saab 900 turbo - 3dr
  1989 Dark Blue Mercedes SL convertible
  Plus various Toyota Hi-ace vans that would bring the football team to matches

An 1980 Fiat 124 ?? Or you had one in 1980 ?

Philb76

Growing up in the 80s both grand fathers always bought datsuns and Nissan's new or almost new both were not wealthy but cars were new used to get excited getting brought to the showroom they were awful for rust trading in at 3 and 4 years old and rust everywhere same with the Ford's my oul fella used to drive the hot hatchbacks from Ford and Peugeot or the mk2 GTI were the aspirational cars among young men Ford were definitely the most popular from memory

Philb76

As another poster said my father in law started getting Audi in the 80s company cars and said people used to stop and look at it

Darwin

Some of my random memories of the various cars my father had:
Sitting in the passenger seat of the Ford Cortina as wrings its neck to get 100mph on a dual carriageway somewhere up North.
A family trip in a mustard coloured Fiat Mirafiori that gave up the ghost driving through floods.
Setting off on a family holiday from Dublin to Kerry in a Renault 18, the engine caught fire and we got stuck in Naas.
Pushing a rusted Renault 4 up and down the estate to get it going.
Worst piece of junk was probably a cheap Peugeot 305 he bought, desperately underpowered and gave no end of trouble.

colm_mcm

1980s nostalgia for me:

Front suspension of what I guess was an SD1 collapsing and coming through the bonnet

Massive ball and pin towbars on small cars, usually for bringing milk to the creamery

Letters and numbers falling off number plates

Sitting into a friends dads Fiesta and realizing microseconds after he moved off that my feet were on the road.

Unlocking my grandads Mk2 Escort with a lollipop stick

Lengths of hydrodare pipe in behind the front seats for walloping cows

Vinyl seats in the summer

Gutter bolts holding the rear lights of our then 7 year old Corolla onto the car because the rear panel was so rotten.

AXE-TAX stickers

Neighbours with two identical cars with the same number plates.

Wondering what the LMMUU buttons on the radio did

My dad practically giving away a quite new Datsun 120y because it had literally fallen apart.

Clothes hangers for antennas

kyote00

Most housing estates were like breakers yards.... as cars were parked up for maintenance.
Neighbour changed out an engine on a triumph dolomite - a truly terrible car ....

1980s saw the Japanese cars really start to challenge Ford/Austin/Hillman

remember seeing a Nissan Bluebird with the electric ariel 'automagically' going up and down when the car started - thought the world was about to end.

Also when someone on the street got a Passat diesel -> people queued to have a look....(1984 ish)

mk1 fiesta myself, 957cc (felt at least 2l )

Allinall

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

There was only one amnesty and that was in October 1979. Contrary to popular belief, you could only benefit if you were on a second provisional licence in category C (now category and had applied for a driving test by the cut off date which was six months before the announcement was made by Sylvie Barrett. There are so many myths and untruths told about that amnesty such as people rushing out to apply the day of the announcement. Bullshít. I'd say less than 1% of current drivers benefited.

Regarding HGV's - I'd say you are confusing the amnesty with the pre-test era. Prior to 1964 there was no driving test. You simply bought the licence and ticked the categories you required. My mother had all the categories even though she never drove.

There was a re-classification of licenses sometime in the late 80s or early 90s.

I had passed the test for a D licence, for rigid trucks and suddenly was licencedyto drive buses, artics, the lot.

Have kept all the categories up to date. Just in case.

colm_mcm

Nissan Bluebirds used to smell amazing inside.

Das Reich

JoeA3 wrote: »

It was grim... very grim in my household, we had 2 Lada's in the late 1980's :pac:

This was back in the day when you could buy a new car in September and drive around until January with "For Reg" scribbled on the bumper lol. Then you got your new January plate on a car you've already covered 10k in.

I remember the first Lada was bought like that in late 1987 and my mother crashed it while still unregistered. Long story short, it was repaired but the problems were only beginning. A litany of "lada jokes" problems, the doors wouldn't close, the ignition went on fire, it was rusting before our eyes... My Dad took it all the way to Lada HQ, managed to get most of his money back and then bought another one lol. The 2nd one was actually solidly reliable and I learned how to drive in it on Achill beach. Fond memories!

My country did open imports I think in 1992. Thousands of Niva and Laika around. I think it was 1993 the last I saw one of them, they melted in the tropical heat. And still so many vw beattle around.

TrailerBob

Now that I think of it, cars broke down a lot more back then. Reliability is in a different league now. Remember an engine fire in a Beetle, and a Renault 18 that just gave up on the way to bring us to school (sad day!!).

zetecescort

we were taken to school by tractor after the Capri died. My father bought a Carina 2 after and left any reliability worries behind

TrailerBob

My oul fella didn't discover Toyota until 1992, bought a 1989 beige 1.8 DX Corolla and the thing was a revolution, if a slow revolution.. Thus followed 6 more corollas and the foundation for my Toyota fetish

johnayo

The Yuppies were driving around in Peugeot 205Xrad vans.

Andrewf20

Good bit of nostalgia here. Mad how few cars are on the road vs today...

Wishbone Ash

I don't think anyone has mentioned the MII Escort RS2000 - we called it the 'fanny catcher'.

Darwin wrote: »

...Setting off on a family holiday from Dublin to Kerry in a Renault 18, the engine caught fire and we got stuck in Naas...

Jesus you've just reminded me that I went to Kerry with a crowd of lads in Renault 18 around 1987. I think it was the 'America II' special edition as it had a few extras such as electric windows. The bloody thing kept breaking down and we had to stop at several garages to get repaired. It took us about 12 hours to get there. It was the first time I heard the word 'banjaxed' as that is how one mechanic described the engine.

AlfaZen

swarlb wrote: »

An 1980 Fiat 124 ?? Or you had one in 1980 ?

Actually a 128 but my Uncle had a 124 from the early 70's that was still on the road into the early 90s

AMKC

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I don't think anyone has mentioned the MII Escort RS2000 - we called it the 'fanny catcher'.

Jesus you've just reminded me that I went to Kerry with a crowd of lads in Renault 18 around 1987. I think it was the 'America II' special edition as it had a few extras such as electric windows. The bloody thing kept breaking down and we had to stop at several garages to get repaired. It took us about 12 hours to get there. It was the first time I heard the word 'banjaxed' as that is how one mechanic described the engine.

Sounds like that would have been perfect for an episode of Top Gear if it had of happened a few decades later.

I don't remember all the cars my parents had but there was a mini which I do remember and an Opel I think it was that we took to the Isle of Man and the poor thing struggled up the hills there. It was full with 8 of us in it lol. We were stopped by the police there one day and he could not believe his eyes but let us carry on when he heard we were Irish and on holiday. We also had a big Citroen CX That was a cool car unfortunatly do it was not very reliable and it got changed for a Megane during the scrappage scheme. Another car I remember really well was my Uncles Volvo 440. It was very cool but he eventually scrapped it for a Mondeo under the scheme.

RandomViewer

griffin100 wrote: »

I remember my Dad's cars from the late 70's - 80's:

Mark 2 Escort
Fiat 127
Hillman Hunter
Datsun 200L - his favourite ever car. I remember how cool it was. It seemed to be enormous after a Fiat 127.

The my mother learned to drive and we had Fiesta's, Starlets and Corollas.

200L ,straight six, big beast, neighbour parked one behind ours one time and she stayed there till she rusted away