Irish motoring in the 1980’s

road_high

Philb76 wrote: »

When i was a kid in the 80s didn't know anyone who had a diesel car I remember our school minibus that we used to play other schools in gaa and soccer was petrol

My cousins had newish Peugeot’s all the time (305 in the 80s) and had their own little diesel tank for it.
The VW Jetta in the late 80s into the early 90s also made diesel popular here.
Petrol was for the vast majority though for sure

cml387

I remember once sitting into someone's diesel Golf (80's), and couldn't believe the racket and the vibration.

RandomViewer

road_high wrote: »

We had a Carina II 1989 used in the mid 90s- absolutely brilliant car for the era. Was the 2.0l diesel and had been a company car that had been well minded. Lovely spec and finish and felt very substantial and safe.
My grand uncle had a big ole diesel Rekord and while they were built like a tank it felt and sounded fairly agricultural

Same engine as a CF Bedford van, was doing the rounds since the 60s,

road_high

RandomViewer wrote: »

Same engine as a CF Bedford van, was doing the rounds since the 60s,

If it was it was none the worse for it to be honest!
Think it was non turbo but pulled very pull and by the diesel standard of the tine wasn’t desperately unrefined. Very reliable and economical too.
Did the mighty Toyota really fit a Bedford Diesel engine then? That’s mad

alias no.9

road_high wrote: »

If it was it was none the worse for it to be honest!
Think it was non turbo but pulled very pull and by the diesel standard of the tine wasn’t desperately unrefined. Very reliable and economical too.
Did the mighty Toyota really fit a Bedford Diesel engine then? That’s mad

I'm guessing they're talking about the Opel Rekord

road_high

alias no.9 wrote: »

I'm guessing they're talking about the Opel Rekord

Sorry of course picked that up wrong!
Was like wtf would Toyota be using ex Bedford van diesels for!!

Wishbone Ash

road_high wrote: »

Looking at price lists from the era the prices were insane. Multiples of other makes. BMW, Mercedes were very much the preserve of the genuinely well off here. Globalistion, free trade, the euro etc have brought prices down substantially in relative terms.
A family with any half decent incomes can now have a 5 series if they want one.

The main reason is that credit/money is much more accessible now. In the 1980's you'd have to crawl on your knees to a bank manager who would take great delight in rejecting your application. Most people who had Mercs in the 1980's bought them outright.

Philb76 wrote: »

When i was a kid in the 80s didn't know anyone who had a diesel car I remember our school minibus that we used to play other schools in gaa and soccer was petrol

I remember exactly when I was when I first encountered a diesel car. I was outside a secondary school with my father and a friend of his pulled up in one. It was a yellow VW Golf (Mk I?). I thought it sounded ridiculous clattering away like a tractor while they talked. I had to ask my father why it sounded so noisy. This was around 1977ish.

Muscles Schultz

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

The main reason is that credit/money is much more accessible now. In the 1980's you'd have to crawl on your knees to a bank manager who would take great delight in rejecting your application. Most people who had Mercs in the 1980's bought them outright.

I remember exactly when I was when I first encountered a diesel car. I was outside a secondary school with my father and a friend of his pulled up in one. It was a yellow VW Golf (Mk I?). I thought it sounded ridiculous clattering away like a tractor while they talked. I had to ask my father why it sounded so noisy. This was around 1977ish.

That was another thing - diesel cars left idling for ages rather than have the ignition switched off

road_high

Muscles Schultz wrote: »

That was another thing - diesel cars left idling for ages rather than have the ignition switched off

They needed to be "warmed up" lol

Jimmy Garlic

beauf wrote: »

Vento was a barge. Drove like a boat. But huge boot and bomb proof Non Turbo Diesel. But the quality wasn't the same as previous VWs.

God awful car. Build quality was shocking bad especially in the interior. It was just a matter of time before the cheap plastic flap for opening the glovebox broke off and everything you had inside it was stuck there forever. A sea of cheap plastic. In terms of interior build quality it was almost as bad as a Renault 19, much much worse in terms of how it handled. Farmers loved it, pulling trailers at 30mph was all it was good for, closer to a tractor than a car.

Philb76

Reading all the posts here has brought back a lot of memories about the reliability and quality of cars from that era and all i can say thank God they don't make them like they used to with the exception of BMW and Mercedes

John.G

I remember that they (SDI engine) seemed popular with taxi drivers in some foreign country or other that I was in.

Jimmy Garlic

John.G wrote: »

I remember that they (SDI engine) seemed popular with taxi drivers in some foreign country or other that I was in.

They keep going I suppose but the chances of falling asleep at the wheel are much higher I’d imagine. Plenty of VWs that I like but I could never understand how that shoddy offering was as popular as it was in Ireland . Taxi drivers in Ireland never took to them.

swarlb

0

Jimmy Garlic wrote: »

God awful car. Build quality was shocking bad especially in the interior. It was just a matter of time before the cheap plastic flap for opening the glovebox broke off and everything you had inside it was stuck there forever. A sea of cheap plastic. In terms of interior build quality it was almost as bad as a Renault 19, much much worse in terms of how it handled. Farmers loved it, pulling trailers at 30mph was all it was good for, closer to a tractor than a car.

Was the VW Vento not a 90's car.... I certainly don't remember too many of them driving around in the 80's.....
Maybe you're thinking of a VW Jetta....

swarlb

Philb76 wrote: »

Reading all the posts here has brought back a lot of memories about the reliability and quality of cars from that era and all i can say thank God they don't make them like they used to with the exception of BMW and Mercedes

Reading some of the posts, I'm wondering if any of the posters actually drove cars in 80's, or have a vague recollection of having their nappies changed in the back seats....

RandomViewer

alias no.9 wrote: »

I'm guessing they're talking about the Opel Rekord

Sorry when they said agricultural I assumed they were on about the Rekord

RandomViewer

My one memory of cars in the eighties is the smell of damp carpets, basic joint sealing seemed to be beyond most manufacturers

kdevitt

RandomViewer wrote: »

My one memory of cars in the eighties is the smell of damp carpets, basic joint sealing seemed to be beyond most manufacturers

A friend of my father told me about his Fiat Ritmo, which he bought brand new. It made a sloshing noise when closing the doors or when driving - apparently some of them sat down at Dublin Port awaiting an order from the Fiat dealer, but by the time they were bought the doors had rotted and filled up with rain water!

Mr Meanor

My memory is most cars not starting on the street on the first Autumn and Winter mornings.....

Except for the Datsuns and Toyotas.

Wishbone Ash

kdevitt wrote: »

A friend of my father told me about his Fiat Ritmo, which he bought brand new. It made a sloshing noise when closing the doors or when driving - apparently some of them sat down at Dublin Port awaiting an order from the Fiat dealer, but by the time they were bought the doors had rotted and filled up with rain water!

On a quiet night, you could hear them rusting.

RandomViewer

Mr Meanor wrote: »

My memory is most cars not starting on the street on the first Autumn and Winter mornings.....

Except for the Datsuns and Toyotas.

Opels and VWs started fine,

mondeoman2

RandomViewer wrote: »

Opels and VWs started fine,

Our 1984 Opel Ascona 1.6s was Very Bad For Starting,Let Me Down A Lot,And Always Far From Home:mad:
(I Think The 'S' Stood For Slow)

AndrewJRenko

RandomViewer wrote: »

Opels and VWs started fine,

My Kadett went through phases of problems with the automatic choke - not the most reliable.

Mr Meanor

RandomViewer wrote: »

Opels and VWs started fine,

Our neighbour with a 1983 Mk1 Golf would have disagreed with you.

RandomViewer

Mr Meanor wrote: »

Our neighbour with a 1983 Mk1 Golf would have disagreed with you.

Faulty heater plug or the diesel running back from the pump, easy fix. . Compared to a York engined Transit he had a minor problem,
Anything with an auto choke started fine ,it was the art of control of the manual choke that caused the starting problems with petrol cars

RandomViewer

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

My Kadett went through phases of problems with the automatic choke - not the most reliable.

Thought they were all manual from memory, Ford was the worst offender in my experience, though Peugeots could be very temperamental hot or cold

John.G

Mr Meanor wrote: »

My memory is most cars not starting on the street on the first Autumn and Winter mornings.....

Except for the Datsuns and Toyotas.

I bought a new Formel E Golf in 1980, a superb car, never ever a starting problem and went on to do 270K miles by 2000. This was a 1098 cc car with a high CR (for its time) of 9.5:1 with a 3+E gearbox where you got the normal 4 speeds in 3 and the E gave around 20MPH/1000 RPM.
Fiats had a bad name for starting in the wet but this could be largely overcome if one changed the HT leads every two years or so. I think they had carbon cored HT leads for radio suppression? whereas VW and probably others had copper cored ones with the suppression done in the rotor arm.

RandomViewer

mondeoman2 wrote: »

Our 1984 Opel Ascona 1.6s was Very Bad For Starting,Let Me Down A Lot,And Always Far From Home:mad:
(I Think The 'S' Stood For Slow)

We'd Kadetts and Cavaliers ,never had any issues , diesels would spin a bit as they got older but eventually start,. Couple of Golfs, couldn't keep them in door handles but no starting problems.

John.G

RandomViewer wrote: »

Thought they were all manual from memory, Ford was the worst offender in my experience, though Peugeots could be very temperamental hot or cold

The VW Beetle had a automatic choke in the early 60s.

RandomViewer

John.G wrote: »

The VW Beetle had a automatic choke in the early 60s.

Poster said Kadett had auto choke,