Irish motoring in the 1980’s

I Was VB · 02-07-2020 2:11am #1

For those who were of age back then what was it like?

What was the standard family car? What did the boy racers drive? What did the business people drive?

I’ve heard stories of motors being bought for £50 and being driven for years, was motor tax optional? How many drinks could ya have before the Barman took the keys off ya? Did Ireland have a motoring culture back then or were cars seen as a glorified horse? Was there a car that represented that you were “doing well”?

begbysback · 02-07-2020 2:17am

Was just a kid then though fascinated by cars at the time, boy racers had xr2 and xr3, though they may have been late 80s, with rs and 1600 sports.

Think the luxurious cars would have been the Granada, actually not sure why but most my memories are of fords.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater · 02-07-2020 7:33am

My abiding memory is of a brown Toyota Corolla my parents had. It was a right looking yoke but would have been a grand car at the time.

Not sure about Boy Racer cars, I wouldn't imagine it was much of a culture in 1980s Ireland, not many people would have had the money.

jodaw · 02-07-2020 7:51am

Happy days!

Heading off during summer hols for day trips to the beach in Alfa Romeo Guilletta saloon. All generations of family plus friends in car plus friends. About 8-9.

No tax so ole lad had to do about 3 u-turns and 3 branches of a main roundabout. Checkpoints on all routes and he got called forward by a garda. Nanny in the back saying just taking to childers for a day out.

Take it handy says the Guard. Only ole lad wearing seatbelt. They were simple days but good ones. Having a kip in the boot of a nissan prarie whilst driving through conemara ( wake me up when we get to salthill!)

He had combinations of vauxhall cavaliers, peugeot 307s, bluebirds

Box racers: there was an alfa sprint cloverleaf knocking and one lad got a white Astra widebody which i think may have been from the factory. Massive tyres on it

So much character on the roads back then

Eggs For Dinner · 02-07-2020 8:24am

VW Golf GTi, Renault 5 Gordini and Fiat 127 Sport were the holy grail in my neck of the woods. You also had to cut big MF holes in the boot tray to fit you Pioneer speakers. Great days

cml387 · 02-07-2020 8:31am

I Was VB wrote: »

For those who were of age back then what was it like?

What was the standard family car? What did the boy racers drive? What did the business people drive?

I’ve heard stories of motors being bought for £50 and being driven for years, was motor tax optional? How many drinks could ya have before the Barman took the keys off ya? Did Ireland have a motoring culture back then or were cars seen as a glorified horse? Was there a car that represented that you were “doing well”?

It wasn't like the middle ages FFS:)
The main difference was the quality of the roads. There were only three dual carriageways in all of Ireland: the Donnybrook bypass, the Naas road, and a bit out of Limerick towards Shannon.

Certainly drink driving was widespread but I don't think tax and insurance avoidance were any bigger than today.

For these reasons we had a high accident rate. Interesting to see we are now lowest in Europe. Back then we would have been nearly the highest.

Isambard · 02-07-2020 8:32am

still stuck in the Seventies myself car-wise.

cml387 · 02-07-2020 8:38am

In terms of types of cars, bear in mind that only in the early 1980's did a punitive tax on impported cars come to an end (EEC rules). Up to that most cars sold in Ireland were assembled in Ireland so choice was limited to those companies who had opted to have an assembly plant here.
So you could buy a Volkswagen, Fiat,Vauxhall,Ford,BMC/BL and latterly Toyota and Datsun.

ohnonotgmail · 02-07-2020 9:22am

I remember a lot of cars with a sign in the window saying "tax in post"

Eric Cartman · 02-07-2020 9:24am

cml387 wrote: »

In terms of types of cars, bear in mind that only in the early 1980's did a punitive tax on impported cars come to an end (EEC rules). Up to that most cars sold in Ireland were assembled in Ireland so choice was limited to those companies who had opted to have an assembly plant here.
So you could buy a Volkswagen, Fiat,Vauxhall,Ford,BMC/BL and latterly Toyota and Datsun.

thats it. Ive a mate who's dad became sales manager of a company in 1985, convinced the boss to lease him an e30 3 series and the day he brought it home half the road came out to see it thinking the chap was a millionaire apparently.

cml387 · 02-07-2020 9:25am

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

I remember a lot of cars with a sign in the window saying "tax in post"

In fact there was a time when the tax disk looked like a Guinness bottle label, and indeed was substiuted for one sometimes.

drunkmonkey · 02-07-2020 9:34am

Sticking 1 liter Toyota starlet gearboxes in 1.3 starlets used to be the rage here, the things used to do about 90mph in second gear, I remember following a rally in one with the lads they let me drive as I was considered a good pilot I was only about 15 at the time.

begbysback · 02-07-2020 9:34am

cml387 wrote: »

In fact there was a time when the tax disk looked like a Guinness bottle label, and indeed was substiuted for one sometimes.

Butter vouchers too, rust was common to see in the 80s, some beautiful little cars too like the x19 and tr7, sports opel mantas and ford capris were class too.

JoeA3 · 02-07-2020 10:04am

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!

colm_mcm · 02-07-2020 10:06am

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Sticking 1 liter Toyota starlet gearboxes in 1.3 starlets used to be the rage here, the things used to do about 90mph in second gear, I remember following a rally in one with the lads they let me drive as I was considered a good pilot I was only about 15 at the time.

How would that work? You’d be doing well to do 90 in 4th usually.

alias no.9 · 02-07-2020 10:37am

No such thing as a 7 seater back then apart from some seldom seen Peugeot 505 and Citroen CX estate, all the children sat in the back, some sitting forward on the back seat and some sitting back. If it was a hatchback, you took the parcel shelf off and could carry 2 or 3 in the boot.

Souped up Escorts and Capris were the pinnacle of boy racer but there was an occasional Manta.

Had a neighbour who was a big cheese in an American multinational in the town drove a Ford Granada as a company car, when the factory closed and he moved on, another family bought the house and had a liftback Corolla in black with a Knight rider style light on the front grille.

Thought it was the dogs bollix at the time.
That family spent a few years in England and rented out the house, one of the tenants had a booted Celica

it was easily the most interesting house in the neighbourhood for cars

One of the local GPs had a 2.8 Granada but the other GP in the practice only had a Sierra. Another GP in the town had a Kadette GTE in the late 80s.

BrianD3 · 02-07-2020 10:42am

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.

My father bought a new Ford Escort in late 1983 and was doing the usual thing of driving around for a few weeks without registering it. I don't think he even had "For Reg" on it.

Everything was fine until he drove to Dublin visiting relatives and got stopped by the Gardai for driving an unregistered car. I can't remember if he was prosecuted but I do remember he was worried about it. At the time there was an opinion that Gardai "down the country " would turn a blind eye to this while it was different in urban areas.

Mad_maxx · 02-07-2020 10:43am

I Was VB wrote: »

For those who were of age back then what was it like?

What was the standard family car? What did the boy racers drive? What did the business people drive?

I’ve heard stories of motors being bought for £50 and being driven for years, was motor tax optional? How many drinks could ya have before the Barman took the keys off ya? Did Ireland have a motoring culture back then or were cars seen as a glorified horse? Was there a car that represented that you were “doing well”?

i was six in 1984 , remember an opel kadett being bought close to xmas ,( we had a ford cortina prior to that but i dont remember ever being in it ) it was an 1981 , 1.4 petrol , remember there being a lot of them on the road at the time , uncle had an ascona , horribly boring car looking back but i dont remember us having much bother with it , we had it until 1990

recall going to school and all sorts of yokes driving friends to school

renault 18
renault 12 , both quite common

lots of renaults in general

principal had an audi 100 , metalic grey , very nice

northknife · 02-07-2020 10:47am

Our family I think went through a couple of old Hillman Hunters before we went posh and got a new Opel Ascona.

Charles Babbage · 02-07-2020 10:48am

cml387 wrote: »

It wasn't like the middle ages FFS:)
The main difference was the quality of the roads. There were only three dual carriageways in all of Ireland: the Donnybrook bypass, the Naas road, and a bit out of Limerick towards Shannon.

Certainly drink driving was widespread but I don't think tax and insurance avoidance were any bigger than today.

For these reasons we had a high accident rate. Interesting to see we are now lowest in Europe. Back then we would have been nearly the highest.

We are talking about the 1980s? The Stillorgan Road was dual from Donnybrook to Loughlinstown, then south of Bray also. Naas-Newbridge was dual and part of the Currsgh, and the Swords bypass and Lissenhall. And Cork Middleton.
And of course the Naas motorway bypass opened in 1983.

cml387 · 02-07-2020 10:49am

My father had a selection of FIAT's, 124 and into the eighties 131 and Ritmo.

One thing they all had in common was an aversion to moisture, which makes their suitability for the Irish climate marginal at best.

The only surefire way he had of starting them on a damp morning was to remove the distributor cap (younger readers will have to do some research here) and put it in the oven for half an hour.

L1011 · 02-07-2020 10:49am

There were way, way more company cars (as a % of the total cars on the road) than there are now - no BIK. Boggo middle management jobs came with a car; as did field roles that would now always have vans for practicality and BIK reasons.

I'd say that every "nice" car on my road when I was a kid was a company car, except for the two taxi drivers who both had Mercs with Nissan diesel transplants. Nearly every car under 3 years old would have been a company car also.

The other end of the age scale was that there were nowhere near as many ~15 year old cars as there are now; as they had fallen apart by that age.

BonnieSituation · 02-07-2020 10:53am

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

I remember a lot of cars with a sign in the window saying "tax in post"

Don't forget "FOR REG" as well.

Mongfinder General · 02-07-2020 10:53am

You could drive on a provisional licence on your own. I think my old man did it for about 30 years until he was basically made take a test about 10 years ago. Absolute madness in terms of who was allowed to drive back then.

cml387 · 02-07-2020 10:54am

That's the thing...rust treatment has come on incredibly since then. Japanese cars in particular fell apart until only the engine (but what an engine!) was left, and the aforemetioned FIATs and Lancias were rusting in the showroom.

colm_mcm · 02-07-2020 10:54am

L1011 wrote: »

There were way, way more company cars (as a % of the total cars on the road) than there are now - no BIK. Boggo middle management jobs came with a car; as did field roles that would now always have vans for practicality and BIK reasons.

I'd say that every "nice" car on my road when I was a kid was a company car, except for the two taxi drivers who both had Mercs with Nissan diesel transplants. Nearly every car under 3 years old would have been a company car also.

The other end of the age scale was that there were nowhere near as many ~15 year old cars as there are now; as they had fallen apart by that age.

This was certainly true in the UK, but was it the case in Ireland too?

TrailerBob · 02-07-2020 10:59am

My father had Beetles for years, and we were fancy because we had two. Even used to go to Wexford pulling a caravan in one of them EZW 227 in a burnt orange color. Then we emigrated to Australia in 1988 and got a Nissan Bluebird.. it was like a spaceship!

BonnieSituation · 02-07-2020 10:59am

Mongfinder General wrote: »

You could drive on a provisional licence on your own. I think my old man did it for about 30 years until he was basically made take a test about 10 years ago. Absolute madness in terms of who was allowed to drive back then.

There was an amnesty for full licences as well. So there's fully licenced drivers on the road who've never taken a test.

Sure you were able to drive alone on your second provisional until 2007.

L1011 · 02-07-2020 11:00am

colm_mcm wrote: »

This was certainly true in the UK, but was it the case in Ireland too?

Not to the same extent as the UK but yes.

It could have been quite regional depending on what firms there were big employers - any UK firm or multinational with a lot of UK exposure did it; lots of US multinationals did. Think some of the banks did too.

BIK came in here in 1982 but with a higher top rate, multiple exemptions and no floor - at a lower mileage too. It would have dinked the demand for having a company car a bit but nowhere near as much as the post 1997 BIK scheme we have now.

ohnonotgmail · 02-07-2020 11:01am

BonnieSituation wrote: »

There was an amnesty for full licences as well. So there's fully licenced drivers on the road who've never taken a test.

Sure you were able to drive alone on your second provisional until 2007.

the amnesty was back in the 70s

Mad_maxx · 02-07-2020 11:04am

cml387 wrote: »

My father had a selection of FIAT's, 124 and into the eighties 131 and Ritmo.

One thing they all had in common was an aversion to moisture, which makes their suitability for the Irish climate marginal at best.

The only surefire way he had of starting them on a damp morning was to remove the distributor cap (younger readers will have to do some research here) and put it in the oven for half an hour.

neighbours had several ritmos until they went toyota in 1990 and never left them toyota ever since

the ritmos they had were always in perfect condition , they used to brag that the pope drove one , back then such a thing was seen as being valuable :eek:

Irish motoring in the 1980’s

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