Irish motoring in the 1980’s

Mad_maxx wrote: »

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:

colm_mcm wrote: »

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

Yeah I think so. My Dad worked for a department store back then and the middle management types had company cars - Ford Sierra's if I recall.

BonnieSituation wrote: »

I have had it in my head for years that it was in 1983 or so.

Definitely 70s, my mother got one, even though she's arguably a better driver than the father. You should see her swing the LHD VW camper around now at nearly 70 with 2 bad knees.. Had all categories on it until they took the truck and bus off it when the rules changed about medicals

A grim decade in many ways, we had a considerably lower population and fewer cars on the road but shocking (by today's standards) numbers of road fatalities

1980 to 1989 - 4851 deaths
2010 to 2019 - 1742 deaths

Early 80s Fords were everywhere.
Escort and Cortina. A Granada was common enough, but the lower end 2.0 only. Don't know how much the closure of the Ford plant in Cork in 1984 turned the tide

Then mid 80s Opels were very prominent
Corsa, Kadett and Ascona

But as the decade went on Toyota came up through the ranks to dominate

Still lots of Fiats on the road all the way from the 127 to the 132 and even you'd see the odd Argenta around, and then the Croma sold a few, as it was the cheapest of the Type 4 platform (Lancia Thema, Alfa 164, Saab 9000).

An Alfa Romeo Alfasud Ti would have been a desirable car then. Even though the design would be 12 years old by 1983. A pharmacist near us had one. Or a BMW 316 was also considered posh, for what it was.

Really at the top you could only really aspire to a W123 Merc, or a Saab 900 if you were a touch left field in your thinking. Garret Fitzgerald had one while Taoiseach after all. Unless you were Goodman or Ben Dunne who could afford an S class. Even Charlie never graduated beyond an E class.

More interesting choices, but obvious drawbacks. Good old days

Love a bit of nostalgia!

My uncle had a Morris Ital, felt like a massive car, which I think it was, and was somehow married to a 4 speed gearbox and 1.3 engine!

The country, at least North Kerry was awash with Renault 4 vans, assuming ex P&T.

But thinking back there was quite a bit of variety in my immediate area.
- Ford Sierra
- Volkswagen Passat
- Opel Kadett Estate (3dr)
- Ford Fiesta
- Audi 100
Various Corollas, Bluebirds, odd 205 and Renault 5.

Late 70's into early 80's

- FOR REG - hand written on cardboard instead of a reg plate.

- 5 kids squashed into a Ford Fiesta rear seat.

- my small bother standing between the front seats as a kid watching the father drive; then being told to sit down otherwise he'd end up eating the gearstick.

- Being warned not to mix radial and crossply tyres. And, remoulds.

- The diesel pump in a garage was away in a corner away from the main petrol pumps; with a slippy lake of crap surrounding it.

- "Axe Tax" stickers.

- Rusty wings literally hanging off cars.

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.

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

alias no.9 wrote: »

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.

Renault 21 Savannah and Espace were both 80 s and 7 seater

RandomViewer wrote: »

Quite the opposite, heyday of rallying, mk11 escorts and Opel Mantas. Opel Kadett C and D as well Ascona/Cavalier were everywhere. Peogeot 205 and Vauxhall Nova were the starter car of choice.

Chrysler Sunbeam as well was popular. Lots of rear wheel drive cars at the time. Probably contributed to the statistics posted earlier as many found a ditch trying to drift around corners.

Car colours were far less muted than today. I remember in 1987 looking out of a train window somewhere around London and seeing a sea of grey cars in a huge new car lot and marvelling at the lack of colour.

Panrich wrote: »

Chrysler Sunbeam as well was popular. Lots of rear wheel drive cars at the time. Probably contributed to the statistics posted earlier as many found a ditch trying to drift around corners.

Car colours were far less muted than today. I remember in 1987 looking out of a train window somewhere around London and seeing a sea of grey cars in a huge new car lot and marvelling at the lack of colour.

Sunbeam engine was soft , not liked, wee 1200 cc Opel engine would take serious abuse. No ABS and 155 x 13 tyres might be as much to blame as anything, also remember roads were poorly surfaced as local authority was broke.

L1011 wrote: »

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.

I know people who worked in Motorola in Cork who got company cars until the late '90s or so, just engineers with desk jobs. Seems completely unheard of these days unless you have a reason to travel for your job.

Arthur Daley wrote: »

The main reason they prospered and went on to lead todays PSA.

Uhh, Peugeot *are* PSA. Peugeot Société Anonyme (public company)
They bought out bankrupt Citroen in the '70s, Chrysler Europe, and more recently FCA. They've always been essentially the owners of the group.

Tazio wrote: »

- FOR REG - hand written on cardboard instead of a reg plate.

Before the 1987 number plates, I can only assume this was done purely for tax dodging? I can't imagine anyone was waiting for the next sequence of letters, because most people didn't know or care about them.

I didn't live in Ireland in the '80s but did visit family in Limerick frequently, and these were the cars owned by around '89:

• Toyota Carina II (T150), a taxi
• Volvo 340
• Volkswagen T2 van (bay window, no idea how old it was)
• Nissan Vanette (may have been a Datsun)

I travelled all the way from the south west of England to Limerick in the back of the Vanette in the early '90s. Kids being thrown in the back of vans or hatchback/estate boots was acceptable in the UK too back then.

RandomViewer wrote: »

Renault 21 Savannah and Espace were both 80 s and 7 seater

Nobody could afford them and even if they could, the default family transport solution was telling the kids to push in.

Savannah was very rare, especially in the 80s and Espace only became a little more common in the 90s.

2nd gen Nissan Prairie ('88ish} was 7 seat too but even coming from a town with a Nissan dealer, I didn’t know of anyone who had one, a 200sx might be seen in the showroom occasionally but never a Prairie.

Mitsubishi Spacewagon was another 7 seater that existed but only became common in the 90s when it became a popular jap impirt.