Irish motoring in the 1980’s

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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 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

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