Retro Review: 1983 Ford Motor Co. Lineup
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2017
- The "aero-look" revolution was just beginning at Ford, with the new Thunderbird and Cougar. Check out FoMoCo's full lineup, from Escorts to Town Cars, in this 1983 MotorWeek preview.
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Its funny how they thought the crown vic was only gonna be around for one more year yet it stayed out for 28 more years
Funny thing was, that platform wasn't that old, but even then it was considered inferior to the GM B body and the Chrysler M body downsized full size cars from the late 70s. At least as far as police and fleets were concerned.
The panther platform is no joke and alot of the police officers I talk to say the new explorer/interceptor isn't as good, yes they have more fuel efficient engines and all wheel drive, but they are in the shop more often for repairs that the normal P71 platform didn't need.
How is that funny?
Panther platform and Crown Vic infinitely superior to GM and Chrysler full size platforms.
Ford panther drove both GM and Chrysler full size right out of business during the 1990s.
I have driven them all, and from m cycles to 53 ft trailer rigs.
Ford beat the spit out of all comers with its panther
Too bad gm fanny boy.
There was an absolute run on those cars when people heard that they might be discontinued.
"breathe life in to the crown victoria for at least 1 year"
World's biggest understatement ever.
... at least for one more year.
Panther platform goes on for another 30 years.
Lol yep sure did & I caught this too. All those big cars sold well as we know it otherwise Ford would've stopped production which too bad in 2011 all ended.
There's cops out there that's still refuse to trade them for the newer cop cars.
@@mrHoppedupford here in Lubbock the police still have a few Crown Victoria cars, usually they keep them up to 7 years but I don't know the last time the police here bought new ones since all look alike. When the police dept started getting a few Chevrolet Tahoe's i 2014 just a year before the 2015 model were redesigned, anyhow when the Lubbock Police bought the Tahoe which were painted black & white in which a few of the Crown Victoria's were eventually painted to the black & white colors from the old colors, then still some in the old colors too..I don't blame them, they look great as police cruisers as they did they did in the 80's as the Chevrolet Caprice did.
Not anymore, sadly!
I can't say as I blame the cops. I have 99 Grand Marquis they'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands!
The spy photos of the Tempo/Topaz perfectly foreshadowed how these cars would look 10-30 years in the future 😂
3:05 PROPANE POWERED CAR!!! HANK HILLS HEAD JUST IMPLODED!
Lol
Peggy you won't believe what Ford's doing
Thats a clean burning car i tell you what
ah you dont know how to appreciate nice things (heavy sarcasm)
*heavy breathing* did they say... propane?
Gas Propano
Lol! "The full size LTD/lincoln platforms won't last another year!" They we're off by 28 years. That panther platform outlived every other car they mentioned by decades!
j w LOL yes! In fact the Panther platform beat EVERY other platform in the US. Only the 1956-1982 Checker (of taxicab fame) ,the 1977-1996 GM "B/C" and the 1962-1981 Mopar "B/R" platforms come close. - and still the Panther beat them by a decade or more!
They said the same thing about the full and mid sized rwd GM's back then. Monte Carlo/Olds Cutlass in 1988. The Caprice didn't get killed until 96.
The mustang platform ran from1979 to 2004 the tbird cougar Fairmont zephyr and small ltd also shared this same platform
I LOLed when they mentioned Ford considering discontinuing the Panther based LTD Crown Vic in 1983. I still think they should have kept building it for law enforcement and livery services.
Donald Southern One the worst most sloppy chassis ever. Absolutley horrendous at trying to catch traction. The 5.0 was a reliable work horse though.
The music in this video couldnt be more 1983 , its awesome
It's driving me insane!
koke311 Sounds like cheesy 80s porn music
keri ellerbe I knew I heard it before!😉👍
koke311 lol
it's
I learned to drive in my mother's 83 "baby" LTD. We also took that car from the Pacific to the Atlantic and back in 85/86. Really fond memories of that car.
It’s amazing you made it.
"handling is much better" as it wallows back and forth 25 degrees and chrome pieces fall off.
I saw that too! I laughed my ass off!
Darr 3:09, DSC800 speaks the truth.
@Darr I missed the falling chrome pieces. yea I think he's just trying to be funny.
@Darr Now now, dry those tears.
Those were birds flying past, not pieces of the car. 😂
Ah the LTD. Feels like I'm watching Matlock again.
Barnaby Jones?
I always loved the baby LTD. Recognize it as GTA Vice City's police car. LOL!
One of the memorable cars the folks(grandparents that is- my parents were trash) had as I was growing up was an '83 Marquis. Aqua on green velour with the 3.3 "mileage maker" I6. That was a very smooth, comfy, and quiet car, and I became more fond of it than its '92 Grand Marquis replacement. Naturally, a blown head gasket necessitated its eventual sale. I'll always remember that ford velour interior smell and early 80s aqua on green color combo..
They were on the fox body Chassis, and a 5.0 was available. Imagine a sleeper LTD sedan....sedate looks, but when you gun it, the 302's trademark roar bellows out!
In the form of the 1984-85 LTD LX.
I had a baby LTD in dark green. It originally came with a 4 cylinder which blew up around 200k miles. I dropped a 5.0 HO motor out of a wrecked RS Capri in it and it was incredibly fast, a true sleeper. I still had the 2.3 badge on the back so nobody was ever prepared...
I've owned a couple of them,they were actually great cars.
Bravo to MotorWeek for uploading this stuff.
Continental was so pretty. Love the two-tone paint.
My cousin bought a new T-Bird in late 84, as a pull ahead 85. It had the TBI 3.8 and AOD trans. It was 1 of the sleekest American designs around at the time, and also, since it was a Fox car, it was easy to fix. She drove that car through college with very little problems. Oh and hers had the optional floor shifter in the console, so it didn't slip out of park and kill you.. ;)
Adam Trombino I had an 85. Sold it 2 years ago with 70k on the digital dash. I loved the ride, but what a pos. Looks fantastic, but holy hell I had to floor It to go anywhere. That 3.8 sucked right up to the point it threw a rod
I drove a 1984 Cougar 3.8 for many years. 3 speed automatic. Bought it from a bank as a 3 year old repo for $4,000. Nice all around car. Finally in 1993 it developed a rod knock and I had to let it go. If I ran across a nice one today I'd buy it. Later I bought a 1988 5.0 Cougar, automatic overdrive, 2 tone silver and charcoal with a red tape stripe. I didn't like it nearly as much as the 1984. The 1984 had a cleaner style and much nicer dash.
That 1983 Mustang is still one of my favorites, just nice, clean lines and no lumpy add-ons,
Instead of one more year, the full-size Fords (Crown Vic, Grand Marquis & Town Car) with the same chassis will stay around until 2011, i.e. for 28 more years!
Kheireddine El-Ahdab I came here to say this!
DownassMusic lol Same!
With what cars?
I laughed at that, too. Also laughed at the 'disturbing' description regarding the C pillar of the Cougar.
Every Crown Vic police car and Town Car made
I legit gagged at the Tempo/Topaz spy shots
We bought a 1983 Crown Vic, brand new in Oct 1983. It started up during the frigid winter here in upstate NY (NE of Syracuse), at 30 below zero. The following Spring was when we found out it wouldn't run very well in warm or hot temps, stalling out while on highway speed. Back to the dealer a number of times, and the service record was over 1" thick. Nothing they did fixed it. We really liked it as it almost seemed like a Lincoln with the ride and looks inside and out. The dealer gave me a trade to a 1983 Grand Marquis station wagon, just like the one in this vid. It had every option on it imaginable and ran like a champ. Our teenage son said it looked like Chevy Chase's Safari Queen wagon in his movie. I told him I'd buy more headlights so the front end matched. Never did.
I do like the Cougars from these years. Imagine a hopped up engine, wide back tires lowered front. A loud exhaust to boot. I see it, do you? I remember seeing a lot of drag cars made out of TBirds and Cougars of this time period
That yellow Capri was lookin' good. I happen to love the design of these 80's cars. Want one bad lol.
That 83 Thunderbird was very futuristic looking then.
The new "Aero Birds" really did well in Grand National racing when they came out and were the car to have for a long while.
My uncle had a Mercury Cougar from that generation, I believe it was an '86. two toned. very sharp car.
I had to chuckle at the Tempo/Topaz bit, with beat up test cars, and the image at 4:04 when he says "no Ford has *ever* looked quite like this before." Nasty with a blown suspension, lol.
SillyPuddy2012 I love your screen name by the way. Lol. The images they showed of the Tempo/Topaz were a wee but of camera trickery. These cars were clearly 100 thousand mile cars and seen their better days.
styldsteel1 How do you know? Also 100k miles? That is a cake walk friend 😆.
lol.. I chuckled too..
Those shots look like cars that belong in the junkyard . for reals
Big problem with the roofline on that T-Bird was the headroom in the back seat -- the Cougar had a ton more headroom. It's why my Dad bought the Cougar instead of the T-Bird in 1984 ('84 was just about the same as '83 -- they didn't make big changes again until 1986, when the Taurus came out.)
Definitely thought the cougar looked better then the thunderbird. American buyers thought so do with the first time ever cougars out selling the thunderbird for 83.
You're right 1986 the Cougar and Thunderbird got updated newer interior to match the Taurus/ Sables dash ECT. They looked much better in 86 than the 83-85s which looked old
That's a total lie. Cougar was horrid.
Who wants a new 2018 crown vic .
I wouldn't mind one
They could still sell them today, but; that would be what Americans want. Instead, they want to sell you a big SUV or full sized truck that retails for twice as much.
Sorry, but there were many winners produced in the 1980's that are still around. Not to mention that the BMW and Mercedes, even today, will have totally fallen after only about 10 years of ownership. The only great foreign cars are Japanese built, and many are built in the USA by a great American workforce.
Blacks
+REGGIEEVERREADY Yeah, with the Coyote 5.0!!
showing the most boxy car you've seen in ages: "there is hardly a straight edge anywhere"
If that '83 Thunderbird is the boxiest car you've seen in ages, you've clearly not been looking very hard. It gets _much_ boxier than that. Just take a look at the 1980 - 1982 T-Bird it replaced and you'll see what they were on about. The 1983+ models are downright curvy by comparison!
"Low to the ground" LOL
Deadpan_Studios I've always considered the Fairmont aka the "Squaremont" to be the most perfectly boxy box car to ever box.
kz1000ps The Ford Fairmont is a pretty solid candidate for the boxiest box to have ever boxed, though there's a wide variety of cars from this time period that are also eligible to be christened with such a title. After all, cars with incredibly boxy, razor-edged bodies were en vogue in the late '70s and early '80s.
The thunderbird is the furthest thing from a "box" on this video. There are absolutely nothing but rounded edges.
Wow! The tempo/topaz looked like junk before they even hit the lot...
Tempo was short for "Temporary", terrible little cars.
Um, don't be fooled. That was a little camera trickery, and editing after the fact. The Tempo/topaz cars you saw in the video were taken years and years after the fact. These cars are clearly 100,000 mile cars. Yea..it took me a moment too, to figure it out.
Those are prototypes
Justin Kady 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👌🏽 that is gold.
Those are clearly spy shots of pre-production test/torture mules, not glossy promotional photos of the finished thing.
And now, all Ford Motor Company offers are four, count 'em FOUR MODELS! (according to a Ford press release, as of 2020 Ford will only offer four models) As a "Baby Boomer" I can well remember when the Mercury division ALONE offered more models than that! What did we allow to happen? It's a damn shame!! America does indeed "miss these cars"!
i never see any of these cars anymore. a Tempo or a Topaz will turn my head because its so rare now. its sad :[
Indigo8086 I passed my driver's test in a 1987 Tempo (my mom's car). One of the best things I ever did for myself!
My father in law drives a Topaz. Lol
I see lots of town cars and cougors
They really were junk, you never see them because they didn't make it this long - either they rusted away or were parted out decades ago.
They were sucky cars, the build quality was cheap. That's why you don't see any on the road in 2020.
That Lincoln town car is freaking gorgeous
"Lacks the advances of fwd" haha. So much fwd hype.
X Slw808s haha ya, you pay a huge premium for rwd now over fwd
FWD was a huge advance in packaging but so much of that has been lost to mega-consoles and "four-door coupe" styling with tiny trunk openings. And back in the day there were plenty of lousy-handling, wallowing, marshmallowy RWD cars but now everything that's still RWD is to some extent a performance car so its' inherent virtues are overrated.
Ford RS Exactly man.
nlpnt Rwd catches traction better. Better handling, faster too.
At least ford didn't make 65ft long land yachts with 8 litre v8 engines, about 90hp and FWD *cough GM
Gotta love how in the 80s we looked at FWD as if it were the "future of automotive manufacturing".
I absolutely love all these cars. Thanks for posting this video. 👍🏽
Manny Martinez you love the temp with the front bumper that resembles a log?
So insane seeing all these cars new! I love nostalgic stuff it almost gives you the feeling of being back in that time
Thank you for this video! It was great to see. It is funny how things have changed since 1983. I enjoyed this video.
Gotta love that body roll
My house was built in 1983. I have hard time imagining one of these 'new' cars in the driveway! If I had to choose I'd probably get the Capri RS.
I bet it was pretty advanced! I had a 2 door 1988 Tempo that I bought in 2007 for $200. The engine ran like a top! I now kind of think of the Ford Fusion as the 'New Tempo' 😂
Donald trick Trump Has STD's from Stormy D. Airbags were available as options on some cars going as far back as the 70's. The toronado and it's variants were the first production cars to offer a driver airbag. GM called it ACRS (Auto cushion restraint system). In the late 80's, Chrysler shit buckets like the Acclaim, Caravel, Reliant, etc brought driver airbags as standard.
Yeah, you would have had a 1983 Dodge K car in your driveway instead.
An interesting time with boxy RWD carryovers from the late 1970s along with modern, sleek FWD models that were quickly becoming popular, all sharing the showroom floor in 1983.
Totally digging the lounge music in the background gets me jazzed for a Harvey Wallbanger and some wife swapping. That '83 Mark VI in two tone gets awarded Most Anachronistic Motor Car ever.
i loved my 84 mustang gt...and 83 ltd downsize.......miss the eighties..prices were so affordable..i did also own a 83 cougar v8 and a 85 turbo coupe t bird.....89 super coupe too....man ive owned a lot of those fords!
At 5:47, the wheel covers on that Mercury wagon were introduced way back on the 1970 Thunderbird. Mercury then used them throughout the 70s and 80s. A good looking design.
Both the Panther Platform and the Ranger, two beloved vehicle platforms both got to die simultaneously. A sign of the times I guess. But we should all be glad that they existed for so long.
I had the 83 LTD like the one at the 2:30 mark,right down to the two tone brown.That car was one of the most reliable car I've ever had.Great on gas,good in snow,and comfortable.
Love the juxtaposition of the old school mailing address and the new school social media contacts at the end.
The "aero-look" revolution was just beginning at Ford, with the new Thunderbird and Cougar. Check out FoMoCo's full lineup, from Escorts to Town Cars, in this 1983 MotorWeek preview.
That Tempo bit was hilarious! I had to check the uploader to make sure this wasn't a joke.
‘83 was a good year.
Craig Cadwell Especially for me. I graduated from high school that year.
LOL at that LTD/Marquis heeling over like it just got hit by a rogue wave 😂
That 83 T-Bird really is handsome
"If carry boxes is more important than bodies, then Ford hopes there might be one of their trucks in your future!"
You can't make this shit up! Classic MotorWeek!!!
When hauling around victims I always choose a Ford truck 😂
An exciting time for Ford! We were big into Fords around this time. Funny how it was thought that the full size Panther-based LTD Crown Victoria was thought to be almost dead in 1983, but it carried on successfully (even get redesigned and refined) for almost THREE MORE DECADES!
Just love those Fox and Panther bodies. Beautiful!
I can’t believe two-tone brown cars haven’t come back into style.
I had an 83 Turdbird with the 302, nice looking car and comfortable ride, tho biggest pos ever owned.......had some engine electronic glitches under the hood that no mechanic could fathom, amongst several hundred miles of wire and vacuum hoses/gadgets.
Interesting period for Ford, they still had cars that looked like they were out of the 70's but also were designing a few that had some futuristic elements from the 90;s.
Ford really got a lot of mileage out of all of these platforms. Each really worked out well, in its own way
U havent found any 80's ford cars in the auctions you go.? By the way..i like your channel!👍
The design winner in this episode must be young John's haircut, stunning!
Im a ford man through and through, i grew up with my dads 1982 Ford F-150 single cab 4x4, straight 6 with manual shift, and my dad would put it through its paces, the truck would say " thats it?" but i was born in 1992, when the 9th generation f series was fresh out of the manufacturer plant, so as years went on, this is from memory so bare with me, we had 2 cars (tempo, Taurus), 3 trucks (2 rangers, then my dads truck), 1 van (windstar), and 2 suv's (92 and 96 explore) but we traded the 96 explore for the big fella in my profile picture, now we still have her for over 10 years, he's had 4 major repairs over the 10 years we had him, alternator when we got it, brakes, the brake line, and just recently we had the A/C replaced, FYI its a 1997 Ford Expedition XLT 4x4 5.4L V8, MotorWeek, how did you guys like it?
Cameron Kinnan I've had my Toyota for 13 years and 200,000 miles. Not one repair. Oh wait, I replaced the battery for the first time last year. Does that even count?
Ford is junk.
Does it look like i give a shit about your toyota? Didn't think so. Just An FYI, your full of shit, all vehicles needs repaired.
Wayne Wildman If the battery is all you've replaced, I'm going to assume that the brakes haven't worked in years, there's grinding noises from suspension components every time you drive, oil is pissing out of a gasket or seal somewhere, the clutch most definitely doesn't work, and the engine block is nearing being corroded from contaminants in the cooling system, along with many other things that definitely would be wrong if you weren't spewing complete shit out of your ass.
Im on disability, i have a learning disability, but i know his reply was complete utter bullshit.
Brake Lines & A/C I would consider major, Alternator & any consumables are normal items to replace. Nice truck BTW
Loved the Thunderzord, Taurus, Tempo of this year. Nice modern styling for the early 1980s
The Taurus came out in 1986 not 1983. They always looked like jelly beans.
@@andrewcolsen why jelly beans?
It's AMAZING that this generation Crown Vic and the new Taurus were both from the same company AND sold at the same time in 1996...
"The new T-Bird... a totally sleek, rounded sculpture"
Sierra: Hold my beer
Did Lincoln-Mercury have a bunch of leftover wheel covers from the 1975 Grand Marquis? Look at the Colony Park at 5:59.
😂 Just noticed that!
I was thinking the same when I saw that
Those baby Ltd's were a kick to drive ❤❤❤❤❤.
Love the camo on the spied Bronco.
To be truly honest all three manufacturers GM Ford Chrysler made junkyard cars in the 80s and 90s and the 2000s but some of they lineups were pretty good
The unfortunate thing is that GM in particular had so many new and innovative products that COULD have been great, but failed in execution, especially in the early years. The diesels, X platform cars, and Pontiac Fiero come to mind. The sad thing is that by the time GM finally fixed them and made them good, their reputation was tarnished beyond repair so they had to drop them. If they’d just spent a year or two more working out the kinks before releasing them, the automotive landscape could be completely different now.
All the Downsized LTD and Marquis were A Mustang in a 4 door model. The 1982-1987 Lincoln Continental was a 25,000 Ford LTD/Marquis with different trim and a higher price tag
I had a 1983 Heritage with a 5.0 EEC3 EFI with an Auto, I miss that Plush Velor interior, so comfortable!
Strange how the sponsors had websites back in '83 before the internet existed...😁
That 83 T-Bird and the Crown Vic Wagon we're good looking cars. I cracked up when I saw the Facebook Twitter and Instagram links at the end 😂 "Drop us a line"
I'll take that Colony Park wagon, please. He's about to be so let down by the Tempo/Topaz.
Mercury LN7 now that’s a name I haven’t heard in almost 40 years lol
My brother bought a Mustang new in 1983. It was a lowly LX model with an equally lowly 2.3 Litre inline four. That engine was first offered in '74 Mustang II's and Pintos, and wasn't dropped until 1993.
Actually, Ford continued use of the 2.3 in the Ranger until 1997. For 1998 they stroked the 2.3 to a 2.5 and that ran until mid 2001 when the Duratec DOHC 2.3 was introduced.
The Tempo/Topaz were the biggest pieces of shit ever made. I completely forgot about them until now - none of them are on the road anymore!
dwalmop2 I laughed when he uttered the word TOPAZ. Not a car worth even putting insurance on. If you crash it just walk away!
I actually see a few of them a month here in PA. A few years ago I'd see one or two every day.
What other car made during that time do you still see on the road?
@@1compaqedr8 😂😂😂😂😂
Scobey scobe saw a mercury cougar today, I was thinking that tired cat needs a modern v8 swap to make it really leap and roar! 😂
Grandad used to have a 1984 dodge 600 k car. Foot flat on the floor it would sit at 90mph for hours on the way to Florida 🙂
The topaz in this video looks like they let the factory workers design and assemble it in one day! No engineering lol.
I had an 88 turbo coupe. Way ahead of its time.
The 83-86 T-Bird was the first race car body I built at 10 years old.
Woohoo! Cheers for the OG Crown Vic!
I knew someone who had a 1984 Ford Tempo which had a retractable shoulder belt when door opens & closes, but when the Tempo was redesigned I liked the look better. The 1983 Ford Thunderbird as the Mercury Cougar but I was still in high school & not had my driver license yet, my parents had a 1983 Lincoln Town Car Signature Series which I liked & this was my start liking luxury cars including the Town Car as Cadillac.
Please post a review featuring a 92 Tempo...would be really cool
The Ford Thunderbird of the 1980's was one of the best and sexiest cars Ford ever made regardless of what car company or brand they owned.
I kinda dug the old Mustang based Capri, especially the bubble back glass on the hatch. Even as a kid (around 11 or 12yo) I always felt it was more aerodynamic, and wondered about putting a Capri hatch on a Mustang body.
This episode is essentially a Ford PR package.
Michael Lang No shit. All TV car reviews are PR pieces. Do you know how much the Ford Foundation gives (gave) to PBS?
Ford / Lincoln / Mercury had the best looking cars of the 1980s, hands down.
Cash for Clunkers program put the remaining vehicles in the Junkyard in the sky .
In Chicago, that program flopped because taxes are SO incredibly high here, it would barely pay for the new car's sales tax xD
Scott Krafft Fellow Chicagoan here, there’s a tax on everything here. Food, candy, soft drinks, plastic bags, etc. It’s insane
These are the cars I learned Auto Body repair on. 80's cars rusted bad. Not so much today.
The 83's were rust buckets
THE GOOD OLD DAYS WHEN CAR S WERE REASONABLY PRICED AND DIDN T HAVE TOO MUCH JUNK ON THEM
About half of their cars were on the fox platform, that thing really paid off!
I had one of these tbirds, beat the crap out of it, the digital dash would go out, so I wouldnt know how fast I was going, ditched it quick for a 84 z-28 with 5.0 ho, loved that car.
I have a 83 Ltd with the 3.3l engine it was the last year for that engine!!💗
Never have been able to find a propane powered Ford LTD. It's probably so rare that no one will sell their versions.
They are rare. Saw one back in the early 2000's at Harry's-u-pull-it wrecking yard. They had it set apart from all the other cars there cuz I bet even THEY knew it was a unicorn. It had a big cylinder in back, in place of a traditional fuel tank.
LOL the 1978 Fairmont was also the Granada and then the LTD just with different front and rear ends. They got a lot of mileage out of this Fox platform
Holy Cow! @4:00 mins in... where did they get those Topaz photos from? The Junkyard? 🤔
And next year Ford will be making 1 car. SUVs and trucks. Things change.
Bronco II....birth of the SUV. Loved mine.
Loved my Xr4ti too.
My favorite '83 FoMoCo product would have to be a toss-up between the T-bird/Cougar & the LTD/Marquis. I would LOVE the former today, & I hope the MotorWeek crew did NOT fall for a banana in the tailpipe of the latter!!!!!!
The Bronco 2 is why every one has an SUV now. Boy was he right about that truck.
0:52 Bill Elliot loved that car.
This was great and I appreciate the LTD Crown Victoria's and I'm not even going to complain about the lack of a 351
The 351's were still available in police cars. You might have been able to get one once the police departments sold them off at auctions.
What about the ford escort with the Diesel engine? My dad had one. It was never mentioned.
Wow, the temp pics look like crap. Quality control on the test model looked nonexistent
I'm in the industry, its pretty typical for development vehicles to be of questionable quality, even today
I like the Ford Escort & I like the Mercury Lynx
Tom Snyder plot twist, those were Mazda platforms.
Handing is much improved. The models of the past overturn at the first corner?
Lol