Top 10 Slowest American Cars of the 1980s
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
- In this week’s episode, I count down the top ten slowest American cars of the 1980s. There were many outside factors that played a role in influencing the automotive industry during this time (1978-84’ especially). Automakers were focusing on fuel efficiency over anything and as a result, these cars lacked power. I’m talking over 20 seconds to reach 60 for most vehicles on this list. In 2024, the slowest car for sale is the Mitsubishi Mirage coming in at over 12 seconds. During the early ‘80s, 12 seconds to reach 60 was considered decent. As the 80s progressed, the use of turbos and fewer regulations turned the automotive industry around. Before that though, the domestic market suffered a serious drought in performance. Thank you all for tuning in, I really appreciate the support!
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 -Intro
2:34 -zero to 60 times/context
3:22 -Car 1
4:35 -Car 2
5:58 -Car 3
7:34 -Car 4
8:35 -Car 5
9:32 -Car 6
10:57 -Car 7
12:09 -Car 8
13:22 -Car 9
14:16 -Car 10
15:01 -Outro
Music: Fractals by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
DISCLAIMER:
Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
If you have any questions, here is my Instagram:
/ greenhawkdrive - Auta a dopravní prostředky
My first car was a 1982 Cadillac Coupe deVille DIESEL. It was uncomfortably slow- holding up traffic always with a long line of cars behind me (and this was 1989 so everybody had slower cars and STILL the diesel couldn’t keep up) It rattled. It clattered… it belched black smoke on acceleration and I had many experiences of people waving desperately at me to tell me something was wrong with my car, and I’d shout back to them “it’s a diesel!!” And it wasn’t reliable. The glow plugs failed….
But… it was beautiful to look at, was comfortable as hell and it was mine. (RIP totaled by a drunk driver in 1992 with my whole family aboard. No injuries. It was a tank too, you see…)
My friend had one and when the diesel engine failed, he put a 455 cubic inch Oldsmobile "Rocket" V8. That old Caddy would spin the one back tire as long as you held your foot on the gas. It surprised a lot of folks as it still had the diesel emblem, the wire wheel hubcaps and it looked like a Granny car, but it was fun!
I had an '81 Fleetwood Brougham. It had the 8-6-4 motor. What a pig. BUT- something about cruising slow in that big, beautiful boat with the wood trim and wood knobs while listening to Paul's Boutique on the tape deck....magic.
@@mikelemoine4267 Oh that sounds fun. Would have loved to have it long enough to do a swap- put something absurdly powerful in it!
@@skeeter197140 wow the infamous cylinder deactivation debacle. Did you leave it that way or did you unplug the system so that it was just the 8 cylinder? Even that engine was about 50hp stronger than the diesel…
@@bck2mono I heard about unplugging it, but I didn't know how, so I left it that way. I was probably 18 at the time.
I started timing the 0 - 60 in my '82 Chevette while carrying 3 passengers back in '83.
I'm currently at 58 mph and I expect to reach 60 in early 2026.
🤣
76 Chevette with 4 speed manual was even worse. I never checked 0-60 time because I already knew it was pathetically slow. The Iron Duke engine was loud as all hell and slow as all hell. Oh, well what do you expect for $500? I kept me going for a year until I bought a 84 Cutlass Ciera with the god-awful LK9 V6 engine. At least the floor didn't rust out like the 76 Chevette. Still, the car had a lot of issues.
Wow, you must have got the high performance package.
@@lmrk8441
Yup! She's a screamer!
So this is why when I watch old Motorweek they say 13 seconds to 60 is a good time.
It IS in the quarter Mile.
Newer drivers don't realize we're living in the time of cheap horsepower.
0-60 in 13-14 seconds was accepted as normal. Worse yet, 60-0 (Complete with lockup and ending at an odd angle) in 145 feet wasn't extreme.
@@christopherconard2831 My '65 Buick Wildcat had only the 401 'Nail
head' engine. Went though cheap Gas Really Fast! 320 HP at 445 foot pounds of pure Muscle. I believe it's weight was 4200 hundred pounds, 600 more than my 'Vette. The weight of 3 people or 5 teeny boppers
In constant reckless driving, the drum brakes were a complete joke! They heated up fast and shut down quick. DODGE AROUND Don't hit that!
Around town, they were great and oh God! that AM Radio was fantastic! Get those gals in the mood with sweet '60s Songs.
20 miles to the gallon? EXCELLENT!
@@christopherconard2831 DeLorean and Iacocca were the ones who designed family cars that could turn an acceptable quarter mile. They also did a lot of the muscle cars.
Edit: Yea, I know, the 80's saw another side of both of them, and what they designed.
I had a '79 Eldorado diesel. Getting on the freeway entrance ramp, I would stomp on the accelerator and pray for the prevailing winds to carry the dark cloud of noxious fumes into traffic so cautious motorists would slow to avoid what was obviously an out of control brush fire and I could clatter into the new space in traffic. The car was gorgeous, and I looked very glamorous and successful waiting at the side of the road for the tow truck. Horrible car in every respect. Even interior panels were falling apart in the first year. I divorced GM and bought Lincolns, which were great.
My '80 Bonneville diesel was just as bad. Cruised well at 80 mph, getting 21 mpg, but getting to that 80 mph took f o r e v e r.
Wow! I had a 76 Eldorado with the 500 V8 and it actually did pretty good, but watch out for the insane torque steer! I once floor it from a stoplight and ended up all the way in the lane to the right. Thank God no car was there.
😂 Well said David.
In 1984 I drove a Chevette from Smithers BC to Vancouver with 4 passengers. This car was so slow that we had loaded logging trucks pass us uphill on the hill outside of Burns Lake. The second slowest car I drove was a 1974 Mercury Bobcat wagon with a 4 speed and a 2.3 l4. That one was mine.I tested that one on the flats and got a 0 - 60 time of 32 seconds. Gas mileage was comparable to that of a farm tractor.
My family bought an 81' Chevette when I was a kid. The 0-60 was not 21 seconds, it was closer to 21 years. Of course, the brakes would have failed and the floorboards rusted out long before then.
That car actually got to the end of the quarter mile before it reached 60 mph lol
I remember test driving a 78 Chevette with my mom, it would barely get on the freeway.
I had a 1980 Chevette it would do 95 downhill. My friends said I was confused and thought it was a corvette. I thrashed the shit out of that car.
My dad had a 1980 T-Bird with a 302. He had the cats cut out. The digital speedometer stopped at 85 not to sure what the top speed was.
I owned an '83 Chevette, and it was bad, but not as bad as the diesel model that got 21 seconds to 60. If you had an automatic and ran the AC nonstop, it would still get there in under 20 seconds, but with the manual and no AC, it's a spritely 15 seconds to 60. And since my dad took an '81 Chevette to 250k, my fear was my Chevette would last forever, too. I wound up having an accident I walked away from that totalled the car.
I had a diesel chevette. Its 0-60 took about 2 miles 😂
I had a 1986 Porsche 944 turbo with 220 Hp that went 0-60 in 5.9 seconds. It was a true rocket in its day, this video really shows the contrast compared to other cars of the era.
Yep its funny when people look back at the sports cars of the era and talk about how slow they are. I had a 1985 mustang gt back then, 0-60 mid 6's while pretty much all other family cars were lucky to hit that in 12 seconds, so you were driving a car that was at least twice as fast to 60 than most. 6 seconds difference 0-60 was so huge.
The parents of one of my best high school buddies bought a diesel Olds 88 back in the 1980's. Needed a CALENDAR for that 0-60!
I had a 1983 Ford Escort gas with manual transmission. Acceleration was atrocious, but fuel economy was great. The slowest car I ever had by far, was a 1985 Ford Tempo. Both of these cars had recurring engine problems. I spent more money on engine repairs and maintenance than what I paid for the cars. Thanks for the memories.
Lol
James Hunt drove a 1967 Austin 35 Countryman which did zero to sixty in 30.1 seconds. You learn to be smooth if you have no power.
Makes the Continental seem like a decent car.
Probably, that a35 had a Cooper S tuned engine making it a sleeper van. And 0-60 in less than 15 seconds.
@@jomaoliveira7949 It was just recently sold. Google it.👍
The 80’s malaise era of American motoring was just brutal…
Crap performance and crappy styling.The 1990,s were leaps ahead of the previous decade.Performance and styling was back
Agreed, I survived the 80’s malaise era of American motoring by driving a 3-series BMW that was sporty, nice looking, reasonably economical, with great handling, and solidly built. Everything that American cars weren't.
@@adspurblasphemer!
Personally, while it might spread another year or two in either direction, I consider the malaise era for US cars to be from 1973 to 1985. Not only was horsepower already on the decline but the dreadful styling that came with the rapid attempts to affix 5 mph bumpers was downright obscene. Chrysler seemed to figure a few things out that escaped Ford and GM allowing some of their cars not look like carved blocks of cheese with railroad ties strapped front and back. Gradually, styling started to work it's way back in, but horsepower lagged at least until a slim few in '85.
@@alanploetz7100 I can't disagree with you. Besides the dreadful styling you just had to love the big V8's pumping out a healthy 135 HP.
The 1985 Hyundai Excel did 0-60 in just over 16 sec. I dated a girl in high school who had one. If you tried to floor it, the engine would rev high but it would barely move. You had to slowly press down on the gas pedal to get the thing to go.
The Excel came out in 1986 (yes I'm that much of a nerd). Yeah, they were slow. If you had one with A/C (that kinda cooled off the interior) it was like a "turbo boost" button when you switched it off to get on the highway, you could literally feel the bump in power when the A/C compressor cycled off. Get one with the 3 speed automatic, and it was rediculous. Heavy foot at all times meant the anemic acceleration high into the revs with hard shifts to second and eventually third. Then the car would wail along at 3500ish RPM at 55 mph. Revs were similar for the 4 speed manual in the base. If a car ever showed the need for that 5th gear, the Excel made that more than apparent. Still, I'd love to find one still intact and running. These in their own right and with their quirks gave them a bit of character. I still think that 5 speed was the same transmission as used in the twin stick Dodge/Plymouth Colt that just used a solenoid to engage 5th gear. They always had an audible click on the 4/5 shift. I had one fail that would show no drop in revs on the tach on that shift after it died.
I had a friend with an 86 Excel. She loved that car. I actually felt sorry for her…
Not covered in your video was the introduction of the catalytic converter in 1975. With leaded fuel still available at the pump!. This fuel cross contamination did a marvelous job of hopelessly plugging up the catalytic converter. This deserves a video all it's own.
What you did not explain was there were 3 grades of gasoline, and then unleaded. Unleaded cars had a different size filler restriction on their inlet tank hose connection, and the pump nozzle was a different size, 5/8" nozzle, federally mandated, as to the conventional 3.4" fuel dispensing nozzle. Morons that ripped open their filler necks to the larger sizes to use the cheaper gas, voided their warranty, and many dealers enforced this detail. As to the catalytic converters clogging, yes, but the problem was more of an oil contamination, rather than lead in the gasoline. Unleaded fuel, was a harsher chemical, and did not contail a lubricant for upper cylinder wear. Valve seals, valve seats, and faces wore due to the lack of lubrication from the lead in the gasoline. It wasn't as if the lead was in amounts that was visible, but it did not burn going thru the combustion process. Oil systematically entered the combustion chamber, was burnt during normal operation, and coated the internals of the cat as it went out the exhaust. Of course, this problem was confounded by a new technology car, bought by morons that were stuck in the past, and refused to change old habits. And they were the most outspoken when it came to complaining about the system.
@@the_Texas_BanditIt's fairly simple. The customer before you who filled up his older car left residual fuel in the pump lines. This residual fuel would end up in your tank and ruin your new unleaded only car's
continued- catalytic converter. The auto companies and government new this and the public paid for it,
A quick trip to the auto store for a "straight pipe" solved that problem.
@@GeorgeMcKenna-kz9qx No residual.fuel. Non-leaded gasoline was dispensed from a different pump with the aforementioned smaller nozzle. No opportunity for cross-contamination.
Most older folks called it the "love" insert a little drawl Chevy luuuv. I owned one great little truck
My dad had one when I was a kid- it WAS slow- but a good little truck...
My brother had a 4X4 version that he thrashed to pieces in Alaska. He once had a semi truck driver ask him to pull his rig out of a stuck situation--"You gotta be kidding." Bro says to trucker, I guess rig only needed at tiny extra help because they got it going with help of Luv.
It owned one as well. Slow little bugger but reliable and did everything I asked of it!
I remember when people would do V8 swaps on the Chevy LUV and run them on the track.
My family had a 1981 Oldsmobile station wagon with the diesel. I actually don't remember much about riding in it. I remember most about how it looked from outside. The reason for this is probably because the engine was replaced 3 times in less than a year, all under warranty. I do have many fond memories of the mercury wagon that came after it. The 1989 mercury colony park wagon is a gem that deserves to be remembered. I drove that car in high school, and it survived many scenarios that should only occur in movie action sequences. It wasn't quick, but it did have a lot of torque from the 5 liter v8. More than enough to cause excessive tire wear.
god forbid you have to take any of these things up hills
I remember the 1990 Ford explorer. That thing had to be to the floor to go up a hill, and that 4.0 was guaranteed to crack a head.
@@JunkerDriver999 if you had a 1990 S10 blazer with the 4.3 (at the time TBI), the power was completely adequate, it had decent torque. the later redesigned 4.3 was a quite a rocket for an SUV. the 2.8 that predated it was another story but it was also too small of an engine for the truck, realistically. i owned several of the older S10 blazer. 1984, 1986, and 1994
I had a Ford Tempo and no problems with hills and mountains. It was just slow.
I had an '82 Monte Carlo 6 cyl that WOULDN'T go up a hill.
@@tylenoljackson9378 my grandpa had a 1982 monte and it was a decent car..... but it was a 305
The LUV and D50 had a competitor from Ford called the Courier, and it was a rebadged Mazda B-Series which is very ironic when you think about it.
You are right, and the LUV truck was from Isuzu which has ties to GM and the D50 was a Mitsubishi which had ties to Chrysler.
I’ve only ever called it the “love”. I’ve never heard of L-u-v until today 🤷♂️
What irony? The US manufacturer's contracted with the Japanese manufacturers for the compact trucks.
I remember those years well, and it took much research to find a car with any acceleration. My first memory was actually a decade earlier when my dad took me to test drive the "new" 1971 Chevrolet Vega. He wanted me to get one with the 1bbl (70 hp) and 2 speed powerglide automatic. I swear, it not only didn't accelerate it felt like you had the car in reverse! Needless to say I went out and bought a v8 Mustang.
I remember those Powerglide Vegas..Wouldnt get out of its own way
I forgot they put the powerslide in those. Yuck on those underpowered turds. My buddy had a 2 speed in his 66 Chevelle with a built motor. He can run it to 70 in first gear. It was a trip. He still has the car and now it's a 3 speed but I always liked the slush box and 70 mph shifts.
@@Chopski64 Thats because second in a three speed automatic is roughly the same ratio as low gear is in a Powerglide
Something not everybody knows about the GM 5.7L diesels is that 19 out of 20 were unreliable, undesirable, block-cracking self-hating toadstools, but the other 1 was a durable, efficient and reliable workhorse that commonly crossed the 200000 mile mark without any major mishaps. Slow, yes, but if you got lucky and your diesel was one of the rare ones that WORKED, you actually got a gem of an engine.
The most gutless car my family ever owned was a 1983 4-dr Chevy Malibu with the 229 ci V6. It came off the blocks like a 3-legged water buffalo and struggled to make 60 under anybody's foot except my father's (and I think it was scared of him). It was this gutlessness that led me to my first accident. With my first driver's license barely a month old, I pulled onto the main drag and decided to see how long it took the car to go 0-35. It took exactly the distance from Dairy Queen's driveway to a Delta 88 waiting to turn left into Sonic's driveway. Braking distance was roughly 9 inches.
I have one of the "one out of twenty". Painfully slow but 230K miles and all original, '82 Custom Cruiser wagon.
@@turbo8454 I knew somebody out there knew what I was talking about. I just wish _I_ did.
I wasted a ton of money I didn't really have trying to find a brand-new car in the 80's that would actually run for a couple years much less fast.
I know right. For me it’s 40k miles and new transmission with gm cars I had. What turds they were!
The quad 4 came out in the 80's. 4 cylinder that I used to tow a 19 foot bow rider. It eventually reached 190 hp very fast. Had it until someone ran into me and totaled it. People were all over that car because they wanted the engine out of it. The comps. the insurance company used were all over 120K miles.
The slowest car I've owned was my 1980 300CD Mercedes non turbo. I loved it but it was incredibly slow. To be honest, I wish I still owned it.
Those things run forever, don’t they
I had a 87 300SDL on my car lot I had years ago. It was supposedly a former Ambassadors car for one of the Middle East Countires. Slow but solid...Nice car and still had glass fuses!. Guy who bought it raided restaurants for their cooking grease and converted it to run bio diesel. And yes...They were absolutely tanks that ran forever.
The 240D and the 190D non turbo or broken turbo was 0-25 in 22 seconds
@@dddevildogg I think the 240D made a suitable racing partner for the Volkswagen Type II Bus - but tended to last for as long as someone was willing to put up with it - maybe 30 years or more
100000%
Oh wow - my dad had a 1976 Chevy LUV (pronounced LOVE) that I drove in 1982 (my 2 older brothers drove it before me). Just got my license! It was baby blue with gold stripes and front air dam - totally radical - everyone loved that ruck. It was ZERO frills other than neat looks. Manual everything, no A/C, radio with one speaker LOL! But we loved it. So many stories. My little brother learned to drive in it and drove it into the ground. All "newer" cars were slow back then so nobody really cared about 0-60 that I can remember. At least not at 16. You just had something to drive!
The Chevrolet LUV! Acronym for light utility vehicle
I test drove a Chevette Diesel in 1984. It sounded like a thousand empty soda cans under the hood. I did buy 3 Chevettes. All gas powered. The slowest car from the 80's that I had was a 1981 Ford Fairmont with the 3.3 inline 6.
I remember looking in the engine compartment of a Fairmont, it was so crammed with pollution controls that there was only one little place where you could see the engine block.
My brother bought the Chevette about the same time my Dad bought a Honda Civic in the late 70s. It was at that time I knew American car makers were in trouble and had better get their act together. No comparison between those two engines.
When I was just a young kid, we rented an 82 Fairmont sedan while our Chrysler was getting some body work done. It had the 2.3. I recall that because the guy from the rental place made a big deal that it would be great on gas. It was red on red and my mother was constantly telling my father that 'she thinks something is wrong with it, because it just won't go!'
To be fair, ANY Non-Turbo Diesel is going to be just a little faster than walking...
I remember when I was just probably in second grade about 7. My dad floored a Ford Bronco around the block to catch a kid throwing bottles into our Little League field. That thing went like a bat out of hell. A lot of times the lower horsepower people forget the torque that the V8s had
The straight big six engines were designed to provide plenty of torque up to highway speeds; but then die off quickly. Using a manual trans, they were fine, even with around only 100 bhp.
The early Ford Bronco with the 289 (or was it the 302?) was quite quick. Most of them only came with a small inline 6 I believe.
Spring break 1987 we took my friends Dad's 1985 prestine Oldsmobile Delta 88 Diesel.
From Dallas to South Padre TX. 580 miles and drove it all week on South Padre Island with out fill up. We finally filled it up leaving back to Dallas. It was slow but it ran so smooth on the highway it put you to sleep with a soft ride.
We are car guys and brought it back few coats of wax and spotless.
That was the last year they made that body and diesel engines in them. I remember the smooth ride
My friends Dad had a diesel in a Caprice wagon. Pretty sure that thing got in the mid 30s per gallon. We would drive all the way from Illinois to the UP of Michigan on about half a tank. It probably had a 26 gallon tank, but still... Pretty good for that huge wagon.
@@thelorax7704 I believe you are correct 26 gal tank and mid 30 MPG, it adds up.
1981 Ford E150 with a 302. Rated at 145 hp. Took 23 seconds to do the quarter mile. It felt like a year.
Slow?? I grew up back then driving old military trucks everywhere. M715s, M37, M135 6x6, realistic top speeds were 45 to 50 mph. You ran with the windows down in the 6x6 in the winter because the aftermarket heater wouldn't defrost the inside of the windows! Most military vehicles back then didn't have heaters. A 14,500lb empty weight 6x6 dump truck with a 145 hp 302ci gas six cylinder with a winch and an 11ft snow plow on the front, loaded with 200 bushels of corn and pulling a gravity bed wagon that weighed 20,000 lbs, would teach you power management! Given a few miles to get the gear oil warmed up, and the flat spots worked out of the 10 tires it would actually run 70 topped out. It's saving grace was the 8spd hydramatic transmission, 6 wheel drive, 10,000 lb pto winch and fording capabilities. It went on many rescue missions especially in blizzards when ambulances couldn't get through, or roads were flooded. My dad lived in it for 3 days during the Ft Wayne Indiana flood hauling sand bags. It recovered alot of stuck equipment and winched down alot of trees. I learned to drive it at 8 yrs old to follow the combine around. We hauled tractors to the tractor pulls on a 32ft flatbed and we moved over 100 mobile homes with it. Like dad said, with military trucks it's not how fast you get there it's what it does after it arrives! Gen X farm kids grew up different then and we had it easy compared to our fathers. We drag raced in the '80s we made a few mods and put a six pack (three 2 bbls) on the tired 440 in our 4700 lb '73 Chrysler newport. It lifted the front tires about 2in and went 13.41 at 107 mph in the 1/4 mile. Back then a stock camaro IROC Z was about 15.5 to 15.2 seconds, a 5.0 mustang about 14.7 to 14.5, and a turbo lebaron around 16.0 The ones to watch out for in the '80s were the Buick Grand National T type turbo cars. A few tweaks, and solid 12 second cars on slicks. If I had to pick any 1980s car that would be it! I have a 1949 Dodge coronet 2 dr with a flathead six and Gyro-Matic transmission, and a 1950 mercury with a 255 ci flathead V8. They don't set the world on fire but are fun to drive. Back in those days a 13 second 1/4 mile was the realm of dragsters, a really built hot Ford flathead V8 in a roadster was about 175 hp and was considered FAST! they had more fun then than now, Because they built it themselves and didn't know how "slow" they were! Remember, speed is relative and you only have 32 teeth to smile with! They were using all of them back then and didn't know what a credit card was!
My dad for a short time owned the slowest but most reliable chevy nova, 1985. I have a v6 with cvt, 133k miles no issues.
Great video thanks for putting it together
I had two of the Chevette diesel cars and absolutely loved them. Driving to work and back each week cost me about $8 and they were not expensive to buy. Speed is something that I have never craved. Currently I have a Freightliner 18 foot long step van with a top speed around 45 MPH "sporting" a Cummins 4BT engine rated at 128 HP when it was new. One time in Vermont on I-91 I was only able to get 19 MPH out of it for several miles on an uphill. This doesn't bother me at all. I just sit back, listen to the radio and enjoy the view. With the giant cargo area, I may not get to my job very fast but when I do, everything I could ever need is with me and I even have living quarters built in so I can pull over and take a nap when desired.
Be wary in PA. They will get you on minimum speed.
I know this isn’t a car but I used to drive a 1990s GMC topkick box truck with a Caterpillar 3126 engine and a 6spd manual. I timed it once and it took over 1 minute to hit 60 😂
In Europe you can still get cars that take 15 seconds to 60mph. You could get a Renault clio that takes 16 seconds....
Good grief man😂
But you can drive your whole life in some parts of Europe without ever needing to get to 60MPH. In the US/Canada/Australia, it's wide-open land - you need to be able to get up to speed!
@@philojudaeusofalexandria9556
But if you are restricted to 70 mph thereafter for a long time, how much do the few seconds matter you lose to slow acceleration?
15-17 sec 0-60 cars are usable, nothing wrong with them. Got to manage momentum. A bunch of people do the opposite, that is hard braking and hard accelerating all the time. People are so aggressive 🤬 nowadays, it's crazy. 🤷♂
To make it blatantly clear and in clear terms: That is a *BAD* thing.
Someone misread their speedometer... because if you know how 55-mph was highlighted in those days, and read it carefully, that diesel LUV hit 60 in under 18-sec.
my favorite car was a 86 escort diesel wagon. 55mpg in the summer was awesome.
My diesel chevette got around the same milage. It was slow though!!
I had an 86 Tempo diesel. I think 0-60 time was closer to 8 minutes. Top speed was 72 mph going downhill with the wind at my back. It did roll coal like nothing else.
Growing up back then, I paid more attention to the big luxury cars with the big block V8's. I knew about the GM 350 diesels that were a disaster. I learned a lot today from your video. Thanks for doing this one. Cheers!
Thanks for continuing to watch
I had a Fairmont with the 2.3L 4cyl and a 4-speed. It was already named "The Slowmobile" when I got it. I can only imagine what the suckers who got it with an automatic went through; Yugo-slow indeed. The Maverick with a 170CI 6cyl and an auto trans wasn't fast either, but it was easy to drive: just floor it and take a nap. When you wake up you're at highway speed. The Chevette was called "The shove-it" because if you wanted to get there faster you had to get out and shove it. Another one was the short-lived "Pinto MPG" with a 1.6L four. And the 2.0L Rangers weren't much even with a 5-speed.
Thing is that all these got good fuel mileage, and that's what a lot of people were looking for. Traffic moved slower back then so it wasn't that much of an issue but today you'd need earplugs for all the horns honking at you to get out of the way.
I had the Zephyr with the 4 cyl (Mercury version of Fairmont). It was pretty slow, but would beat my friends Dodge Volare with the 3.7L slant six. The worst part of the car was all the vacuum lines that rotted away and made the car idle rough, stall and backfire as it aged. It never stranded me though and it towed several of my friends' cooler cars home when they broke down. It was also easy on gas and big enough to bring friends along for the ride, so I can't really complain.
We had a 71 Maverick 170 3spd auto in the early 80's. Great simple car with loads of zip, and surprisingly good handling for what it was.
@@anthonyjackson280 When I was little, I recall my dad looked at a used 76 Maverick sedan, brown on tan. He wanted a used car for my mom that was good on gas because she delivered Avon products. Don't know which engine it had, but assume the 2.3, but maybe the small 6? again, I was just a little kid. What I most recall was when mom drove it, she said "Frank ( my father) I don't like it. It's way too slow". And we didn't buy it. The irony in that was she was also looking at her 1st new car in the summer of 88 when I was 13. She was looking at (gulp) an Aries sedan. Dad test drove the car and said "Linda ( my mom) this car is too slow". And they didn't buy it. What she did find was an 87 Dodge Lancer ES turbo, blk on red, that was fully loaded, that was on the same dealership's lot tucked all the way in the back. It had just 17 miles on it, and the sticker was marked down several times. They sold it to her for the price of the new Aries, which was a tick over 9k, and 5k less than the original sticker price.
Some outrageously slow cars 😬😬 great vid as always, thank you ❤️❤️
Thank you for watching!
Love your vids, keep it up!
I appreciate that man, thank you
These car’s weren’t dangerously slow by any means. Back then the highway speed limit was 55 MPH. Most cars had about 100 HP. Sports cars had 200 HP and we thought that was smoking fast. Now people drive around in 250 HP family cars and sports cars approaching 1000 HP. Speed limits where I live is 75-80 MPH.
I tell my kids about and we laugh. We dont really need the HP we have now. I bought my son a 12 year old Lexus RX 350, it has 285 HP. He is too scared to drive it fast. Back in the day the 5.0 Mustang only had 220 HP.
75 to 80, you're getting on the on-ramps in CALIFORNIA. SoCal native don't worry about it and give it the beans 😊
A grown-up person. It completely doesn't matter how many seconds it takes to reach 60 mph (100 kmh) unless you are in a contest on how fast your car can reach that speed.
@MeBallerman In CALIFORNIA, we need a car fast enough in traffic and to be able to merge onto the freeways.
I see some people just commented without reading what I said. The speed limit was 55 miles an hour in back then. You didn’t have to get up to 80 miles an hour to get on the highway so it was perfectly fine. Driving was totally different back then.
Still have my slow 1980 F-150 shortbed with the 300 inline 6 cylinder. When it was made we had a national speed limit of 55 m.p.h.☹️
This is definitely true most cars from the seventies especially late seventies through the eighties sure didn't have no get up power..awesome video man glad to see a new post so soon.
Thanks man! I’m trying to upload at least once a week👍
As a Brit visiting the US over many decades, hiring cars there since the mid-70s from Gremlins and Pacers, through Thunderbirds, to Cadillacs, I was baffled by how slow the V6s and V8s were, especially with 4,5,6 litre engines. You would only find those on the top-end UK/European cars. I put it down to low compression ratios, lower auto-box ratios and maybe the rear differential, plus lumbering kerb weight. All seemed to be geared differently to any Euro vehicles. In the early 70's in the UK, I had an 850cc 4-speed manual Mini that was a little rocket. I currently have a 2005 Mondeo diesel 'wagon', 2-litre turbo that 'only' has 130Bhp but it can move if I want it to. And it gives me 60mpg (Imperial gallon).
I had a friend who had a calendar on the dash of his Maverick, I can only assume to measure his 0 to 60 times!
New sub. You do solid research and you keep your commentary relevant. Bonus points for not being another crummy AI voiced channel.
Chevy LUV ... (Pronounced "love") I kid you not! ... my buddy called it the Chevy SLUT, ... (Small light utility truck) ... quite a few people did!
Oh man😂
Excellent Green Hawk!!! Love those Oldsmobile pictures..these were built to last not go fast..just subbed..thanks Green Hawk
Hey man, thanks for watching!
@@GreenHawkDrive Awesome show !!
My dad bought one of those early 80's Chevette diesels....we took a road trip and drove it from Oklahoma to Arizona and back - at one point, we figured we hit 60 mpg. Highways were 55 so, speed wasn't a need at the time. Never had a single issue with that car...
Incredible
I had a diesel chevette. Absolutely reliable car. It also got 55 mpg. It was slow though. Like the young fool i was i sold it because of how slow it was.
They actually were built to last. They did everything in their power to go retro with the engine and rwd, and the car was a huge success
Great video! I knew this one would be full of diesels and you didn’t disappoint! What’s so amazing is the slowest of all was the Pontiac 1000…30sec!?!! I never remember seeing them on the interstate when they were new and that’s probably why!
A little upgrade in the shop can turn these cars very fast.
This is great for perspective when people talk about how slow a modern car is with 'only' 180 hp or whatever. My first car (in 1998) was a 1989 Ford Mustang hatchback with the 2.3L and 5 speed manual. I didn't have any sense of how slow it was at the time. My friends and I used to call it the Rally Stang because the exhaust was rusted out and I would rip it sideways around corners in the winter. When I was really young my parents had a Chevette. I still have vague memories of that and all the subsequent used Buicks they owned throughout the 80s which were probably also painfully slow.
Great video as always my dude, I’ve almost watched every video you’ve made and it’s never a disappointment
Right on man, I appreciate that a lot!
One of my friends parents in the 80s had an Oldsmobile 350 diesel full size wagon. If you pressed the accelerator, two things would happen, a black smoke screen would form in the rear view mirror, and the engine made a lot of noise. Nothing else happened. It would have needed a calendar to time a zero to sixty.
Great video Green Hawk! My folks bought 2 Chevettes in 1976 and there was 5 to 6 of us then and I know there had to be some white knuckles getting on the freeway for sure. Luckily they sold one of them the next year and bought an Impala wagon which was still on the slow side but nothing like the Chevette. Thanks for stirring up some great memories!
I had a Datsun B-210 back in high school. You could measure 0-60 with a sundial
I drove a B210 station wagon in the day, it belonged to a friend. It had a 1.4L 4-cylinder. When I saw this video I thought to myself that was the slowest car I had ever driven. We had a 1971 GMC half-ton with a 250 six/3-speed column shift and it was faster than the Datsun.
@@markreilly7052 yup. No a/c with a manual transmission. No amenities. I bought it used and that car was so reliable. Never had any issues.
I bought a new 1977 B-210 Hatchback with the Borg Warner 5Sp. at age 19 and it provided 8+ years of reliable service and cared less how gutless it was with 55mph limit. Much more important was it started every time I turned the key.
I rented a datsun 210 with the 5 speed and 1.4 engine in 1978 for a month or two. with the manual gearbox, it was not bad. I'll tell you what was really slow was I had a friend with the 1971 Datsun 1200 with the automatic. that thing would upshift to 2nd by 5 mph and 3rd by 10 mph and would never downshift on its own, even floored. the tiny engine had absolutely no low end touque, and accelleration was literally slower than in a loaded semi. WE are talking 10-30 times of 20 seconds. I had owned a 28 hp Renault 4 overseas that was much faster than that!
Yep, the slowest car I've ever owned was a 79 B210 with the 65hp 1.2, but it had the 5 speed, so around town it wasn't too awful. But on the hwy I had to keep it in 4th gear if I wanted to run the a/c. In OD with the a/c on, it couldn't stay at 65mph. Whomever ordered that car ( we found the window sticker in the glove box) was an odd ball. Factory pop up sunroof, factory am/fm cassette, electric rear window defrost, a/c, electric clock, white wall tires, full sized spare, dual outside mirrors, factory undercoating but no p/s and no tach. That car weighed next to nothing and mileage was unreal. I drove it many yrs until the clutch exploded and broke the bellhousing. Off to the crusher. I shoulda fixed it because it was rust free and everything worked.
Great vid Hawk! Never heard anyone call a LUV a "L.U.V." before! Had a 79 LUV I bought for 500 bucks to haul trash. It was slow, but like you alluded to, most regular rides back then were too. Some slow cars were fun though. Drove around a aircooled VW Vanagon for awhile and still managed to love it LOL. One of the slowest drag races in history had to be me in a 79 Toyota pickup vs my friend with a 4 cylinder automatic Chevy Celebrity wagon. I think I won by a bumper length.
My 1st car was a 1978 Pontiac grand prix not a speedy car but the greatest ever. They really knew how to make a great dependable car back then ❤
Great video add new subscriber
Thank you man!
My Mom had a 1983 Buick Regal sedan with the 231 V6 and three-speed auto, had traded a 1970 Estate Wagon with the 455 and three-on-the-tree (rare but there were a couple of dozen made that way). The Regal had so many glitches and quality lapses that we lost count.
One day she was following me (I was driving an '85 Omni 2.2 with automatic, my Dad's car, and the Regal couldn't keep up.
When we got home she said, "Take me to the Buick Place. I'm getting a new car with a V8!"
She did, too. A brand-new 1994 Roadmaster with the detuned Corvette engine, 260 horsepower and cop-bait red.
She had that car as long as she was able to drive, and it was her chauffeured coach for the rest of her life.
I inherited it when she passed, but really didn't need an extra car and insurance bill, sold it to a friend of her yard man.
I heard it had been wrecked a couple of years later....
The little Buick V6 started as a 196 Odd Fire motor in 1962. Later, in 67, it was punched to a 225 V6 and sold to Jeep AMC. GM later bought it back and punched it again so Chevy 350 parts would work on internals, making it a 3.8. In 87, Buick had the fastest production car. The Buick GNX and Chevrolet cried about that because you can't have a Buick beating a Corvette. I have a 67 Buick Special Deluxe bought new by my great-grandparents with the 225 Odd Fire V6 and 2 speed switch pitch trans. It has run 18s in the 1/4 here in California SoCal tracks Pomona and LACR.
@@thomasthurston6656 Actually, the displacement went to 225 cubes in 1964 model year with the up-sized Special and other A-body GM mid-sizers, the 225 also available in the Olds F-85 for '64 only because it shook like a motel Magic Fingers bed massager (Olds sourced the Chevy 230, and later the 250 from '65 through '69). The 225 shared bore and stroke with the 300 cubic inch _Wildcat 310_ V8.
Of course Pontiac had their own push-rod inline six (similar to the Chevy six, but with Pontiac-specific displacement) until the OHC six came out for 1966.
The switch-pitch Super Turbine 300 two-speed trans is often confused with the Powerglide, same 1.57:1 low gear ratio, but the only part from a Powerglide that sort-of worked with the Super Turbine 300 was the passing gear kickdown. We had a passing gear kickdown fail on a cross-country trip on a Saturday afternoon after the Buick dealer had closed for the weekend in Athens, Alabama. A shade-tree mechanic got a part from a wrecked Biscayne, and it sort of worked, though not as smoothly as the original.
If AMC had refused to sell the V6 tooling back to Buick in 1973, they would have had a ready-available engine to fit in the Pacer when GM cancelled the Wanker --- uh--- Wankel engine they had offered to supply and around which AMC's team designed their fishbowl.
I had a neighbor who got one of the mid-seventies odd-fire 231s in a LeSabre back in the day. What a slug!
Another neighbor built a red CJ from a kit, I believe it had the odd-fire 225, and it was, as I recall, pretty peppy.
@5610winston Yeah, I got dates wrong. 64, it was punched to a 225. The 215 was sold to Rover, and the V6 was cheaper to make.
@5610winston I have had a few kickdowns break. The Stator is ez to find and can also be moved to a toggle. My 67 will chirp the tires at about 55 at the down shift, getting on the freeways here in CALIFORNIA, SoCal.
@@thomasthurston6656 That road trip was in 1973, the '66 Special DeLuxe went away a few weeks later due to the rear window was rusted out, supplanted by a '73 Dodge Coronet, a real schlep. Mom bought the Estate wagonand I "inherited" the Coronet, _The Green Latrine._
These cars are now long gone, I've had a series of four-cylinder Nissan King Cabs, a couple of Studebakers, a Falcon, an inherited Omni and the Roadmaster (not for long) and I now have the Subaru.
"You can sell a young man's car to an old man, but you'll never sell n old man's car to a young man."
Stick to it brother.... You're getting better 👌
Thank you man!
You are not a large channel yet but I am impressed with your work and Subscribed.
This reminds me of 'Barts' videos (most about old motorcycle history) and you sound like him too.
These should generate lots of comments. Good luck in the future.
My first car 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. 305ci Crossfire engine with 169hp and a 3 speed automatic. It was slow. I don't remember the 0-60, but it would red-line at 102mph.
Your doing good work. You earned a subscribe.👍
Thank you man
@@GreenHawkDrive no thank you.
My first car in 95 was an 80 Chevy Monza Spyder with the Buick 3.8 / TH350 auto. With the steep rear gear, it was soooo slow, but I loved that car. Also owned an 87 Chevette 4 door with power steering AND power brakes! Then I got a mint 83 Celebrity off an old lady. Only had to change the rusted out gas tank. The 2.8 sucked, especially once I figured out that 2nd gear was gone. But it was comfy and quiet.
Great video! As a child of the '80s, I have a bad memory of driving with my parents on a two-lane road in my mom's 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlas. She tried to overtake someone at 50 MPH, and had to drop back because she wasn't going to be able to make it before the oncoming car would have hit us. I've done that same drive in my '95 GMC Jimmy as well as in my 2006 Avalanche and never had a problem.
My mother had one of those Pontiac T-1000's, it was a slug!! I drove it one time and I thought something was wrong with it!! Lol!
WOW! I finally found a car slower than my old 1983 Firebird 2.5 iron duke! I would've beaten that Pontiac 1000! Probably nothing else though. lol
My buddy in hs had an 82 with the 2.5 and auto. Embarrassingly slow for a car that looked so good!
@@adamtrombino106 Yeah, it struggled to even get on a highway! iI couldn't deal with it for long and ended up pulling it for a 5.7tpi out of a IROC! lol
Yay!!! Green Hawk first thing in the morning! My parents had a Chevy Luv!! At the same time they had a tiny 2 door Datsun and the Luv was faster than the Datsun but not by much. I remember being like 5-6 years old and being with momma, racing Pops and everyone was laughing. Really miss the 80s. And my momma. 😢
In 1978, the Chevrolet Corvette was selected as the Indy 500 pace car. The reason for this was simple: The pace car needed to reach a speed of 100 miles per hour, and Corvette was the only production automobile which could do this at the time.
You mean it was the only AMERICAN BUILT production vehicle that could do 100mph at the time! My Triumph Dolomite Sprint was built in 1978. 2.0 litre SOHC 16v inline 4, 4 speed manual trans with optional overdrive, 127bhp, 0-60 in 8.2 secs and top speed 118mph from a British 4 door, 4 seat, mid size (by our standards) sedan!
And you are telling me that my humble cooking sedan could have blown the doors off the quickest car in America that year? Well DAMN boy, that's made my day!
We had fast looking slow, very slow cars in the early 80s...
Such an interesting video. I don’t know how you find the time to do the research, gather the clips, work on the format and narration. Fairdos bro! 👌🏻 I quite like the look of the Newport and the other cars shared on that Chevy platform. I can’t stand diesel engines though, they used to be quite big over here and in Europe. I always found it funny people cruising around in diesel convertibles, trying to pose with a tractor engine.
As of lately it’s been my full time job while in college! You should like next weeks video a little bit more as there will be lots of euro wagons featured
The video is very well done. I enjoyed most the comments and subbed.
Now I am going to look for more of his videos.
@@davidmacphee3549 I’m letting you know that my older videos aren’t the best😂
@@GreenHawkDrive A lot to learn for making videos. I don't make them But I do watch lots. I just watched the one you did on Land yachts( a month ago.)
Keep up the good work.
@@GreenHawkDrive I cant believe YT went right ahead and seems to have deleted my very first comment to you Hawk. Here is again unedited.
"You are not a large channel yet but I am impressed with your work and Subscribed. This reminds me of 'Barts' videos (most about old motorcycle history) and you sound like him too. These should generate lots of comments. Good luck in the future."
What's wrong with that!
I drove a company car, 1982 Oldsmobile diesel. It was a slow dog of a car. Quite comfortable, as we carpooled in it. I did not have to feed it, so I can't say what the fuel mileage was. We only drove it for about a year.
I owned a few 80s cars. The slowest one was a 1980 Pontiac Phoenix. It had the 2.5 L Iron Duke mated to a 3-speed automatic. It had a 0-60 time of 14.7 seconds which wasn't terrible for the era. I do remember that it took an uncomfortably long time to pass another vehicle especially if I was going uphill. Unfortunately, it was an infamous X-Car and had a number of mechanical issues. I do not look back fondly at the Malaise Era.
That slow president limousine makes it a sitting duck for an attack as it tries to go to the next city block
Thanks for making these videos I enjoy watching them all 👍
My wife fell in love with the color & bought a used '85 Buick Century with a 4 cylinder 2.5. The absolute slowest most dangerous car to try to merge on a freeway vehicle we ever owned. We had the car for a year & finally sold it. Another slug was an '83 Eldorado with the 4100 HT V8 that I owned for 4 weeks. It was absolutely gorgeous, the same color combo as in the movie Casino, triple silver but it was very slow. Reminded me of some high school dates when I was a teenager, nice to look at & that's about it. Couldn't wait to get rid of the Caddy. Yet one of the quickest cars I owned was an '85 Riv T-type with the Grand National 3.8 Turbo. What a sleeper.
This is a fine program on car history.
Another good vid _fresh and original topic 👌_
(If I'm giving constructive criticism, watch the spoilers at the beginning of the vids ... topic is interesting enough for you to just jump right into it without giving some of the 0-60 times(ish) or saying what type of cars are on the list ect.. but I guarantee I'm the only one who thinks this cause I'm crazy sometimes lol. So just know I support you 💯 Hawk !)
I currently have two cars on this list. An '82 Olds wagon with the 5.7 V8 diesel and an '84 Chevette with the 1.8 diesel.
A little known fact is that when you turned on the a/c on it a Chevette it would stall the car 😂😂 I had 12 of them over the years and never one with a:c nor a diesel. The only time I ever saw one was one of my many trips to Florida. As a long time mechanic I would notice stuff like that. Also I really like how you don't mention the car instead you use numbers. I only noticed that because I had to pause it for a minute. Very good idea because it stops people( including myself " from just scrolling through and seeing what type of car's are on the list and only clicking it on when I see a car that I'm interested in. I don't know if you planned it like that or not but it's definitely a smart idea 👍🇨🇦🔧
Life was better when it was slower.
I can/t believe I have 2 of the cars in the list, Ford Tempo and Pontiac T 1000. Except the kids from a nearby high school took an interest on my Tempo and after they were done I have a front wheel drive Ford Tempo that can go 0-60 in 11 seconds. It also look meaner, lower, wider, and very light: like 1000 pounds lighter.
Obsessing over 0-60 misses the point with diesels. They pull and give decent in-gear acceleration, it's about the torque.
The 2.3 for that Granada is definitely underwhelming
I had a Mercury Zephyr. It’s slow but dependable:)
My 79 Monte Carlo with the 267ci v8 was the slowest car I owned and I'm 53 😅 0-60 in 2 days. It was dangerous 😅
I like the looks on a lot of these cars if I were to own any of them especially the ones that weigh 2500-4000 Ibs id be putting an engine with at least 240+hrsp and 300+pft
My dad bought a 68 El Camino off a friend, 1 year later, while coming home from work the rear end collapsed, the tires couldn't turn. We drug it home, a mile, I had a 69 Pontiac Bonneville with a 400 engine with a Quadra jet carb. and cherrybomb muffler. I loved that car.
From Leo: A common thing about all the slow cars. They were affordable, dependable, got you to & from work, school, shopping, visiting, vacations, and everything else you needed to do. No multi thousand dollar repair bills for turbochargers, cvt transmissions, cam phasers, Head gaskets, etc that seem to have become normal. You did not have to pull the engine for a water pump or take the cab off the truck to do maintenance. I am so frustrated with the high priced junk of today, a minty 1976 Granada would be an improvement. I have a Kawasaki Ninja if I want fast.
I own a low mileage 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass with the 5.7 diesel. The official zero to 60 time is 17.1 seconds, but in reality it seems better. The real let down is trying to pass on a two lane highway, the 45 to 70 time is painfully slow due to the rear axle ratio of 2.29 :1. I also have driven the diesel Chevette, as well as my mom having a gas Chevette. Ah, growing up in the 80's.
One of the slowest accelerating vehicles I can remember riding in was a 6.2 liter diesel powered 1980s Chevrolet 3500 extended cab dually, with a 3 speed automatic. And it wasn't like the truck was worn out or old at the time, it was barely 3 years old. I was still a kid, and yet I was stunned at how slow it was. That family friend later bought a brand new 3500 crew cab dually with the turbo 6.5 liter diesel and a 5 speed manual transmission in the mid 1990s. He was much happier with that truck, to the point 15 years later, he was still driving the truck till a few days before his death.
6.5, dually and 3500…absolute unit man
I had a mid-80s Suburban with the 350 diesel I bought used to tow a travel trailer. Not even a full throttle downshift at 40 mph would make much difference in acceleration. It WAS a dangerous vehicle on anything but a downhill freeway entrance ramp.
everything Cadillac
Anything GM with the 307 VIN Y motor....
Be happy that these battle ship size cars were so slow. With their road holding, they would have caused more damage than a battle ship at high speed.
The slant 6 was bulletproof
Could You Imagine Chevette Diesel Automatic.... My Mom had a 1984 Ford Escort w/Mazda 2.0L Diesel 5-Speed.... WHOA....The Ranger Diesel was a Mazda-Perkins 2.2L!
IF the ford van had a 300 inline 6 I bet the time will be quicker then you think. That 300 six is a torque monster.
I worked as a delivery guy for a florist when I was in college that had an 87ish E150 panel van ( so just 2 seats) with the 300 ( fuel injected) and the AOD. Being such a strippo, it moved just fine, but was terrible in the rain and snow. Spinning that van out was n/p and it happened a lot!
Pontiac T-1000 is a Chevette, the Pontiac is just a rebadged Chevette. I'd think you'd have noticed the rear lights because they didn't even try to change anything, they were the same.
30 seconds 0-60 time of that Pontiac! WTF! 😂😂😂😂
That's to give you time to contemplate life while leisurely smoking a cigarette....
@@adamtrombino106 I like that! 😂 👌🏻