cars through out time

big topic i know, but is there one era over another that you like cars made then more then any other time. for instance the prewar cars, muscle, 50's, or modern (and we will break down modern into late model < 10 years or less, and non late model, 10 or more.

We've had some damn fine cars in the last 10 years but I really like the late 50's and early 60's cars. They just have this classy but badass look to them...most of them anyways.

Late 80's/early 90's. Japanese turbocharged monsters galore - two bad-ass RX-7's, two bad-ass Fairlady Z's, and the STi and the Evo, just to name a few. And the American auto industry finally starting to get back on its feet with economy cars like the Ford Taurus and Chevrolet Cavalier, and Dodge making good use of turbo power. And the Camaro, Firebird, and Corvette finally getting some balls back.

60's early 70's...in Japan you have the birth of icon, celica supra, Skyline GT-R, Fairladyz, RX7, and GTO. In the US, there's impala SS, GTO, mustang, covette stingray, camaro, chevelle (sp). and in Europe, 250GTO, murioa (sp), fiat 500f (i remeber is from the 60's), Bora, bmw 200, DB5, 600s pullman etc,911.

For American cars it was the mid-late 60's. I love the 60's Mustangs and Camaros.

For the Japanese sports cars it was the 90's with the Supra TT, 300ZX TT, RX-7, and Honda/Acura NSX. The only modern Japanese sports car that I really like is the S2000. For Japanese Luxury cars they've only really got to compete with Europe this decade with the G35, IS350, and M35/M45.

For Europe it just seems to get better and better.

I thought that BMW had reached its peak around 2001-2002 with the E46 M3, E39 M5, E38 740iL, S54 Z3 M Roadster, S54 Z3 M Coupe, and Z8 but more and more I'm not so sure about that. The E90 is a better car then the E46, the E60 M5 is the god of all sedans, the facelifted 7-series looks great, the facelifted Z4 and Z4 M roadster is great, we're getting the Alpina B7, and rumors are flying all over the place about a new BMW M Supercar.

Other then BMW, Porsche keeps getting better and better, but Audis from the 80's and Benzes from the 50's have a bigger place in my heart then anything new. There isn't a whole lot of Ferraris I don't like.

80's German cars

There's never really been a golden age of motoring, car wise anyway. There have been bad times for particular cars, such as post fuel-crisis for American and British cars or the 70's for Japanese cars or the 80's and 90's for Korean and most French cars.

There's never really been a dark age for the Germans though, each decade had its' bad points, but there's always been a goodpoint to counter balance it.

Italain cars I suppose went downhill in the 90's in the case of Fiat, Alfa and Lancia, but all 3 are on the road to redemption now (Alfa has been since the 156)

I really liked the mid 90's, the simple reason being that it produced my favourite shape 911 - the 993, and my favourite 'small' Ferrari - The F355.

im gonna have to go with late 80s through mid 90s. cars were getting out of the performance slump of the 80s but still had good designs and lightweight bodies. the problem with todays cars is they are too heavy and have way to much shit you dont need. also in the 90s people didnt think that 4 doors or ugly hatches were cool. in the 90s people were not driving enormous suvs, people didnt say "cool explorer or cool blazer" now every idiot in town is driving around in an suv with big chrome rims listening to rap music. and most of all my favorite company, toyota, were not a bunch of wussy soccer moms in the 90s. in 93(toyotas golden year imo) they had the celica alltrac, mr2 turbo, and mk4 supra, in the states. after 2000 they just went downhill. and in 2005 they reached a true low point, no celica nor mr2. now toyota is ruled by the faux-sporty corolla s and matrix xrs. a family sedan and minivan posing as sports cars. i wont even get started on scion.

then look At companies like dodge, coming out with crap like the charger, magnum, 300c, and caliper srt-4. a bunch of crap. overweight 4 doors posing as sports cars. they had something going with the neon srt-4 but decided to replace it with the hideous overweight caliper.

Since when has the 300C/Charger been a sports car or marketed as such? The 300C has always been squarely aimed at luxury buyers and the Charger is just a 300C set up to hark back to muscle cars (That they themselves were just overweight 2/4 doors posing as Sports cars back in the day) visually and a sllightly sportier suspension/brake set up.

im gonna have to go with late 80s through mid 90s. cars were getting out of the performance slump of the 80s but still had good designs and lightweight bodies. the problem with todays cars is they are too heavy and have way to much shit you dont need. also in the 90s people didnt think that 4 doors or ugly hatches were cool. in the 90s people were not driving enormous suvs, people didnt say "cool explorer or cool blazer" now every idiot in town is driving around in an suv with big chrome rims listening to rap music. and most of all my favorite company, toyota, were not a bunch of wussy soccer moms in the 90s. in 93(toyotas golden year imo) they had the celica alltrac, mr2 turbo, and mk4 supra, in the states. after 2000 they just went downhill. and in 2005 they reached a true low point, no celica nor mr2. now toyota is ruled by the faux-sporty corolla s and matrix xrs. a family sedan and minivan posing as sports cars. i wont even get started on scion.

then look At companies like dodge, coming out with crap like the charger, magnum, 300c, and caliper srt-4. a bunch of crap. overweight 4 doors posing as sports cars. they had something going with the neon srt-4 but decided to replace it with the hideous overweight caliper.

Good post. We had a lot of good Japanese cars in the early- to mid-90's, and we didn't even have the Skyline GT-R, Impreza WRX STi, Lancer Evolution, or 6th gen. Celica GT-4, so that's saying something.

some cars are timeless..

rolls-royce..class in any era

jaguar e-type...sheer style

the mini cooper..as british as the queen ..a true icon

To me, different markets had golden ages at different times. I think there was a golden age of motoring going on in Europe in the late 50's/early 60's. There was a golden age in the US during the musclecar era (1964-1972), and a japanese car golden age in the early 90's. My favorite is the european golden age. To me, there's nothing more appealing than a Le Mans car that's available in your local showroom that you can drive to work each day. Imagine driving something like a Porsche 904 as your personal weekend toy. That's the golden age of cars.

Since when has the 300C/Charger been a sports car or marketed as such? The 300C has always been squarely aimed at luxury buyers and the Charger is just a 300C set up to hark back to muscle cars (That they themselves were just overweight 2/4 doors posing as Sports cars back in the day) visually and a sllightly sportier suspension/brake set up.


ok maybe not the 300c, but the charger and calipersrt-4 are advertised as such and they kinda suck.

We don't really know how well the new SRT-4 will perform yet. Sure, it's gained some weight since the previous version, but it's also more powerful and riding on a much more modern platform (which, I might add, is being shared with the Lancer Evolution X). I'd be willing to bet it'll still perform pretty damn well.

We don't really know how well the new SRT-4 will perform yet. Sure, it's gained some weight since the previous version, but it's also more powerful and riding on a much more modern platform (which, I might add, is being shared with the Lancer Evolution X). I'd be willing to bet it'll still perform pretty damn well.


true, with 300hp it will be no joke preformance wise, but any self-respecting sports car enthusiast would not be caught dead in that ugly toaster.

i dont think youll be saying that when that ugly toaster blows you away. besides personally given the limited choice of the wagons of today ( focus, caliber, vibe,) i think ild rather have the caliber srt4. dodge just seems to get into the performance stuff more then chevy and ford.

ive always thought only 2 things are more embarissing then getting blown away by a minivan, and thats either a pink car, or a wagon.

i dont think youll be saying that when that ugly toaster blows you away. besides personally given the limited choice of the wagons of today ( focus, caliber, vibe,) i think ild rather have the caliber srt4. dodge just seems to get into the performance stuff more then chevy and ford.

ive always thought only 2 things are more embarissing then getting blown away by a minivan, and thats either a pink car, or a wagon.


why would you want a wagon anyways. not exactly the most manly cars. i wouldnt say dodge is that into performance, more like into ugly, overweight, junk.

the viper was outclassed by the zo6, the charger was outclassed by the gto, mustang gt, and soon to be camaro. the old srt-4 was outclassed by the cobalt ss. dodge trucks were outclassed by the titan/chevy/ford/etc.

even if i lost to a caliber, which i would, i would still be like "my car may be slow, but atleast its not an ugly toaster"

BS. the Ram SRT-10 shits all over every truck, especially shitty assed Chevy ones.

true black scorpion, but i always thought its never the look of the car that wins the races, its whats under the hood. the fact its a wagon just makes it hurt more though.

come to think of it ive always seen the makes like:
ford: pretty boy
chevy: mans man
dodge: the dark horse

of course that is a rought way of looking at it. but basically, i always thought ford was more into looks (ie the intro of the mustang, the most radically shaped for its time). chevy i thought was into power, the 350, 454, 396, and the looks always looked strong (ie chevelle) but dodge was always something different.

true black scorpion, but i always thought its never the look of the car that wins the races, its whats under the hood. the fact its a wagon just makes it hurt more though.

come to think of it ive always seen the makes like:
ford: pretty boy
chevy: mans man
dodge: the dark horse

of course that is a rought way of looking at it. but basically, i always thought ford was more into looks (ie the intro of the mustang, the most radically shaped for its time). chevy i thought was into power, the 350, 454, 396, and the looks always looked strong (ie chevelle) but dodge was always something different.


yea thats true but i dont care how fast a car is, if it is ugly i will not buy it. cars ARE not just about speed theyre also about style. and while style and looks are subjective i dont think there is anyone here who would say the caliper is stylish or good looking.

dodge had to take a detuned race car (viper) to make a fast street car, then had 2 put that motor in a truck just to make it fast.............ford had 2 put a super charger on anything to make it fast............chevy started with the vette ( started as a street car and dosent have a supercharger)........


my vote goes 2 chevy

am i the only one who doesn't understand what he is trying to say?
ford using a supercharger makes it not as good?

dodge had to take a detuned race car (viper) to make a fast street car, then had 2 put that motor in a truck just to make it fast.............ford had 2 put a super charger on anything to make it fast............chevy started with the vette ( started as a street car and dosent have a supercharger)........


my vote goes 2 chevy

So let's say the Viper is a detuned race car (that's pretty arguable). How does that make it any worse than the Corvette? It's worse because it's more expensive, less practical, and doesn't offer any more performance, not because it's a "detuned race car".

Your knock on Ford makes no sense at all. Ford doesn't even have any supercharged cars in their current lineup, save for the exotic Ford GT. You talk as if GM never supercharged the Regal GS, Grand Prix GTP, or Cobalt SS. And why is supercharging a bad thing, anyways? Forced induction gives you a lot more power potential than a similar displacement N/A engine.

I don't really like any of the three, but I have to give Chrysler/Dodge some credit for being the black sheep. While GM and Ford were trying to dig their V8 RWD pony cars out of the shitter back in the 80's, Dodge was making small, turbocharged FWD sport compacts like the Omni GLHS and Daytona R/T. While GM and Ford practically abandoned the car market during the 90's and retreated to the truck and SUV market, Dodge actually made halfway decent, fun-to-drive cars like the Neon, Intrepid, and Stealth. While Ford and GM were still making boring full-size sedans like the Crown Victoria and the Impala, Chrysler breathed life back into the American full-size sedan with the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger. Though a lot of people don't like their "different" models (just look at how many people call the Neon a "grandma's car"), I respect them for their innovation, affordability, and inherent sportiness.