Transforming VW (which was so far behind the times) and being innovative are very different things. The Golf and Passat were good, but nothing was new, the layouts and body styles were tried and tested. What they did was build them well, where the competition didn't!
@@mrmunchcorp Building them well was half of the story. The other half was lower mechanical stress due to lower performance. Back in 1960s, Fiat 1,5 liter push rod had better power to capacity ratio than basic 1990s VW-Audi engines. 75 or 82BHP versus 75 from 1,8 liter in Audi 80 B3. Enter Lampredi's Twin Cam in 1966 and Fiat reached power to capacity ratio that became standard for other manufactuers in late 90s/early 2000s.
@@piotrmalewski8178 Its not hard to build a powerful engine if you can do as you want, with no regulations to ruin your fun, all makes struggled to put out the power, even American muscle cars had basically been reduced to 1/3 of the power some of them made in the 60's and early 70's. But now we dont have to worry anymore, everyone and their cat will have a 600 hp monster in their garage going forward! :D
in the early 70s a Simca was a classy car, my grandmother drove one and in comparison to the little Honda my parents drove it felt high brew. Her next car otc would become this anglo-franco-combi and meanwhile my parents switched from a cvcc to an accord an even a simple golf mk1, and in 1982 this Chrysler in comparison felt very sluggish, cheap and plastic, but it had such a smooth ride I loved it.
My dad still has his SDi V8-S tucked away with a dead 2600 organ donor. Still in the back seat is the brittax booster cushion I last sat on over 40 years ago! Thanks for another year of great automotive facts!
My father had a Fiat 128 1500cc at the same time I had a Chevy Monte Carlo 5700cc. The Fiat had more interior room, was quicker, and got twice the fuel economy.
@@andreamassara590 Maybe 1300, that was the "big" engine in the 128. The Monte Carlo was a crime against space utilization - GM made it by putting a Chevelle coupe body meant for a 112" wheelbase on the 116" wb Chevelle sedan chassis, with the 4-doors' extra rear seat space reapportioned to extra hood length.
Nice videos series. Two remarks. The car of the year election was a dutch initiative from a dutch magazine. They invited other magazine to make a competition together. Value for money was NOT an element for the jury till 79. That is why Mercedes and porsche could win.
Australia's Wheels magazine lays claim to being 'the world's oldest continuous motoring award of its kind' with its initial winner being the Renault 8 in 1963. This predates the European COTY award by a year.
Nice Vid! The most influential car on the list is... drum roll... the Fiat 128: First to have the FWD/transverse engine sitting on top of the gearbox-setup that came to dominate mass produced car design up to this very day.
It was the Autobianchi Primula which was the first FWD car to feature an end-on gearbox, and was the test bed for the 128. BMC used the engine sitting on gearbox configuration.
The 928 was an amazing car, lots of innovation there, but the depreciation meant many of them ended up with owners who couldn’t afford them which ruined many of them. Also, the positioning as a luxury GT meant most of them were specced with the tragic automatic slushbox. Still, it was in production for 18 years, so it’s hard to label it a flop.
Trying to remember who it was, but someone I knew bought a 928 with a duff autobox for next to nothing. No idea if it was a common trick, but there was a van manual gearbox (VW van of some type?) that almost just fell into the 928.
My first gen RX-7 was great - the drivetrain delivered far beyond the numbers. Whenever I see an early MX-5 dash, I can see the RX-7 innards behind it.
In the late '80s, I purchased a Rover SD1 2600cc straight six-cylinder, five-speed gearbox for GBP 500 with 100k on the clock, ran it for two years, and drove another 50k using the car like a van, moving loads across Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. It never let me down. Basis servicing and tyres only. Sold it for GBP 500 and wish I still had it today. The build quality aside, it had some bottom door rust. The car was so comfortable and had decent power. Long, low, and wide, it had amazing road holding. Rover designed a great car but did not have the people to deliver it. Such a shame. Reg GEW 571Y.
I will never forget the Talbot Horizon as the old boy Ken who was the painter at the body shop I worked at when I left school had one and as the distinctive Talbot Rattle could be heard coming up the lane way before he was in sight. My old boss once remarked that it sounded like a kid had emptied his sack of marbles in the rocker cover
I couldn't believe my eyes about 7 or 8 years ago when I saw a CX Familiale in a car park here in Brisbane, Australia. I used to lust after that car as a kid and seeing one again so recently and over here so long after they stopped getting made was a bit of a wow moment. I admired that thing for far too long. Anyone going by would have thought I was casing it. 😛
Love the series. Used to have a 928. Well engineered but clearly not the GT Porsche expected it to be. And that is a shame. I used it for moving house. Could take a decent amount of boxes at 275 km/h.
As a young student I used my 2CV for moving house. Could take a decent amount of boxes at 75km/h. Even my 21" tube tv fit in, but only through the roof.
The SD1 will always be a great car to me, i owned 6 over a period, all V8's, but i was never lucky enough to own a Vitesse, I've had Jags, BM's, Range Rovers, but always went back to the SD1, wish I'd kept them
I had a Citroen GS for a while when it was a couple of years old. Fantasically comfortable and could cruise at 80mph all day long while only sipping fuel.
The Horizon also won Motor Trend's 1978 Car of the Year award here in the U.S., and was the first front wheel drive, transverse engine car from an American automaker. Chrysler intended to replace it with derivatives of their K-Car platform, but kept the Horizon/Omni in production as a low-cost competitor to imports like the Yugo, Hyundai Excel, and Geo Metro/Suzuki Swift -- in the late '80s it was the cheapest American-made car you could buy. Chrysler produced it until 1990, even adding a driver's airbag in its final model year.
Of all makes Citroën is my favorite. There are many others I like (VW campers, Rover classics, NSU Ro-80 to name a few). Those old Mercs are still absolutely gorious!
The only cars I thought were dullards were the FIAT 128, (the engineering was superb, but the styling was a child's drawing) and the Chrysler Alpine. But the other cars, I agree with the Car of The Year panel. Pity the SD1 had it's problems. Hope you had an enjoyable Christmas.
The Fiat “128” Lampredi SOHC engine was a legendary success right through into the mid 90s and even beyond in 12v and 16v developments in the European Car of the Year winning Brava and Bravo (and the Marea / Multipla descendents).
nice compilation, thanks! Many of them don't really "look old" today. Still, there is diversity. I like the GS. One of the very few cars that were totally new. Design, wheelbase, engine, innovations - and all this for a mass market. Bravo!
I never understood the Chrysler Horizon winning COTY - although the runner-up, the Ritmo/Strada wasn’t much better. Think they just got lucky that year!
Long term ownership trumps design. There have been complete videos on Rover SD1 problems such as paint coming off when dealers cleaned them ready for sale. And that car had a fairly reliable powertrain.
1:11 - Interesting that you should mention the SM, because in the United States that won _Motor Trend's_ Import Car of the Year Award. So even though the Europeans preferred the more bread-and-butter models, the SM at least had some fans across the pond.
Most Europeans could only afford / justify buying the "bread and butter" models. Meanwhile something like a Ford Mustang would be seen as an exotic enthusiasts car.
My take-away from this series so far is "how often the judges got it wrong". Just goes to show how most people take style over substance when it comes to cars.
I actually owened a Golf and the Chrysler Horizon. I must say that the Golf was better in everything. I couldn’t believe that the Horizon was chosen as car of the year. It was mentioned proudly on the sticker abouw the rearwindow. It was a dud.
Der Titel wird leider von RUclips automatisch ins Deutsche übersetzt, das habe ich schon bei mehreren Kanälen gesehen. Mich würde interessieren, wie der originale Titel lautet.
@@Timico1000 'Car of the Year in the Seventies: a peach or a lemon?' Seit einige Zeiten haben wir den selben Problem in Italien, Videos auf Englisch (oder andere Sprachen) mit übersetzen Titel...
@antoniomodonutti2205 It is really annoying as you can't turn off (or at least pre-select by language) the automatic translation, same with the audio track. I'm happy if i can get a translation for languages i don't speak, but for english i really don't need it. Btw: how/why does YT translate "peach" and "lemon" into "Reinfall" aka failure?!
I don' t know, I am Italian, neither English nor German are my native languages... anyway, as far as I know, lemon is something like a carve up, a cheat (I remember a Meat Loaf song, Life' s a lemon and I want my money back), so I suppose a peach is something good, nice...
@@antoniomodonutti2205 That's why i don't get the translation. Bad cars are often called "lemons" and it makes sense to translate it with "Reinfall" or Fallimento. But "peach" definitely isn't a Reinfall.
Both the horizon and the simca 1307 suffered from rust and bad building quality. The 128 also scored in that area. Even the golf 1 rusted but the build quality was still on par. Panel gaps etc. Unfortunately you can not test real quality in a road test or coty election.
Mopar Quality Lottery, get a good one and it's as good as anything but they have more than their fair share of lemons and always have (at least going back to the rush-job "Suddenly it's 1960!" '57 models.
The Horizon was a good car and continued to sell in North America through the 1990 model year. I know they were different in many ways, but the overall design/plan was the same. Chrysler made many other cars from this platform. I owned a Chrysler Alpine/Simca 1307 which I really liked as well. These cars (Horizon and Alpine) always seem to be derided by reviewers (including here) when they did sell and had some real innovations. Corporate stupidity, build quality, and bad marketing were more at fault than the cars themselves.
It’s interesting that ECOTY invariably vote for a car which was an evolutionary design from a previous model rather than being “ Clean Sheet “designs such as the car that one its first accolade, the Rover P6 , and again with the Porsche 928 in 1978. 😊
The Chrysler/Talbot Horizon didn't really fade from memory quickly. It was in production for n in nine years (1978 to 1987). Fairly run-of-the-mill and conventional, based on the Alpine mechanicals. Rust, like many Talbots and other cars of the era, killed them.
It sold until 1990 in America, having gotten a pretty substantial price cut in 1987 and EFI for 1988 and those must've been much better rustproofed than the Euro ones since they mostly seemed to come off the road when something mechanical needed repair that was more than the car was worth to fix.
@@nlpnt In the U.K. they salt the roads in winter. It was more common for rust to write off a car than mechanical failure. Lancia pulled out of the U.K. market after some of their cars failed their first safety inspection due to rust at just three years old.
Chrysler was a massive contributor to the market. The housing market, having been responsible for so many down payments for automotive journalists homes both years!
In many cases the European cars of the '70's were the last gasp of 50's technology that had been warmed over twice to make it to the '70's, yet they blindly soldiered on hoping for success with the third warm over to make it to the 80's. No account was made for the Japanese, whose early 70's cars were 50's warm overs too, but were to quickly change into new offerings at a much reduced price. It is almost like they never saw the Japanese coming.
You do know that was an engineered 'laugh'? My Dad had an SD1 V8 for three years as our family car, towed a caravan with it and nothing ever went wrong. 🙂
I know I'm biased as I have one, but the W123 would have won one year, considering its reputation today and 2.7 million production, plus still in use as taxies in African, although being phased out now.
I recall the Chrysler Alpine being announced as car of the year and being hailed as spacious, modern and good value. It wasn't long before they always seemed to have rattly engines and rusty bodies. The car of the year didn't feel like such a positive award.
That Rover SD-1's build quality and reliability was on par with the Tesla Cyber ( pronounced "SUCKER") truck, lol. I would have a 928 but the factory service manual is nearly 2 feet in width. Not a machine for the average home mechanic.
Ignorant comment. That was the technology of the day.They did not consider their vehicles as junk 50 years ago. If you read comment sections on car content of today's cars, people proclaim everything built today as junk too. Seems like your time has not yet come.
The Mercedes S class and the Porsche don't make much sense as CotY, because they are not aimed at the general public. The Horizon seems difficult to justify, since it was nothing more than a rebodied Simca 1100 and was a bland car if ever there was one. Not saying it was the case, but the possibility of some fishy voting is always there. Seems also that the journos rewarded the driving dynamics above anything else, while the general public may have had other priorities, like comfort, economy or build quality. Which may explain the absence of the hugely relevant and successful VW Golf, any Ford or GM products or any Japanese car, which were already taking market share from European brands.
The Golf received an second place in '75, beaten by the CX. Part of winning is who the competitiors are that exact year. Like the Horizon won over the Fiat Ritmo and the Audi 80. Fords and Opel's usually ended with 2nd or 3rd places.
An excellent subject for a series of videos. It acts as a handy, concise reminder. Some real winners here and some very bland and forgettable dross. The 128 was clever, but the A112 it just beat was probably better and more significant. The GS was almost "Car of the Decade". A noble winner in '71 and clearly better than the (NSU) K70 it beat. The 127 was the best of an otherwise lacklustre crop. The Audi 80 was interesting, but the R5 was robbed in '73. '74 was a fairly dull year. The entire podium in '75 were excellent. '76 was another forgettable top three. '77 was full of promise, but the top 3 in '78 were of no relevance to most motorists. '79 was somehow a lesson in rewarding mediocrity. But hidden throughout the decade were some extraordinary machines. An excellent, short, snappy little reminder. Thank you.
The upside of suffering a 1983 Talbot Horizon 1.3LS as the family car, was that its clattery engine kicked-up such a racket we were served an early warning should mum come home while we were siphoning the larger value coins out of the copper jar in her bedroom.
Yeah, that would be cool, maybe an idea for an upcoming series. The winners of each year, their follow-ups and their real impact on the market. Could be a nice series of 5-7 min videos for 2025.
The Omni/Horizon was always a better car than the Escort, especially once it got the K-car 2.2, even if not with fuel injection until 1988 at which point having had fewer half-baked facelifts than the Escort came into play - the Mazda 323-derived 1991 second-gen Escort arrived in spring 1990, not a moment too soon.
According to Wikipedia 'Eligible cars are new models released in the twelve months prior to the award. The award is not restricted to European cars, but nominees must be available in at least five European countries, and have expected sales of 5,000 a year.' Not sure what the rules were in the '70s, but Japanese cars were just starting to enter the European market around this point.
Apart from the first Prius and the last Supra, Toyota doesn't do cars that wow a panel of engineers with a moonshot advance or technical tour de force at launch. They specialize in the sort of car that seems meh until you've owned one and realized it's been twice as long and gone twice as far with only routine maintenance than you'd been used to.
I thought the Rover SD1 was an absolute pig-of-a-thing and incredibly ugly. Designed by a blind person in my view. And nothing has changed my mind over the last 45 years. :P On the other hand, the 928 created by Anatole Lapine in 1972(!) remains achingly beautiful, and I have owned an S since 2008. :)
European Car of the Year has always been rubbish - I remember when the Chrysler Alpine won and what a heap that turned out to be. Perhaps the Award is not as transparent as people think.
GS, king of reductionism - good and bad: One wiper . One steering wheel spoke . Three wheel nuts per rim !? Made of tinfoil . Minimal interior . Aerodynamic inc enclosed rear wheels . Eco engine sizes ? Practical hatchback ? Avant-garde 'ergonomic' control clusters . And yet, butter smooth ride via hydropneumatic suspension with self levelling & ride height adjustment. But when faulty, like riding a pogo stick. To some, the perfect car. To others, an abomination.
I got my drivers license in a Horizon, had no real comparison apart from rhe Bedford trucks, Ford Transit and Fordson Major I drove from age 11 at our private grounds.
It interesting to see how some of these cars fared in the US. The Horizon had a long career here, about 10 years or so. It's not a sought-after collector car today, but did enjoy a reputation as being a decent econobox when new.
Not sure how a mazda could have won "European" car of the year, but you got to say wankel again, even though motoring enthusiasts know its pronounced 'vankel' 😂
The only cars of the lot that are still relevant today are the three German cars, the Audi 80, the W116 and the 928. The rest are just pimples on the ass cheeks of motoring history.
It's amazing that neither the Passat nor the Golf made the list as they transformed Volkswagen into Europe's largest car manufacturer.
But the original Passat and Audi 80 were essentially the same car.
Transforming VW (which was so far behind the times) and being innovative are very different things. The Golf and Passat were good, but nothing was new, the layouts and body styles were tried and tested. What they did was build them well, where the competition didn't!
The Golf didn't need an award to be sold in millions
@@mrmunchcorp Building them well was half of the story. The other half was lower mechanical stress due to lower performance. Back in 1960s, Fiat 1,5 liter push rod had better power to capacity ratio than basic 1990s VW-Audi engines. 75 or 82BHP versus 75 from 1,8 liter in Audi 80 B3. Enter Lampredi's Twin Cam in 1966 and Fiat reached power to capacity ratio that became standard for other manufactuers in late 90s/early 2000s.
@@piotrmalewski8178 Its not hard to build a powerful engine if you can do as you want, with no regulations to ruin your fun, all makes struggled to put out the power, even American muscle cars had basically been reduced to 1/3 of the power some of them made in the 60's and early 70's.
But now we dont have to worry anymore, everyone and their cat will have a 600 hp monster in their garage going forward! :D
"Styled in the UK and engineered in France"
Oh dear.
There was also a car styled in Japan and engineered in the UK…
@@hinken24 Or styled in Japan, powered by an Italian engine and gearbox.
in the early 70s a Simca was a classy car, my grandmother drove one and in comparison to the little Honda my parents drove it felt high brew. Her next car otc would become this anglo-franco-combi and meanwhile my parents switched from a cvcc to an accord an even a simple golf mk1, and in 1982 this Chrysler in comparison felt very sluggish, cheap and plastic, but it had such a smooth ride I loved it.
@@fougamagister8862 Yeah the French do suspension very well to be fair.
solong the Britisch team doesn't has a hangover and the French team isn't on strike it might work 😁
My dad still has his SDi V8-S tucked away with a dead 2600 organ donor. Still in the back seat is the brittax booster cushion I last sat on over 40 years ago!
Thanks for another year of great automotive facts!
Those 450SE's lasted forever and still looks good today, as many of Europe's landmark vehicles have over the years.
My father had a Fiat 128 1500cc at the same time I had a Chevy Monte Carlo 5700cc.
The Fiat had more interior room, was quicker, and got twice the fuel economy.
1500 cc?
@@andreamassara590 I think it must have been Fiat 124 actually.
@@andreamassara590 Maybe 1300, that was the "big" engine in the 128. The Monte Carlo was a crime against space utilization - GM made it by putting a Chevelle coupe body meant for a 112" wheelbase on the 116" wb Chevelle sedan chassis, with the 4-doors' extra rear seat space reapportioned to extra hood length.
@@andreamassara590 My fathers 128 had the same 1500 engine
as the X-19.
My grandfather drove a Talbot Horizon, so it will never fade in my memory...
I have so many fond memories about my dads Citroen GS Pallas - with chrome wheel covers. One of many Citroens to come❤
Nice videos series. Two remarks. The car of the year election was a dutch initiative from a dutch magazine. They invited other magazine to make a competition together.
Value for money was NOT an element for the jury till 79. That is why Mercedes and porsche could win.
That explains it. Thx
Let's not confuse price with value for money.
W116 was dear indeed, but a great value for money too.
Australia's Wheels magazine lays claim to being 'the world's oldest continuous motoring award of its kind' with its initial winner being the Renault 8 in 1963. This predates the European COTY award by a year.
The 928 is the only Porsche I ever wanted
I can hear the Horizon's tappet rattle from here!
My lasting memory of my Father's was that it had the worst gearbox of any car I have driven. About 2" between gears with 3" of slack/slop/uncertainty.
Nice Vid! The most influential car on the list is... drum roll... the Fiat 128: First to have the FWD/transverse engine sitting on top of the gearbox-setup that came to dominate mass produced car design up to this very day.
It was the Autobianchi Primula which was the first FWD car to feature an end-on gearbox, and was the test bed for the 128. BMC used the engine sitting on gearbox configuration.
I loved that Mercedes model.
The W166 is still beautiful, it's a piece of art.
I completely agree!!
So was the w126 that followed !
@@williammorris1384 Absolutely! I've never known a Mercedes fan who doesn't like the w126
I cried when I sold mine. Never done that with the other 51 cars I’ve owned.
The 928 was an amazing car, lots of innovation there, but the depreciation meant many of them ended up with owners who couldn’t afford them which ruined many of them. Also, the positioning as a luxury GT meant most of them were specced with the tragic automatic slushbox. Still, it was in production for 18 years, so it’s hard to label it a flop.
Not a flop so much as overshadowed by the improved 911 series.
Trying to remember who it was, but someone I knew bought a 928 with a duff autobox for next to nothing. No idea if it was a common trick, but there was a van manual gearbox (VW van of some type?) that almost just fell into the 928.
My first gen RX-7 was great - the drivetrain delivered far beyond the numbers. Whenever I see an early MX-5 dash, I can see the RX-7 innards behind it.
In the late '80s, I purchased a Rover SD1 2600cc straight six-cylinder, five-speed gearbox for GBP 500 with 100k on the clock, ran it for two years, and drove another 50k using the car like a van, moving loads across Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. It never let me down. Basis servicing and tyres only. Sold it for GBP 500 and wish I still had it today. The build quality aside, it had some bottom door rust. The car was so comfortable and had decent power. Long, low, and wide, it had amazing road holding. Rover designed a great car but did not have the people to deliver it. Such a shame. Reg GEW 571Y.
A mate of mine also had the 2.6 version. Never let him down.
I will never forget the Talbot Horizon as the old boy Ken who was the painter at the body shop I worked at when I left school had one and as the distinctive Talbot Rattle could be heard coming up the lane way before he was in sight.
My old boss once remarked that it sounded like a kid had emptied his sack of marbles in the rocker cover
I couldn't believe my eyes about 7 or 8 years ago when I saw a CX Familiale in a car park here in Brisbane, Australia. I used to lust after that car as a kid and seeing one again so recently and over here so long after they stopped getting made was a bit of a wow moment. I admired that thing for far too long. Anyone going by would have thought I was casing it. 😛
Immortalized forever by Lesney as the Matchbox #12 Citroen CX. Operating liftgate .
Love the series. Used to have a 928. Well engineered but clearly not the GT Porsche expected it to be. And that is a shame. I used it for moving house. Could take a decent amount of boxes at 275 km/h.
As a young student I used my 2CV for moving house. Could take a decent amount of boxes at 75km/h. Even my 21" tube tv fit in, but only through the roof.
You just nailed the purpose people at Porsche engineered that car.
I'm sure you were running it against limiter while moving stuff and anyways you would need correct version to even hit that speed :D
The SD1 will always be a great car to me, i owned 6 over a period, all V8's, but i was never lucky enough to own a Vitesse, I've had Jags, BM's, Range Rovers, but always went back to the SD1, wish I'd kept them
I had a Citroen GS for a while when it was a couple of years old. Fantasically comfortable and could cruise at 80mph all day long while only sipping fuel.
Hope you’ve had a blessed Christmas.
Great videos.
🚗🙂
The Horizon also won Motor Trend's 1978 Car of the Year award here in the U.S., and was the first front wheel drive, transverse engine car from an American automaker. Chrysler intended to replace it with derivatives of their K-Car platform, but kept the Horizon/Omni in production as a low-cost competitor to imports like the Yugo, Hyundai Excel, and Geo Metro/Suzuki Swift -- in the late '80s it was the cheapest American-made car you could buy. Chrysler produced it until 1990, even adding a driver's airbag in its final model year.
Oh, Goody! A new Big Car video.
Of all makes Citroën is my favorite. There are many others I like (VW campers, Rover classics, NSU Ro-80 to name a few).
Those old Mercs are still absolutely gorious!
The only cars I thought were dullards were the FIAT 128, (the engineering was superb, but the styling was a child's drawing) and the Chrysler Alpine. But the other cars, I agree with the Car of The Year panel. Pity the SD1 had it's problems. Hope you had an enjoyable Christmas.
The Fiat “128” Lampredi SOHC engine was a legendary success right through into the mid 90s and even beyond in 12v and 16v developments in the European Car of the Year winning Brava and Bravo (and the Marea / Multipla descendents).
nice compilation, thanks! Many of them don't really "look old" today. Still, there is diversity. I like the GS. One of the very few cars that were totally new. Design, wheelbase, engine, innovations - and all this for a mass market. Bravo!
The Mercedes was built like a bank vault. My dad had a 280S with the straight 6. It could cruise all day at 120mph and make it feel like 60.
I never understood the Chrysler Horizon winning COTY - although the runner-up, the Ritmo/Strada wasn’t much better. Think they just got lucky that year!
It's weird that this award more often than not doesn't help these cars being succcessful at all :-D
that's the inspiration for this series! the obvious explanation is that journo's like different and innovative. Visions do not always come true.
Long term ownership trumps design. There have been complete videos on Rover SD1 problems such as paint coming off when dealers cleaned them ready for sale. And that car had a fairly reliable powertrain.
Merry new year!
Gay New Years to you. 🎉.
1:11 - Interesting that you should mention the SM, because in the United States that won _Motor Trend's_ Import Car of the Year Award. So even though the Europeans preferred the more bread-and-butter models, the SM at least had some fans across the pond.
Most Europeans could only afford / justify buying the "bread and butter" models. Meanwhile something like a Ford Mustang would be seen as an exotic enthusiasts car.
Chris, your channel is excellent. I love learning about European cars never sold here in the US.
Thanks Bob. (I'm not Chris) 😉
You are Jesus Christ. Indeed.
The only thing memorable about the Dodge omni was the omni GLH Tuned by Carol Shelby and those letters GLH stand for Goes like hell.
I always believed that the winner was the one with the most booze during the press introductions.
I love these videos of European cars of the year. I just wish they were a little longer, say 30 minutes. Merry Christmas 🙏🏾
Who in Australia remembers the Leyland P76…a real lemon!!
Love seeing these cars that were never sold in the United States,fascinating!
I loved the 928, but I was apparently in the minority.
Can't believe the R5 never gained the award.
My take-away from this series so far is "how often the judges got it wrong".
Just goes to show how most people take style over substance when it comes to cars.
Very good series of videos, well done. Maybe it would be good to put the year with each car.
That would have been good. Sorry, but I’ve finished all the videos.
@@BigCar2 You have got a very good channel. Congratulations on the good work!
The Rheinfall is in Schaffhausen Switzerland....
I actually owened a Golf and the Chrysler Horizon. I must say that the Golf was better in everything. I couldn’t believe that the Horizon was chosen as car of the year. It was mentioned proudly on the sticker abouw the rearwindow. It was a dud.
"Auto des Jahres der 1970er-Jahre: War es ein Reinfall oder ein Reinfall?"
könnte aber auch ein reinfall gewesen sein
Der Titel wird leider von RUclips automatisch ins Deutsche übersetzt, das habe ich schon bei mehreren Kanälen gesehen. Mich würde interessieren, wie der originale Titel lautet.
@@Timico1000 'Car of the Year in the Seventies: a peach or a lemon?' Seit einige Zeiten haben wir den selben Problem in Italien, Videos auf Englisch (oder andere Sprachen) mit übersetzen Titel...
@antoniomodonutti2205 It is really annoying as you can't turn off (or at least pre-select by language) the automatic translation, same with the audio track. I'm happy if i can get a translation for languages i don't speak, but for english i really don't need it.
Btw: how/why does YT translate "peach" and "lemon" into "Reinfall" aka failure?!
I don' t know, I am Italian, neither English nor German are my native languages... anyway, as far as I know, lemon is something like a carve up, a cheat (I remember a Meat Loaf song, Life' s a lemon and I want my money back), so I suppose a peach is something good, nice...
@@antoniomodonutti2205 That's why i don't get the translation. Bad cars are often called "lemons" and it makes sense to translate it with "Reinfall" or Fallimento. But "peach" definitely isn't a Reinfall.
Well, at least this choice makes more sense than American COTY of the same era.
That's for sure!
Both the horizon and the simca 1307 suffered from rust and bad building quality. The 128 also scored in that area. Even the golf 1 rusted but the build quality was still on par. Panel gaps etc. Unfortunately you can not test real quality in a road test or coty election.
Mopar Quality Lottery, get a good one and it's as good as anything but they have more than their fair share of lemons and always have (at least going back to the rush-job "Suddenly it's 1960!" '57 models.
The Horizon was a good car and continued to sell in North America through the 1990 model year. I know they were different in many ways, but the overall design/plan was the same. Chrysler made many other cars from this platform. I owned a Chrysler Alpine/Simca 1307 which I really liked as well. These cars (Horizon and Alpine) always seem to be derided by reviewers (including here) when they did sell and had some real innovations. Corporate stupidity, build quality, and bad marketing were more at fault than the cars themselves.
Ive loved the Porsche 928 ever since my old neighbour had one and took me to a track day in it and they’re great to drive.
Car of the year is like the Eurovision for cars.
I'm love this thanks so much
It’s interesting that ECOTY invariably vote for a car which was an evolutionary design from a previous model rather than being “ Clean Sheet “designs such as the car that one its first accolade, the Rover P6 , and again with the Porsche 928 in 1978. 😊
These Rovers were ok with the V8
The SD-1s were perfect in every way.
Quality???
Engineering?
My last car from BL was both a peach and a lemon...
...so it was definitely a leech.
The Chrysler/Talbot Horizon didn't really fade from memory quickly. It was in production for n in nine years (1978 to 1987). Fairly run-of-the-mill and conventional, based on the Alpine mechanicals. Rust, like many Talbots and other cars of the era, killed them.
It sold until 1990 in America, having gotten a pretty substantial price cut in 1987 and EFI for 1988 and those must've been much better rustproofed than the Euro ones since they mostly seemed to come off the road when something mechanical needed repair that was more than the car was worth to fix.
@@nlpnt In the U.K. they salt the roads in winter. It was more common for rust to write off a car than mechanical failure. Lancia pulled out of the U.K. market after some of their cars failed their first safety inspection due to rust at just three years old.
In the mid 70s I worked as a driver and delivered Rover SDs. Brilliant acceleration, handled very well, but it fell to bits as I drove it.
Chrysler was a massive contributor to the market. The housing market, having been responsible for so many down payments for automotive journalists homes both years!
Perhaps a lemon flavoured peach?😂
And then: "1990s, time of Guru ah-ah-uh-ah!"
Thank you .
3:49 Those are Fiat Argenta headlights! Please make a video about the Fiat Argenta! :-)
In many cases the European cars of the '70's were the last gasp of 50's technology that had been warmed over twice to make it to the '70's, yet they blindly soldiered on hoping for success with the third warm over to make it to the 80's. No account was made for the Japanese, whose early 70's cars were 50's warm overs too, but were to quickly change into new offerings at a much reduced price. It is almost like they never saw the Japanese coming.
The SD1 was pure quality, I mean look at Jeremy Clarksons one in Top Gear.....the door falling off the car was just a minor issue!😁
You do know that was an engineered 'laugh'? My Dad had an SD1 V8 for three years as our family car, towed a caravan with it and nothing ever went wrong. 🙂
@adrianwestley3982 Of course it was, nevertheless it was funny as hell. I'd love to have a SD1 Vanden Plas EFI.
I know I'm biased as I have one, but the W123 would have won one year, considering its reputation today and 2.7 million production, plus still in use as taxies in African, although being phased out now.
I recall the Chrysler Alpine being announced as car of the year and being hailed as spacious, modern and good value. It wasn't long before they always seemed to have rattly engines and rusty bodies. The car of the year didn't feel like such a positive award.
That Rover SD-1's build quality and reliability was on par with the Tesla Cyber ( pronounced "SUCKER") truck, lol.
I would have a 928 but the factory service manual is nearly 2 feet in width. Not a machine for the average home mechanic.
people will buy junk if that's all they have available to them
Ignorant comment. That was the technology of the day.They did not consider their vehicles as junk 50 years ago. If you read comment sections on car content of today's cars, people proclaim everything built today as junk too. Seems like your time has not yet come.
The Mercedes S class and the Porsche don't make much sense as CotY, because they are not aimed at the general public. The Horizon seems difficult to justify, since it was nothing more than a rebodied Simca 1100 and was a bland car if ever there was one. Not saying it was the case, but the possibility of some fishy voting is always there.
Seems also that the journos rewarded the driving dynamics above anything else, while the general public may have had other priorities, like comfort, economy or build quality. Which may explain the absence of the hugely relevant and successful VW Golf, any Ford or GM products or any Japanese car, which were already taking market share from European brands.
The Golf received an second place in '75, beaten by the CX. Part of winning is who the competitiors are that exact year. Like the Horizon won over the Fiat Ritmo and the Audi 80. Fords and Opel's usually ended with 2nd or 3rd places.
@@westmus - Second Place was taken by The Grosser Mercedes 600 in 1964 and by Rolls-Royce in 1966.
Doesn't really mean much.
An excellent subject for a series of videos. It acts as a handy, concise reminder.
Some real winners here and some very bland and forgettable dross.
The 128 was clever, but the A112 it just beat was probably better and more significant.
The GS was almost "Car of the Decade". A noble winner in '71 and clearly better than the (NSU) K70 it beat.
The 127 was the best of an otherwise lacklustre crop.
The Audi 80 was interesting, but the R5 was robbed in '73.
'74 was a fairly dull year.
The entire podium in '75 were excellent.
'76 was another forgettable top three.
'77 was full of promise, but the top 3 in '78 were of no relevance to most motorists.
'79 was somehow a lesson in rewarding mediocrity.
But hidden throughout the decade were some extraordinary machines.
An excellent, short, snappy little reminder. Thank you.
Worryingly, our family owned a significant number of this group of cars... 🤓
The upside of suffering a 1983 Talbot Horizon 1.3LS as the family car, was that its clattery engine kicked-up such a racket we were served an early warning should mum come home while we were siphoning the larger value coins out of the copper jar in her bedroom.
Too short.....!
They get longer.
I agree those feel very rushed@BigCar2
Year by year, even if you do them as shorts, would be far better
Yeah, that would be cool, maybe an idea for an upcoming series. The winners of each year, their follow-ups and their real impact on the market. Could be a nice series of 5-7 min videos for 2025.
While I don't have any hard proof, I have heard that this COY prize was always up for sale to the highest bidder.
Any truth in that?
Saab should have won for the 79' title...
Lancia Delta next
The Omni/Horizon was always a better car than the Escort, especially once it got the K-car 2.2, even if not with fuel injection until 1988 at which point having had fewer half-baked facelifts than the Escort came into play - the Mazda 323-derived 1991 second-gen Escort arrived in spring 1990, not a moment too soon.
I guess Toyota's like the Celica and Corona's were overlooked by the european motoring press.
According to Wikipedia 'Eligible cars are new models released in the twelve months prior to the award. The award is not restricted to European cars, but nominees must be available in at least five European countries, and have expected sales of 5,000 a year.'
Not sure what the rules were in the '70s, but Japanese cars were just starting to enter the European market around this point.
Apart from the first Prius and the last Supra, Toyota doesn't do cars that wow a panel of engineers with a moonshot advance or technical tour de force at launch. They specialize in the sort of car that seems meh until you've owned one and realized it's been twice as long and gone twice as far with only routine maintenance than you'd been used to.
@@nlpnt did anyone say Yaris?
Would be strange if a Mazda would win european car of the year
I had ten SD1 all V8
If they were any good you would only have needed one or two.
@Titan604 haha no I loved them
Quick cheap
Prices going up now
Il have another when find the one I want
1979 Saab is the clear winner
Good car but possibly considered as effectively just a 99 with a longer nose and new dashboard?
I thought the Rover SD1 was an absolute pig-of-a-thing and incredibly ugly. Designed by a blind person in my view.
And nothing has changed my mind over the last 45 years. :P
On the other hand, the 928 created by Anatole Lapine in 1972(!) remains achingly beautiful, and I have owned an S since 2008. :)
Only GOOGLE knows about it.
European Car of the Year has always been rubbish - I remember when the Chrysler Alpine won and what a heap that turned out to be. Perhaps the Award is not as transparent as people think.
GS, king of reductionism - good and bad:
One wiper .
One steering wheel spoke .
Three wheel nuts per rim !?
Made of tinfoil .
Minimal interior .
Aerodynamic inc enclosed rear wheels .
Eco engine sizes ?
Practical hatchback ?
Avant-garde 'ergonomic' control clusters .
And yet, butter smooth ride via hydropneumatic suspension with self levelling & ride height adjustment. But when faulty, like riding a pogo stick.
To some, the perfect car.
To others, an abomination.
Two wipers, the CX had just one. 😊
Horizons, other than maybe the GLH, were absolute garbage and outclassed on arrival.
The Horizon was a terrible car, a real turd
I got my drivers license in a Horizon, had no real comparison apart from rhe Bedford trucks, Ford Transit and Fordson Major I drove from age 11 at our private grounds.
@@ottonormalverbrauch3794well, it was a little better than the Fordson Major; at least it had a roof.
It interesting to see how some of these cars fared in the US. The Horizon had a long career here, about 10 years or so. It's not a sought-after collector car today, but did enjoy a reputation as being a decent econobox when new.
❤❤👍👍😊😊
Not sure how a mazda could have won "European" car of the year, but you got to say wankel again, even though motoring enthusiasts know its pronounced 'vankel' 😂
How do the japanese pronounce it?
@@JaakkoIsWatchingwaa-nu-ke-lu, I suppose.
The cars eligible for the European Car of the Year award are those sold in Europe, although not necessarily made in Europe.
The only cars of the lot that are still relevant today are the three German cars, the Audi 80, the W116 and the 928. The rest are just pimples on the ass cheeks of motoring history.
Arguable statement. Citroen GS and the Fiats are milestones in motoring history. Rover SD1 would have been if quality had been ok.
virtually everything on wheels in the 70',s was overrated
duplicate video with eds auto reviews
Care to elaborate?
Well there are only so many cars, Ed is nowhere near as informative as Big Car, so I'm fine with that
@@kenon6968 near same video length
@@elchubbacabra eds auto reviews chrismtas0 callender
I'm also subscribed to Ed and didn't notice any duplicates, so what are you talking about? Btw Ed focuses more on older american cars.