The Malaise Era - The Most Important Decade In Automotive History
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- Опубликовано: 2 май 2024
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Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
1:05 - The 1950s
2:16 - The 1960s
3:58 - Here Comes Japan
5:36 - The Early 1970s
6:42 - The First Oil Crisis
8:41 - 1974 - 1978
10:38 - The Second Oil Crisis
11:42 - The 1980s
13:43 - Lasting Impacts
17:54 - Goodbye & Goodnight 
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LOVE THIS
UwU
Haha RCR I can picture your low voice saying “LOVE THIS”
My hero, I bow down to thee
One Pennsylvanian to another, Hello.
Is *BROWN* your preferred Mustard?
Took the words out of my mouth
Strangely, 1970 - 1980's was an AWESOME era for motorcycles. The horsepower war was crazy and pollution controls didn't apply. The Muscle bike era!
wasn't awesome for Harley-Davidson, was awesome for all the Japanese motorcycle makers though.
Do you remember when there was an oversupply of motorcycles? There were amazing bargains to be had. Bought me a brand new 1984 GPZ 750 in 1986, loved that bike.
My 1980 Suzuki GSX1100 did a factory 11.6 secs quarter LOL
In 1985, Yamaha introduced the V-Max with 145HP, more than most cars of that era. It was produced mostly unchanged until 2020 - 35 years. Damn, I'm old.
@@flyingmerkel6 That was the era of the UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycle). Four cylinders and air cooled, I owned a couple of them. A 1982 Honda Night Hawk and a 1983 Suzuki GS 650. And about 10 years later, I would own a car which almost exactly matched their performance - a 1992 Camaro with a 5.0 V8 also used in the Suburban with a 5 speed stick.
In 1977, I got out of college and bought a US made car(Mustang II) It came from the factory with a bent rear axle. I had to replace the water pump at about 45000 miles and get the automatic transmission overhauled at 50,000 miles(due to poor assembly). I can tell the same type of story about co-workers who bought big 3 brands. Two of my new co-workers bought Toyota Celicas and had no problems. Poor quality and arrogance(by both Big 3 workers and management) is another reason the Japanese were able to get into the US car market.
@@CC58 One of my co-workers in the 1970s bought a GM car(also Nova if I remember correctly). The crankshaft broke in half at 20,000 miles. GM would only pay 1/2 of the repair cost.
but now EVs are the reason Tesla is superior to the Big 3
A guy a few blocks from me drives a mustang 2 as a daily driver. I love in the northeast and have tons of snow and road salt and rain and humid hot summers. That car seems to be doing just fine even still...
@@ron1836 I live in Texas where it is very hot and getting hotter. The Mustang II I have is equipped with a v8. The v8 was not in the original 1974 Mustang II, so the cooling system is a little light for the Texas heat. In addition, the AC does not work now. So I do drive mine, but it is not a daily driver!
@@Jody-kt9ev well the cooling system you can make more efficient by getting a 2 or 3 core radiator. And also by making sure your engine is tuned right and not running lean or something. Also can get water pumps with more empeller blades. The ac.. that can get expensive. Myself I hardly use air conditioning in the car. I like the windows down when I drive. Even in the winter I have to have a window cracked.
From Leo: As someone who has collected 1960's cars, the government safety regulations is not what made cars safer. It was tire technology. Detroit gave us all the horsepower and torque we could lust for but the tires of that day were just not able to control it. A '69 383 Plymouth on F78 x 14 bias ply tires is scary to drive, right from the showroom. The 1970 Galaxie on a rain slick highway was like ice skating. The development of Belted, wide tread, radial tires probably contributed to the safety even more than seat belts. Seat belts only help AFTER you lose control.
Yeah because tires have an effect of hitting a wall at 30 mph more than safety regulation like airbags and crumple zones🤦♂️
@@wiktorjachyra1869 cant you read? He States that tires helped prevent accidents from happening in the first place. Offcorse tires dont help on impact.
@@sigursberget3777dont mind him hes polish
Of course radials had been around in Europe for over a decade before American manufacturers would start offering them as standard equipment.
We have had the technology for tires to go over 1,000,000 miles for at least half a century. Tire manufactures invested quite a bit to make sure we were driving cars and not taking the train, or trolleys.
Malaise-era story: My big brother and I at age 10 & 11 wandered over to the Porsche lot in 1976 while Dad was getting a part for our old VW Bus.
We were mesmerized by a 911 Turbo they had just received.
In that era of bloated, overwrought Cordobas and Eldorados was this crouching, swollen, purposeful beast with zero chrome (all black), Fuchs wheels with sticky tires and a whale tail.
Despite launching in 1964, the original 911 sailed right through the Malaise Era, serving as a beacon of automotive hope until it retired, still fully relevant, in 1998.
Praises be the king 911.
ugly pos compared to a cordoba just sayin.
Great story. Short, to the point, and exciting. One can feel when one was young and reacted to "stay here and do not touch anything!" with wandering around and getting into places you should not go, lol
A VW bus takes me back to my it's childhood😀 They were super slow, had the same loud, air cooled motor as the beetle. Hitting 55 mph was a process in a VW bus
My Malaise-era story: I was in drivers education in 1980 and our instruction car was a Ford Fairmont. After pulling into a parking lot to change drivers I was now behind the wheel. The instructor cleared me to pull onto the highway and the instructor and myself noticed the swiftly closing traffic behind us. The instructor said "step on it son" and I replied "I have it to the floor sir".
I remember the summer of 1983....a news report outlined the uptick in new car sales....because the malaise era cars were starting to wear out...people had to start buying new cars...and you could see the transition to better designs and performance. The C4 Corvette just debuted, the Fiero was starting to come to market and the Camaro and Mustang started to be tuned for better performance. It was a hopeful time and better than the sky is falling being recited a few years earlier when it came to performance and reliability.
The Fiero wasn't a better design.
@@Andyface79 The Fiero made people's eyes turn and look, Chevettes and Pintos didnt do that, and it definitely signaled that a new era of design had arrived.
I guess that's true. I was just thinking how disappointing it was that it had the Iron Duke. But it certainly looked good and I've heard the later GT ones are better.@@newdefsys
Cars were 100% malaise until at least '88. I started driving in '87. My parents had an '84 Olds Omega with the 2.5 liter. I nicknamed that thing "the buzz bomb"😁 The 250 inline six powered '76 Granada they traded for this piece of junk was a far stronger runner, no comparison whatsoever. They traded the Omega for an '87 Buick Century 2.5 liter, which was even worse. My '75 AMC Hornet with a 258 left both of those cars in the dust out of a light or going up a steep hill.
@@ohioalphornmusicalsawman2474 yeah, as a teenager in the 80’s, I bought old muscle cars for cheap that were so much faster than anything new and cost way less. Every year, I’d go to the dealer to look and wonder why they were building such slow cars.
Neat video. As a 68-year-old guy who went through most of those eras this is some pretty spot on information. Well done..
At 62, I will agree.
🚗🙂
@@jeffking4176
At 59 I agree … last generation to see semi affordable used muscle cars in high school … but drove a Pinto personally due to gas prices
Hitting the 7 0 later this year! Those years were trying years in examining cars with some thought to them lasting. I kept a '66 383 Polara running all those years and then lucked into a sweet heart deal on a '79 280 ZX that was quality built in Japan and lasted the next 230K miles. I do have lots of love for that old Dodge though. With the help of some decent old time mechanics who took pity on a starving student, I kept that hunk of iron running through late '80's as the SECOND car. It had one last hurrah when it out ran a fancy Nascar Monte Carlo on a long stretch when it was on its last set of decent tires.
He nailed it pretty good. As a 62 year old, I remember this era. Hated the 55 mph speed limit and was super glad when it was totally gone in November 1995.
65 year says same. Really well done, and absolutely factual. Also points out why energy independence is critical.
As a Dane, i was fortunate enough to spend 1994-95 on Vancouver Island, BC. Obviously i was eager to drive a car that was unlike the cars in Europe. Luckily for me i was able to buy a 1977 Plymouth Volare for only $100 CAD. It was in good shape, and it was tan with tan interior, 318 cui V8 engine and automatic transmission. Bench seat in the front. The original brochure for the car was in the glove box, and i remember that it was marketed as "compact" 😄 to me it was a BIG car. Gasoline was only 50 cents pr liter! Good memories....
BC has never been hard on emissions except for a couple decades in metro Vancouver only so we have kept a lot of carbureted engines from back then unfortunately the rust takes more of them off the road every year.
I have a similar, cute story like that. In 1981 my father sold our 1971 Lincoln Continental sedan. The buyer was a man who had moved to the Bay area from Sweden, and he wanted to pick his wife up at SFO airport in a "big American car". Well, he got more than he'd imagined... 19 ft long, 5000 lbs and the last high-compression 460 under the hood! I wish that he had called us to let us know her reaction... 😲
@@marko7843 * the guy from Denmark has no clue what 19 ft long, 5000 lbs is. That's your deal, America.
There was a reason the odometers were only 5 digits. Cars were simply not expected to last 100,000 miles and very few did especially in the snow belt.
True, but you could/can change a starter in a 1960s car by yourself with three tools in less than an hour for little more than $100. A replacement starter for almost any transverse mounted engine car currently made will cost you hundreds of dollars. A clutch can cost upwards of $1500. You can drop the engine in a traditional VW with two wrenches and a screwdriver. Of course, the expected time between rebuild was only 70K.
Honestly, I miss the old American land yachts. They had that unique imperial spirit, the sense of pure beauty, the precious feeling of perfection... and grace and nobleness of the Titanic.
Yeah, but the land yacht era was the 50s and 60s. When Detroit wasn't making junk.
@@wesstubbs3472 The 70s, too. I had a 1973 Chevy Bel Air and it was really something.
@wassiswallylokhankin191 Sorry to ask. I do not know if it is money or space, but why don't you buy an old land yaht from the early 70's if you miss and long for one?
@@redemptionjack4657 You don't have to put words in my mouth. I did not write that I "long for one".
I did write that I missed the imperial spirit, the beauty and the spirit of perfection of the old land yachts. It's not about money or space. In my opinion, modern cars (with very few exceptions) are plain ugly, they lack elementary aesthetics, they look like crumpled up pieces of paper that don't even have normal colors - just different shades of depression.
Hope this answers your question.
Its crazy that nowadays its CAFE standards that are preventing manufacturers from building small fuel efficient trucks and nobody wants to reform the standards to fix the problem
FREEDOM 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
As long as they're getting big bucks for overpriced over-engineered EV's, overpriced *and* oversized trucks and SUV's, etc. from the consumer themselves or the government through incentive programs they will *never* stop. They'll have to collapse first. It almost happened, but for a while there everything was "Too big to fail!" and lots of companies got to weasel out of having to truly change.
Ford Maverick doesn't exist?
Once we BOOT OUT the EC0-MARX!STS & UN!PARTY bureaucrats we need to ditch all those pointless outdated Regs.
Ban DC from Detroit
Well big over priced EVs seem to be failing, plug in hybrids seem to be slowly but surely over taking ev sales.@TwistedD85
I can remember 2 perfect examples of the disasters wrought by simultaneous fuel and emission demands:
In the five years from 1972 to 1977, both Slant 6 Plymouth Valiants and 350 4-barrel Olds Cutlasses became incredibly gutless while burning even more fuel...
I love how Zack's reviewed so many cars that most of the B-roll is stuff he's actually driven on the channel
Uncle Tony's garage has a great video on daily driving classic cars worry free and he specifically mentions the post interstate cars from the mid 70's up (Malaise era)
My absolute favourite era for US car design, mainly due to growing up watching US movies from the 70s and 80s.
Here's my personal Malaise story:
My family got a new Oldsmobile Cutlass wagon in '76. I remember the catalytic converter would stink like rotten eggs once in a while, and the engine would keep running on hot days, after tuning it off (the best way to make it stop was to floor the gas pedal). When Clark Griswold drives the Family Truckster home for the first time in National Lampoon's Vacation, the engine keeps running through hot air and compression, like a diesel. That's what our Oldsmobile did, until we were able to get some decent fuel (and a tune up).
In '78, my dad bought my mom a '74 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. It got 9 miles to the gallon. The next year, I remember going with Mom to the gas station, for our turn on the even days, to fill up the car. On January 2, 1980, Dad traded the Cadillac for a brand new Chevy Caprice, with a 267 cubic inch V8. That $#!7 box was ssssssllllooooowwwwwww. She drove that until Dad traded in my '77 Cougar for Mom's '86 Ford Taurus, and gave me the Caprice. I installed a really nice stereo in the Caprice to keep me awake while driving it. I drove Mom's Taurus as often as I could.
Today, I drive an '06 Taurus. It has the same engine as the '86; the V6 Vulcan. 252,000 miles, so far. We plan on holding on to it as long as we can.
Keep up on the transmission fluid those Vulcan v6's Are pretty under stress and go for a long time.
As a kid, I loved my dad's cutlass. He got rid of it because it was "too slow" and bought a lot of FWD Chrysler stuff after that. As soon as I got my license, I immediately bought another cutlass. So much was right about those cars, except the lack of power. My parents didn't want me driving anything fast anyways.
@@TwoDollarGararge Me and Mr. Spock fully concur with your comments about our "Vulcan" cars!
No "emotional' drama (durability issues) with the "Vulcan" cars!
There was a quiet rash of cat problems in that year across a number of brands. I don't recall rotten eggs, but lots of smells - mainly on account of running so hot and design just... needed help. They didn't affect performance so much [Detroit being chronic/habitual detuners] but were an annoyance.
I remember my Mayonnaise era. That was before i discovered Mustard and added spice back into my life.
My Dad bought a perfect condition 1968 Cadillac Coupe de Ville with a 460 cu inch engine - 10-12mpg for a SONG in about 1974.
He said "David, this car was about $5,000 loaded with options new in 1968, now I can get it for $1100"
Solely due to the higher gas prices the owners of HUGE cars were dumping them to buy relatively cheap $2-3,000 Japanese 4 cylinder cars that got 25+ mpg.
The run up in gas prices were about from $ .50-70 per gallon pre 1973 to about $ 1.30 per gallon post 1973 - quite the massive hike !
Ironically we already had a Toyota Corona Mark 2 Station wagon for daily driving..
We mainly used the behemoth Cadillac for towing our summer vacation Travel trailer, which it did like a truck - the Caddy weighed like 6,200 # a total beast.
Great video - love the nostalgia - we also had a 1968 Corolla & Corona 4 door ("three on the tree", manual tranny !)
And my neighbors had every car you showed, inc the 1973 Triumph TR6 lol
High interest rates and poor economy in the late 79s/early 80s also drove smaller car sales. Also, to reduce manufacturing costs, car manufacturers moved to higher automation and robots. This changed how cars were manufactured on the production line.
Yes it did. When dad started at GM Canada in 1979 he said one robot was $1,000,000.
it's actually repeating thes decade, it's now mainly because of EVs
Yeah, smaller cars that were the true malaise cars. X cars and K cars that made people miss the smooth, strong, dependable inline sixes in the cars they traded.
It really tells you who is in charge of a country when they get you to fight a war that had nothing to do with us then in the following years turn over most of the production to "the enemy".
Great documentary!
Don't forget that emissions reduction was also a big factor in the malaise era effect. Emissions requirements really strangled the power of engines in American domestic cars (We had big V8 engines barely making 100hp!), but small Japanese engines were barely affected, if they even had to be modified for the US market at all.
This is what happens when the federal government gets involved in motor vehicle production. It was the mandatory emissions requirements that detuned and essentially neutered
motor vehicle engines. It pushed America into using computer controlled cars to control emissions and enhance mileage. The industry got rid of hydrocarbon emissions and later nitrogen oxide emissions. This was good for the planet. Now the climate crazies want to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions, a natural product of all forms of combustion and an essential requirement for plant s, trees and crops.
Agree. I think this maker of this video doesn't understand the malaise era properly. The video is more like describing what happened to the US auto industry in the 70s - ie the oil crisis and the rise of the Japanese marques. The malaise period is more purely defined by smog emissions and ugly design (compared to the preceding decades). People walked away due to huge engines that used to make 300hp now making 150hp due to smog controls, people walked away because the Mustang was now the Mustang 2 and so on. Many cars oversized, everything had to be a brougham style with full vinyl top or with opera windows and half vinyl top The oil crisis helped make the decision to walk away from these bad cars with poor efficiency very simple. So the Malaise period isn't defined by the oil crisis or the Japanese invasion, it's defined by a poor product by US manufacturers. Even if people didn't buy Japanese, even if the oil crisis didn't happen you can look back and call it a bad period solely due to the cars offered by US manufacturers - they had no power and were way uglier than previous cars unless you liked a certain style (some here may still like them - each to their own, but obviously many didn't and bought Japanese or Euro - but they would never want them with the engine they had when new anyway.
I miss the big comfy RWD American cars, nothing today rides good.
One thing I really miss in newer cars, is the ability to mix and match exterior paint colours with interior fabrics and colour. Just not the variety now. And the choices are so limited. My first new car was 75 Dodge Dart SE. Not expensive by any means, but it came with mint green velour seats.
Yeah, that was even a thing as late as the early 2000s. You still see interesting color combinations sometimes. I found a jaguar in the junkyard with a factory zebra interior in 2002 3:25
EXACTLY what I complain about constantly! 50 years ago you could get many interior colors even in a Nova or a Pinto... even a vinyl top! Nowadays you can only get black, gray or beige unless it's a Rolls-Royce...
Yep, that 75 Dart had the vinyl top. Also the the "door" protectors that went on along the lenght of the car, were silver with the green vinyl inlays. Sharp.
@@marko7843 You can literally customize a $35,000 Audi A3 with their Individual program and option whatever nonsense fuchsia-over-chartreus color scheme you want.
@@tim3172 I shall await the appearance of a new red Audi with a red interior... ;0)
On 1983 dads daily driver was a 1967 Olds 442 musclecar. It had always been rather efficient for what it was, mpg wise. We used to travel from Detroit to Kentucky in the mountains about once a month back then, on weekends. He was so worried about not being able to make it, and there would be no gas available. He brought home 4 steel cans from work which we painted red and stenciled GAS. We were able to fill all 4 cans along with the tank over here on warren Rd what used to be a Sunoco station. I remember the line backed up 4 blocks to get in. We filled those 4 cans and the tank. Wrapped the cans in plastic and packed them in the trunk. We drove to Kentucky and luckily had no problems finding stations open on our way that one time at the worst of this crisis. Other stations elsewhere definitely did run out but the main routes stayed open. That old hot rod actually made the trip, almost 500 miles, on one tank thanks to dad driving like an old man. Imagine a relatively quick and powerful musclecar shaking down about 16/17 mpg back then! We were on fumes and he did fill up the tank with just 50 miles or less to go, but essentially made it on one tank. This scenario didn't make dad go out and buy a Toyota Corolla or anything like that however. He learned mileage tips on how to drive and stay out of the secondaries of the carb and steady state cruising with highway gears out back. By the second oil crisis around 1980, he did think that his young son me would never get to experience high performance automobiles the way he knew them, but turns out we did continue on as a nation and in the late 80s high performance automotive stuff was still going strong and then some. Nowadays we have some of the most powerful vehicles ever, with technology, and yet achieved all the efficiency mandated, even surpassed what was thought possible of the auto industry because of these so called oil crisis.
I was born in 1960 so the 80’s still give me shivers. It was almost like 1973 causes the skies to turn permanently gray.
I think the low point was 75-76 but fun came back in 77 with Smokey and the Bandit putting the spark back into at least perceived performance and The Spy Who Loved Me highlighting the cool Lotus.
Personally though while I drove VWs and Vegas, the shock for me was when my brother in law bought a loaded new 76 Corolla. Once I drove that I knew the game had changed. It was light, fun, the shifter felt like it belonged in a Porsche. And it got insane gas mileage.
I wound up getting 3 Corollas of my own. Still the 3 most reliable cars I ever owned.
Always loved the early Grand Am ('73-74) , plus the mid-70s Monte Carlo and Grand Prix, and style-wise the Camaro and Firebird held their own, with Pontiac somehow keeping some performance alive with its Firebird / Formula / Trans Am models.
We went through the same dynamic challenge in Australia.
We embraced the Asian imports, 120 miles between stations in a lot of areas helped our decision.
120 miles between stations is THE OUTBACK not the city. I grew up in the edge of the outback, town with an aboriginal name on a farm with an aboriginal name in the 80s and early 90s. Fuel wasn't anywhere NEAR that far apart.
@OffGridInvestor Where you lived maybe not.
West Coast was like that in the 90s, as was central Queensland, Western NSW, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
I know this, having travelled Australia extensively, not just in my own little bubble.
As an automotive enthusiast who grew up during the 70s and first started driving in 1979, I found this very interesting.
Well done. As a child of the late '60s, and having lived through most of your review period, I can say you are spot-on correct. Thanks for the candor and sharing.
One thing that made driving in the 60s so dangerous is that drunk driving was not very frowned upon at that time
Most countries you can unfortunately drive intoxicated and people view it as normal. See:
South east Asia
Even more importantly, a ton of inexperienced baby boomers were taking to the roads by the mid-sixties, with a whole bunch of powerful V-8 engines....
Yep. Drunk driving though illegal was socially acceptable. Now fortunately, you're a social outcast if drink and drive. Much like smoking, you could smoke anywhere even if others didn't approve. Now just smoking in your own backyard, folks think you're a fool.
@@marko7843 And these idiots think they're the good drivers now.
@@keithball6480 Good riddance.
I started driving in 1974. My mom had a Valiant just like the one in your thumbnail. It would be her last American car, she traded for a VW before settling on Hondas and Toyotas for the rest of her life. Me, I got into AMCs. I liked that they kept trying different design ideas during a difficult time for the auto industry. Sadly, they went on to fail, the last independent automaker until recently. But they made some interesting cars in their time.
AMC built the Jeep Cherokee which became an icon (and damned near bulletproof), as well as the YJ Jeep, and largely had designed the Jeep Grand Cherokee at the time of the Chrysler purchase. So what they couldn't do for their cars (the Renault twins and the Eagles derived from the old Hornet and Gremlin chassis), they certainly did for what became the SUV/off-road market.
@@glennhavinoviski8128 The Eagle Premier developed with Renault would become the basis for Chrysler's LH cars as well.
In the movie Brewster McCloud the detective takes his life after losing a race to a hopped up Gremlin.
Wow! Zack! This is excellent! The RX-7 at 13:02 would be my "most want to daily" in the video. The Chevy Cavalier at 14:40 is the exact same kind of car my high school driver's education class used. They actually drive surprisingly nice.
I don't think it got mentioned, but kind of in the same vein... the 240Z. Its not a pure malaise era car, but did show a shape of things to come as it bridged into 1978, already largely equipped to cope with 1973. Its close cousin the 260Z was a malaise era car, but the changes were not that remarkable - still a Z. Fun to drive, like the RX-7
If you couldn't afford a Dodge Charger in the 70's, one fast car you could was the Dodge Dart with the small block V8 340ci engine. It was fast too!
Dodge dart is fast car yeah. maybe even faster then the charger. Take a dodge dart 1968 with the 426 for exemple. Same engine as the hemi charger but less weight. And you could get the 67-69 with a 383 for sure. Not so sure if you could get them with the 440
I was given a '76 Valiant sedan by the original owner several years back. Had to promise not to cut it up for parts or flip for $, and I have kept my word- to the point I bought it across the US when I left the West Coast for NC. The car now sports a Bergman Auto Craft steering & suspension set up, 12" rotor swap (from a Cordoba), put 2.5" dual exhaust, junkyard Edelbrock intake w/ a Thermoquad (fully rebuilt & electric choke conversion), and the cam is matched to the powertrain combo much better.
Underneath it has a full US Car Tool chassis stiffening kit, too. The car handles & brakes well, easy to maintain, people smile when they see it, and is very useful
Had the Plymouth Volare version of your 76. Mine was black with a maroon vinyl roof and interior.
Good video. I'd add that European cars (primarily German) surged in the 70s and 80s as well, due to the malaise of American cars of the era. Lexus and Infiniti were introduced to directly compete with Mercedes and BMW. They even copied their naming systems - alphanumeric.
Hmmm, the Toyota Corolla of 1968 wasn't specifically designed for Americans. It was released in Japan in 1966, and we received it here in Australia in, IIRC, 1967. It was just a rehash of a Japanese version
Lap belts were mandated in '66, shoulder restraints were required by '68 (though convertibles were exempted as they didn't have a way to attach them yet).
Excellent docu-presentation!
You covered every aspect of the Malaise Era and weaved it all together to make perfect sense. And you did it in less than 20 minutes. Bravo 👏
In Car and Driver (1968) Brock Yates wrote a prophetic piece called Gross Pointe Myopians.
I was only 3 years old then, but Yates accurately foretold the next 40 years of Detroit's demise
The Motown executives lived in an echo chamber of yes men who were blind to the desires of young buyers wanting nimble, efficient, well-made cars, not rolling bordellos with opera windows.
I grew up during the gas crunch, and despite loving the sound of a lopey-cammed V8, both my first car and current car only pack 2 cylinders (N600 and i3 REx, respectively)
You left out the most important fact that in 1971, Nixon closed the gold window which initiated an era of unprecedented inflation we are still experiencing today. This caused ALL manufacturers, not just automobile manufacturers, to cut corners to keep their prices lower, otherwise only the wealthy would be able to afford an automobile. Not just cutting corners in materials and build quality, but also offshoring most jobs overseas to suppress the prices of consumer goods, and flooding the nation with immigrants to increase the supply of labor, thus lowering wages. All this is done to hide the effects of inflation.
Very pertinent info. Sadly, most people don't know or understand how everything you mentioned ties together. I believe you are correct. The real mess began at Bretton Woods, NH in1971.
Rejecting the gold standard, practically making it illegal for people to walk in most streets and roads, and the whole disillusionment over nuclear energy were probably 3 of the biggest mistakes our species has ever done imo.
Not too loud with backgrounds. Hot drop. You are working it. Good job. It's very worthy production.
What a great video! One of the most well done stories of the Malaise era I have seen. I secretly love this era. There’s such a ridiculous element to it - every single model: “so this is really the best you could do?”
Late 70s Pontiac Trans Ams were cool, though. They sort of bucked the trend.
I'm in a malaise era...
I desire to go back to the era.
as do I indeed
Yea the good ole days where it was good to be overtly racist
@@davidclark7770it’s heavily supported now to be racist it’s just against white guys only. The woke are extremely racist towards white guys.
@@davidclark7770also other races are hugely supported in their racism towards white guys as well. Also no one seems to mind if they’re racist towards each other. Basically when the woke say racism they mean white guys against anyone else. They have way less issue with any other type of racism or bigotry. Black people can hate other black people asians can hate other Asians and both those groups can hate white people and they’re fine. Only when a white guy is racist do they flip out.
5 mph safety bumpers were required because the expense to repair front ends was becoming way too expensive. Had very little to do with safety. Safety was just a by product. I lived through those years.
Other contributors to the "malaise" : Environmental regulations that reduced performance, Insurance rates that reduced/ruined demand for performance, UAW build qualities compared to imports
Read, government intervention.
How interesting that you take a cheap shot at the UAW. You think they don't have unions in Europe? Guess again.
The people on the floor put the parts together. They didn't design planned obsolescence into what they were assembling.
The European and Asian car companies could engineer quality designed cars. But, understand also that they don't have to pay for healthcare for their employees because in those nations, they have that SOCIALISM that takes care of their health issues, which presumably, you're also opposed to since you took your shot at government regulation and the union.
but now, EVs are coming & the eco-regulations are ever more strict than before
@sess5206 are the European unions as corrupt as the AFL/CIO? And the UAW?
@@thejunkman Yes, that's why highway deaths went down by 60%. DARN THAT GERSH DANG GUBMINT!
Seen a few videos on this era of cars, but this was the most enjoyable, Good job man. The style of the music and diagrams gave it a cathartic 70s documentary feel. Thanks for the hard work 🤘
This was a beautifully crafted video, I definitely learned a lot more about the Malaise Era than I knew before. Would love to see you do more documentaries
Fairly well done, for someone who didn't live through those times. It was a complex mix of issues that generally led to the 'malaise'. You had various safety regulations that came into effect one or a few at a time. You can thank these for side marker lights (1968), headrests (1969), and the short-lived seatbelt interlocks of 1974. You had various smog-related regulations which started with various pumps and valves in the 60s, lead-free gas, and ended up giving us the catalytic converters for 1975. You had the death of the convertible in America. You had a few recessions and labor strikes, and car companies nearly going under, some more than once. All of these effectively limited what resources they had to invest and where to invest them. You had the major car companies lobbying to roll back regulations while steering the public toward truck-based offerings in order to skirt the regs, while profiting from parts and tech that had long since paid for themselves. And the third part of that was GM leading the way to 'downsize' its entire range of cars starting with the 1977 model year - that is to shave weight and revamp the packaging of each line as it was overhauled. At one point the new intermediates were smaller than the compacts! The others followed suit, often rebadging smaller existing vehicles with the names of the larger cars they 'replaced'. It is most likely the GM designs that invoke the image of 'malaise', because of a boxy, uniform similarity between sub-brands and size categories. Not to forget that not a decade before, the public was outraged to find a corporate engine by one sub-brand being used across many, instead of engines exclusively developed by that subdivision. Now, all of the GM products started losing their individuality - the lowest point being the Cadillac Cimarron being a mildly rebadged Chevy Cavalier. Add to this the engine detuning required to balance fuel economy with low emissions, and you have the essence of 'malaise'. Did you know that GM scrapped its rotary engine program because they couldn't obtain that balance? Not to mention the rotary engine's tendency to burn through its internal seals. That engine was intended for the 1975 Monza, but its cancellation meant the AMC Pacer wasn't getting it either. Another interesting few notes about the Omni/Horizon - Chryco's breakthrough front drive subcompact actually was their French car revised for America, and the first batches got Volkswagen engines before the Mitsu engines. There was a point in the 70s when Japanese imports were universally hated by blue collar types and considered to have been made of cheap, recycled metal. But all of that has changed, and thank goodness we came out of this era with all advances intact, improved upon and added to - essentially overcoming the balance between economy, performance, low emissions and style. Thanks for the vid!
Zach this was fantastic! I gotta say, this is hands down the best video on malaise that I know of.
BRAVO
As a Brit. this is fascinating - thank you. One other thing about this era to me as an outsider is the styling. You went from the gloriously vulgar land yacht, chrome and fins look, to an utterly hideous and awkward look during the 1970s, what with opera windows, horrible proportions, pointless landau bars, etc. Cars looked as though they were designed by committees that never spoke to each other. Now, it's all changed again. I was in New York a few years ago, expecting to see huge Checker cabs everywhere, but all I got was tiny yellow Korean hatchbacks.
Checker went out of business in 1985 and the cabs disappeared from the streets not long after.
Yeah these were ugly cars. So were also cars from the UK. I remember seeing the poor man rolls royce and it looked like someone bought a 1983 lada and put a chrome grill, and à leather couch in it, like the unnatural cross breeding between à cadillac and à leyland car. At least, France and Germany did had decent cars.
Fantastic, fantastic video, very well done Zack, informative, concise, and well researched. I was honestly indifferent to the malaise era, but now I really respect it for what it was, what the manufacturers rought from it, and the innovations that influenced our current automotive culture and era❤
Very informative and insightful. Growing up in a town where a GM plant (now a damn Amazon fulfillment center, UGH) was king, I never realized how much was going on at the time until I became a gearhead of age.
This is my favorite video you’ve done so far! Loved this different style. Great visuals, voiceover and storytelling!
I would argue that the malaise era started in 1971 for GM and 1972 for everyone else. If you look at the engine specs for Gm cars in 1971 and compare to 1970 you will see a large drop in compression and horsepower. The drop in compression for everyone else was in 1972, but something else occurred at the same time to deliberately cover up the resulting loss in power: The change from SAE gross to net horsepower ratings.
For me, the era marks the beginning of cars born through bureaucracy rather than artists and engineers. A true tragedy, and like everything born out of bureaucracy, you can look around and see the soulless, gray, homogeneous, joyless appliances wallowing about on the streets today, to the delight of those that seek to regulate the lives of their fellow man, and free him from any pleasure in life that he may come upon.
True, I believe there is a Pre-Malaise era from 1971-'74 when cars were being altered downward. The first energy crisis started at the dawn of the 1974 model year (10/'73) so to me '75 was the first year of true Malaise with catalytic converters and almost no more muscle cars such as the Challenger/Barracuda, Javelin/AMX, GTOs. I collect automobilia and have noticed a gap in value between 1974 and 1975 and onward.
This is an amazing video. What is considered quite a dark moment in American car history turned out to be one of the most important turning point for the American car companies. I wouldn’t have thought of that if it weren’t for this video. Congrats on the great work!
Too bad they turned the wrong way. From beautiful, exciting cars to dull boring transportation appliances that track your every move, spy on you, watch you with dash mounted cameras, listen to you with dash mounted microphones, and even have computers that take control of the vehicle away from you. And if the effin government had their way, they wouldn't even have engines anymore.
I d say its pretty dark now.
@@Kgio-2112now you can buy a car for 40k on a interest rate of 10% at a 10 year loan. Things are abysmal now. You used to pay IN CASH for cars
Some of my favorite American cars come from this era. I'm a huge fan of the 3rd gen Pontiac Trans Am / Chevy Camaro the Foxbody Mustang and of course the Buick Grand National with its 3.8 liter turbo V6. I highly doubt that Buick would've created a hot rod turbocharged V6 engine if it wasn't for the new government regulations. Before that most performance American muscle cars had 6.6 liter 400 to 7.0 455 cubic inch V8 engines. Buick and other companies couldn't do that anymore so they had to go back to the drawing board and experiment with new technologies like fuel injection and turbocharged engines to make power. The sleek look of cars like the 3rd gen firebird and the Camaro really sold well because of new aerodynamic design which look light years ahead of the second generation F body cars. The Ford Mustang SVO had a turbo 4 cylinder and was putting out an impressive 215 horsepower same with the Shelby Dodge Omni GLH. These cars are very fast and with some aftermarket performance parts can be even quicker than 60s muscle cars of the past.
Early 80s started to turn around... The K-Car stands out as it's own legend, Chevrolet's kind of replacement for the Citation, the Celebrity/clones was a huge hit (and the Cavalier sold real well), and of course the Taurus.
The music at the end of the video gives you the feeling of now the story is really gonna start, this was just the introduction...
That is probably one of the best video’s you have done. Thank you. I live in Australia and our car culture pretty much mirrors America. Except we don’t have any car manufacturing here anymore. Very sad. We had Ford, Holden, Chrysler. And most of the Japanese for decades, then it just ended. Maybe you should come to Australia one day and experience some Australian built cars, you may be surprised at how good some are. I’ve got a few and you’re very welcome to come and visit and stay and drive some. Thank you. 🇦🇺👍
its a shame and testament to horrible decisions by the Big 3 to forsake quality and focus only on profits. Honda also screwed up because they have suffered middling stock values and have closed many auto plants around the world. I think Holden and Ford should have spun off but remained independent and started engineering car export to Africa, Asia, and Home market. Its very possible that the unusual characteristics of Australia hurt the chances to export cars because while Aussie is good for horsepower the rest of world wants economy and new age. But for musclecars and power US market should have used Aussie minds and hands but their hubris and envy kept that from happening as well as general consolidations and limited models.
@@jamesmedina2062 Actually, at the end GM did use Australian minds and hands... for the last "American" Pontiac GTO.
@@marko7843 Awesome!👍
This video is excellent. You should do more like this. Obviously I like the car review videos, that's why I'm still a subscriber - don't stop doing them - , but this type of video could be really successful for you.
1955 to 1965........what a beautiful time in US car design!
Fun fact the first Huyndai car to reach North America was the Hyundai Pony in 1984. It was only sold in Canada.
And the Pony was rear wheel drive.
In Quebec bromont
Followed by the Stellar, which was based on the final Ford Cortina.
Emissions and Safety laws were making American Cars terrible by 1973, even without the oil embargo - A 1973 Impala with a 400 V8 got about 10 mpg and took about twice as long to reach highway speeds as a 1967 Impala with a 283 (which got 16-18 mpg) - but it was safer and certified to make less emissions while burning all that gas. The only way Detroit knew how to meet the tailpipe rules was to reduce compression, enrich mixture and retard the timing to control nitrogen oxides, and inject air into thermal reactors in the exhaust to reduce unburned hydrocarbons. It was bad. It got a little better in 1975, because the catalytic converter could clean things up, allowing the return of leaner mixtures and some ignition advance, if not higher compression since unleaded gas didn't have as much octane and knock sensors hadn't been invented yet. Things continued to slowly improved, and by 1986 you could buy a port fuel injected front wheel drive Olds 88 or Buick LeSabre that could run with that 283 67 Impala, and get almost 30 mpg on regular unleaded. It wouldn't be long until the modern pony cars were as quick as the legendary muscle cars and things have kept getting better.
Yep. But in 1975 350 Chevy Corvette produced only 165hp, same which you can now take from only 80 displacement. Looking back it was hilarious backward engineering decade at least for big 3. Better innovation came only after this wake up era.
Great video, thanks for sharing 😊. I particularly liked the closing music you used. Always a blast to watch
Really liked this video format! Well done! More of these, please.
1985 mercury marquis wagon best damn car in the world
Great short history, Zack. Enjoyed the production, very well done.
This is the first of your videos I have watched and they are very well done. I can’t believe your channel is not bigger than it is. You got my subscription
Very well done video! Thank you for the great content.
First time watching one of your videos. Bro, this was comprehensive, and as I saw it - this is quite an excellent coverage of the scenario that brought about next to zero car innovation in the USA. I still hold it against General Motors for how long they adhered to the malaise era thinking... not to mention their forays into planned obsolescence with softer cams, etc.
I great video. I am grateful that I grew up in the fifties and sixties, and got to experience the cars of that era. American autos had imagination, individuality, size, style comfort and power.
Improvement is good, but not all changes are. With wind tunnels designing our cars, they all resemble an item used to treat hemorrhoids. The downsizing has left traditional sized families no choice but to transition to SUVs and four door trucks which have only a passing nod to cargo capacity.
It occurs to me that in all the renaming we are suffering through, perhaps we should consign the terms "car" and "automobile" to the graveyard of a bygone era. It would seem that what we are left to travel in might better be classified as a "personal conveyance", for they are in no way cars in any traditional sense.
I agree with the 73-83 year markers. Back in 84 my mom bought a brand new (84) Chevrolet Corvette. While many C3 owners sneered at the new model, and still do, riding in the passenger seat as an older elementary student it felt like we were celebrities. It truly felt like we were approaching a new era of automobiles and design. It is kind of interesting here four decades in the future, how many younger Millenials and Gen Z love the C4 and discard the C3 as stone-age; a sharp contrast to when it was released.
I'm super impressed with the research on this. It confirmed every notion I had and taught me more. This channel is a credit to RUclips.
Do more of these!
Pitting economy against performance is nonsense. The two work together like a fork and knife. Because while Honda was developing the most efficient little hatchbacks of the late 80's and early 90's (like the CR-X, rip to a legend), they were dominating Formula 1 engine development too, powering Williams and McLaren to five consecutive championships from 1987 to 1991. Blaming regulators rather than Ford, GM, and Chrysler for their lack of willingness to innovate illustrates just what Soichiro Honda meant when he said, "when Congress passes new emissions standards, we hired 50 more engineers and GM hires 50 more lawyers."
I fully agree with you. Your example is forward thinking from Honda.
But what if we look backward?
Well, there WAS a slump in power during the malaise era, with the blame being put on an emphasis towards economy.
Evidence shows however that was just a hiccup. The economy standards have stayed, but we are now in an era where the base model cars outperform even pre-malaise special models. A 2.3 Ecoboost mustang is more powerful than an old boss 302. Modern muscle cars are more powerful than old dream cars like the countach or testarosa.
Why are modern cars so powerful? Many say it's because of the efforts to extract as much power as possible from the gas they burn.
In other words, by seeking efficiency, we found power.
I just wanted to add another reason why you're right.
@@jimbartosevich498 I mean, there was a slump in the power output of *American* cars in that era. I don't see that same slump from Japanese or even German cars really. It's more because American cars were technologically behind their foreign competitors.
Again, it all comes down to the immortal line of Jeremy Clarkson: "how *do* the Americans manage to get so little horsepower out of such a big engine?"
@@jimbartosevich498 There was an anti-pollution system used in the 1970s (before catalytic converters came into use) that had a very bad effect on the fuel economy. The engines were run on a very rich mixture that minimised the generation of nitrogen oxides, and there was an engine-driven air pump that blew air into the exhaust manifold. This kept a fire going in the manifold with excess air so as to burn the large quantities of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and soot produced by the rich mixture. Also this technique greatly increased the quantity of exhaust gas coming out of the pipe, so that any remaining pollutants formed a smaller proportion of the total amount of gas. This was useful in countries where there were limits on pollutants as a proportion of the gas rather than limits on the quantities of the pollutants. There was a tendency to foul the spark plugs with soot, and some engines (for example that of the Ford Pinto, also used in many UK Fords) had 18mm spark plugs instead of the then normal 14mm so as to reduce the risk of the sparks being shorted out by the soot.
Not always. Some cars are very powerful but have horribly inefficient powertrains. In fact, I would wager the majority of powerful cars are less efficient. More power generally means more fuel being burned, there's little getting around that.
@@bigballz4u Ok, but in 1969 the Japanese could produce the same amount of power in 2 liters that the Americans could only do in 4. The British could produce the same power in 4 that the Americans could only produce in 5. And mind you, that 3.8L engine was a decade older than the American 5L V8. So you're right that the most powerful cars won't be efficient, but when you calibrate the power to fit a normal car, you're not trying for peak performance.
Really great video. Informative and entertaining. Thanks for this. It was sad to be a teenager into cars during the latter half of the 70's into the 80's. So many frankenstein's monster vehicles produced during that period.
Great Video! I know a lot about car history and still learned a lot from this video!
Excellent video man! I feel like the big 3 never fully recovered from the malaise era honestly. I mean look at their models today, pretty sure a lot of GM crossovers and small cars are produced by Daewoo (now called GM Korea), Ford still utilize certain ecoboost engines that share their roots in Mazda’s MZR engine design, and Chrysler merged with various European brands after the market crash. The effects still echo till this day.
mazda 2.3 mzr was based on a ford engine, btw american brands are not doing that bad compared to others, i think only hyundai is not in very deep right now, vw group is 490k billion in debts, toyota cant build decent cars anymore, they use other brands and results are not much better, honda has major reliability issues with all their turbo engines, mazda makes very outdated cars with very unrefinded drivetrains, until last year i was a mechanic for mazda, i wouldnt touch anything else than a base manual fwd mazda 3 even that, all their brand new cars with less than 20 miles have timing chain rattles on cold start, i wont talk about subaru or mitsubishi with their 20yo platforms or the worst brand ever: nissan... korean cars since 2019 are better than japan cars, more refined and more reliable, they fixed all their issues
@@retrocompaq5212Hey I worked for Mazda too. Many people tout them as the best value today. The Honda turbos are doing very well. Its only overtunes that are causing issues. The American makes are not even making cars but they are capable and can make good cars. I think the supply chain is low quality and has caused issues for makes such as Ford and Honda. These two preferred to cut corners and save money and they became 2nd tier cars. Toyota is still king of retained value. In fact they are one of few brands using mixed injection. Their cars are very solid.
I visited the USA about 15 years ago and hired a Chevrolet Aveo. I looked under the hood so as to check the oil and water, and noticed a plate that said the car was made in South Korea by Daewoo.
The 1950s Nash Metropolitan was a joint effort with Austin in the UK and was made by Austin. It was a common sight in the UK in the early 1960s. The former Mazda 121 that became the Ford Festiva also appeared in the UK as the Kia Pride, made in South Korea.
There's nothing American about "American" cars today
I own a ‘22 Chevy Spark, which is a Daewoo. The Chevy Trax is also a Daewoo. I use my Spark on a delivery route, it has 82,000 miles on it right now, and not a single issue with it.
You did a great job explaining this weird Era in the history of automobiles 🙌
awesome video! I love all the quirky cars of the malaise Era and all the history you mentioned
I remember my Grandfather, who was pretty much 99% Made in the USA, until, he bought his first Toyota pick up truck. That was right around 1982-1983 or so, and he never looked back. He had owned Chevy and Dodge trucks, Jeeps and even a few Fords, but his last Chevy truck rusting out in less than a year was enough. He owned Toyota pickups until he died in 1999.
single worst era of vehicles ever. and the effects we feel nowadays are awful, the US GOV simultaneously expect cars to be safer (increased weight and size) but also be as efficient as possible. the geo metro made 50 MPG, but its illegal to build because it's not safe enough. they want it both ways but it's not realistic
Things would be better if all cars were smaller
All my favorite cars are the heroes of this era.
The 70s were so awesome.
Love the content to this program. Thanks
Very well produced video. 👍🏻. Wonderful collection of period cars shown along with very good historical information.
One of the crappiest aspects of those malaise cars was the emission control standards. Manufacturers did not understand the technology so the public became their guinea pigs. If you bought one of their failures, you were stuck with it and couldn't pass inspection. Also the emission control made those cars super unreliable and often performance was non-existent.
In other words; all the safety and emissions stuff was just bullshit, looking back. The roads have never been cleaner and safer. Thanks, politicians and insurance companies! For not letting the free market decide what we want.
Thank God for the lives saved by those 5mph bumpers! Thank you government for taking care of us
Great video. I could have watched it with no audio. So great to see all of the different cars from the ‘80s that we may have forgotten about.
More of these Zack!! Awesome.
I learned to drive in 70's era cars. When compared to today's cars with all the nanny-state safety stuff, the cars I learned to drive in were death traps. lol
Also no one had winter tires, best you got was a bunch of sand bags in the rear (which actually worked well), you go too fast or turn too hard? You fly off the road or fly into a building 😂 I remember having to remove the air cleaner and stuffing a handle in the butterfly valve as the choke wasn't working 🤣 different times 🍻
But we somehow survived!🤣🤣🤣
40s and 50s cars were bigger death traps. You had it easy.
Zack, How odd that you picked the most reliable American car of its time ie Dodge Dart/ Plymouth Valiant as the 'Screen Shot' for a video titled The Malaise Era . 🤔 Many people forget that the Big 3 had small, fuel efficient cars in production in their overseas operations when the 1973 Oil Crisis hit. Those designs could have been put into production over here to fight the Japanese 'invasion' but auto executives must have realized those lamentable European models would never cut it. 😂 When it comes to cars rather than pickups and SUVs, it could be argued that the 'Malaise Era' for American cars never ended. Judging by the paltry selection of American cars for sale today, things have only gotten worse.
That was explained so well, if it was a book; I couldn't put it down! Nice work Zack.
Great job of research and analized from the root⭐
Great video Zack I really enjoyed It! Please do another personally I wish the oil crises didn’t happen sure cars back then weren’t the safest but the just looked so much better and with the v8s etc etc
Great portrayal of the situation around 1973 and 78/9. I can remember being a kid before I got my license - I’d seemed like I’d never drive lol. New Sub for you - nice work and love your closing slide!
Excellent video I grew up during this period of time so it really hits home.
Seeing the title and the picture of a Dart, my beloved ride in my college years, makes me sad.
I really did like your ending sketch, very informative and to the point
Thanks for the great video and for helping bring this subject jnto fhe fold.
Great video. Great presentation. Very professional dude.
One of your best videos my dude!
Hello 👋 new Subscriber here!
I've watched a LOT of channels on and about cars. Not knocking any other channel but, this was in my opinion,the best history lesson about cars and in particular the oil crisis and what it was about that started a turn of events I've never understood in under 20 minutes I've ever seen.
In fact because I'm ADHD (self diagnosed) 😅 I'm going to watch this a few more times to let it really soak in.
Thank you and I'll be watching more.
Happy 2024 🎉