9940 N. 2nd Street Machesney Park IL, 4/18/88
Time for another visit to the 1980s and 1990s, when vast herds of Big Three Broughams rolled across the plains, and there were more cars than trucks. 4x4s were for forest rangers, although new compact versions like the 1983 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer and 1984 Cherokee were already gaining ground. And crossovers? What are those?
214-16 1st Avenue, Sterling IL, 1/24/86
Here’s a fine herd of American iron. Cars really looked different between makes back then, before all the auto designers graduated from the Used Bar of Soap Design School. I miss right angles and creases on cars.
1200 S. 5th, Canton IL, 8/4/96
You know this is an older photo when you see a rust free S10 of this vintage. They may have been fairly solid out on the West Coast, but here in Rock Salt Land, they dissolved rapidly. And I love that 1985 or 1986 Parisienne off to the left. Is it a Brougham? I believe it is, as it appears to have the coach lamp on the C-pillar.
15 East Side Square, Macomb IL, 6/12/87
Here’s a couple of rare cars. The AMC Concord is a 1980 or later model, as it is sporting the wraparound taillights and opera window in the C-pillar that were added that year. The ’86 Dodge 600 convertible next to it was a one year only model, as it sported updated “aero” front and rear fascias that year. In 1987 the 600 convertible was no more.
428 S. Main, Princeton IL, 2/14/86
Let’s end this week’s session with that darling of the Midwest of 25-30 years ago, the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. This one is a pretty rare version, as it is a 1984 Hurst/Olds version, one of 3500 built. The odds are pretty good that this car is still with us today, unlike many of the other cars in these photos. The Salt Monster got a lot of ’em.
See you next time!
There’s even a areo back Cutlass in the 2nd photo. Although I’m really drawn to the Hurst/Olds – yeah its gimicky, yeah its a shadow of what the Hurst/Olds and 442s of the 60s were but it is the one I lust after the hardest.
They were cool, but I think I would rather have a similar vintage 442 instead, I never liked the “Lightning Rod” shifter in the H/O, it seemed kinda lame, like your dad trying to moonwalk.
I could have bought a 78 aero-back Salon 2 door last year, with buckets, if the owner wasnt mental about what he wanted for it.
I know its hokey, there’s just something about the silliness of it. I guess I always like the Hurst paint better too.
I have to disagree, cars from the late 70s through the 80s are about as different looking as cars from the “soap bar” era. The sheer look was carried across all domestic manufactures, you had 2 or 4 rectangle sealed beam headlights with amber corners or a strip below the headlights, all flanking a chrome grill of sorts. Upright rectangular windows on the side with a fixed rear wing window, and around back you had tall vertical taillights or wide horizontal taillights. Yeah, you had the minituarized version in a hatchback. At least until Ford started introducing the aero look, and then everyone copied that to an extent.
From afar, cars have always had similar silhouettes.
Buicks didn’t look like Camrys in the 80s. Compare an ’80’s J-body GM product to an 80’s K-Car. Next compare a G6 to a Neon.
Cars were far more distinguishable in the 80’s as compared to the blobs of today.
I considered all of them, but mostly stuck with the bread and butter models: mid-size sedans.
I also stated domestic, that does not include Datsuns, Toyotas, Benz, etc…
They were may have seemed more distinguishable, because there was less variety to remember. Yeah, I could tell you 90% of cars in the 80s from the taillights at night…under the age of 10. I couldn’t do the same now, mostly because there are so many more models then there used to be.
Yeah….like you, when I was a kid I loved to call out cars while riding around. I used to know my taillights too, LOL. Things started getting more difficult in the late seventies though didn’t they?
I used to wonder why “old guys” didn’t find that stuff interesting. Now, I’m one of those old guys who cannot distinguish a BMW from a Kia. They are all just blobs to me.
Well, back in the mid 80’s, many Baby Boomer era Muscle Car fans complained that ‘all new cars look alike, boxy’. It’s all in ones eyes and emotions. I’ve heard younger car fans not able to tell difference between 65 and 67 Mustangs.
By the way, before the boxy 80’s, cars were “huge rounded tanks” as some called the big GM 71-77’s,
It’s all what is in someone’s eyes and emotions. To me, all old time cars look like Model T’s.
I can’t argue there…it’s hard to look outside one’s own box sometimes. I’m guilty of that myself. My roommate in college wasn’t really a car nut but he was opinionated about cars & had very similar tastes to mine which worked out well.
Any vehicle built prior to the early 60’s was known as a “Stupidbaker” which I find hilarious.
Agree completely, especially with things like the GM B-body where you had a different grille to show which make the car was. Probably applies to most GM models I suppose, such the early 70’s cars where the same basic body served all divisions with slight variations in WB & hood length, beyond minor panel pressing differences.
Renault 18 in pic #1.
Ahhh the Dodge 600, the answer to the question nobody asked. The 600 emblem used the same font (?) and underlined it just like the MB’s of the time. Imagine driving home with it for the first time, the neighbor says “Hey Joe, nice Mercedes you got there” Joe replies “ha, fooled ya, its really a Dodge!”
Or maybe it was just wishful thinking by Lee and the boys, If only we could team up with Daimler Benz, then we’d really have something!
There was a 400 too, with the same faux-Mercedes font type. Like you’d really mistake it for a W124 🙂
Actually, I kind of liked the 400, with its mini-Mirada grille.
I recognize nothing just generic US cars of the 80s.
Woah, a Skyhawk coupe and a Renault 18 in the same picture.
And a Charger with a bisected opera window too!!
Between 1985-1990 I was back in the Bay Area, so street scenes like Illinois – car wise (otherwise) were radically different. Obviously any Bay Area Town (I was living in Petaluma and Suisun in those days) you’d find SOME U.S. cars intermixed with the Japanese, and the Benzes and Bimmers with 4×2 and 4×4 trucks, plus all that sweet Northern California vintage iron. However, . . . relatives (who were alive back then but pretty much gone now) in Missouri (N.E.) and crossing the river itno W. Illinois (Quincy) . . . now those pictures become more familiar!
Lots of these pictures feature a Chinese restaurant. Funny how import cars are still a no-no, but eating Chinese is not. I wonder how authentic the food is at such establishment, considering the clientele…
I enjoyed these pictures an hour ago, now I’m hungry for more.
I think I spotted a ’78 MSG Brougham.
…mmmm… MSG…
With 3 you get opera lamp.
If this were Jalopnik (or what it used to be), this would have to be the COTD.
Sweet Chinese restaurants… my mental images of small, midwest cities are primarily informed by the movie A Christmas Story and these pictures are telling me that’s a pretty accurate point of reference…
Hey, Dad’s ’79 LeBaron in the first shot, right down to the color.
(Sue me if it’s actually a Dodge.)
I also enjoyed the American-Asian restaurant theme here. The “Bamboo Inn” has a Busch neon sign in the window. This is funny because A, ugh, no one who’s not trapped in a dry county has ever said, “Wow, they have Busch, let’s go!”
And B, I always got the sense that kinda dumpy Asian places only stayed in business by serving underage patrons. Actually, maybe that explains A as well. 🙂
I hope I’m not stepping on any toes posting this here, but I’ve wanted to link to these photos for awhile now and thought they’d make an interesting addendum to the Street Scenes series…
I stumbled across this website a few years back which shows some “Then and Now” shots of the town I grew up in. Aside from the local history angle, which is primarily of interest to me, there’s also a wide variety of early 1960s automobilia documented that I figured some CC readers might appreciate…
It’s a very brief collection, but there’s plenty of eye candy – I’m pretty sure the photos were taken in 1964 at the latest. I can name most – but not all of – these super sweet 50s & 60s rides, anybody else wanna take a stab at it??
UNO:
DOS:
Come on kids its half off Ford day at the Ice Cream Shack!
I like that nice clean airy Impala Sport coupe.
TRES:
QUATTRO:
Just to re-iterate, these are NOT my photos. They’re from http://home.comcast.net/~chabrol/Wantagh-daydream.html – if there’s any problem with them being posted here, my stupid bad… plz remove. The site they belong to is worth looking at quickly just to see how SAD the “Now” shots look in comparison, both the structures and parking lot/roadway inhabitants LOL…
Is that a Renault 18i in the far right of the first photo?
Wow a Renault 18, only seen one of those in my life (a Sportwagon)