Continuing with the Ads’ posts after a week’s brake due to New Year, here are the ads from March’s issue.
Enjoy:
Motorcycles are still going strong, evident from this ad and the other ads further below.
Car of the year.
MB celebrating their past in order to promote the present models.
By now this was a ten years old car, but I’d still take it.
Some very interesting classifieds in this issue:
Thanks for reading- look forward to more posts from this issue during the week.
The ad for the ’81 Camaro calls it “The Hugger”. My first thought was that it sounds like Sergio Marchionne approaching Mary Barra about merging FCA with GM.
I think there’s a Cosworth Vega in the classifieds in every issue. This is at least the third one.
Curious about the cover story, “Detroit: Last Rites or Right At Last?”. Already predicting the fall of the big-3 in 1981?
“Spread your wings” sounds more appropriate for selling a Firebird, than a Camaro.
As for the quotes in the ad for the Escort, you have to wonder what Car&Driver and Road&Track REALLY said, before the sentences used were “edited”.
I don’t think these type of ads really influenced me but less than a year later I would buy my first motorcycle, an ’82 Yamaha.
IIRC Car and Driver called the ’82 Escort 1982’s most-improved returning model. You can probably infer from that their opinion of the ’81.
733i ad: “While the sobering realities of the ’80s have forced other automakers to drastically rethink their engine technology ― desperately cutting cylinders, resorting to diesel fuel to achieve efficiency, tinkering with all manner of electronic devices…”
Just as Ford sneered at GM’s downsized full-sizes before imitating them, BMW here sneered at Cadillac’s innovations (admittedly flawed) which later became standard practice. If you’re innovative, you’re a damned revolutionary, but if you’re not, you’re too conservative.
Also, the line, “resorting to Diesel fuel…” a swipe a Cadillac AND Mercedes!
And the 524td was just a couple of years away at that point.
Sshhh! Keep telling consumers that what the other manufacturers are doing is rubbish until our competing model is ready!
That’s exactly what Ford did with the “still truly full-size” 1977 and ’78 LTD.
I didn’t know the Volvo 262C was available in black (or any other color besides silver), or the Audi 4000 two-door sedan (silver car, small pic) even existed. I’m also surprised to learn BMW 1602/2002s were gaining in value that early (or was it only the hottest and rarest?), Volvo Duetts for that matter.
Silver seems to be the most common color for the 262C, but there were also quite a few painted gold, and I think I’ve seen brown and light blue. Those could potentially have been resprays but i’m sure gold was factory available.
In fact, the one Paul wrote up a few years back was gold:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1980-volvo-bertone-coupe-lost-in-translation/
I don’t know what it is, but the UJM just doesn’t turn me on.
The Volvo 262C built by Bertone rusted and rusted here in the UK. Now very rare.
I still love the Mazda 626 coupes of this era. If I were to ever find a nice one for a good price, I’d have a hard time saying no.
Those RWD 626s were really good cars, everything the FWD replacement wasnt.
Hoping to see the “Detroit: Last Rites Or Right At Last” article posted here. A perspective from what was arguably THE rock-bottom model year of the Malaise Era should make for some lively discussion.
What really saved Detroit was increased truck sales from eras of cheap fuel.
For GM and Ford that’s largely true, but Chrysler went some 13 years between the verge of liquidation and introduction of a competitive, modern full-size pickup. The K and L platforms and their many spinoffs became a license to print money. Meanwhile, they were lucky to give away D/W-series (non-Cummins) trucks to anyone other than low-bid government fleets.
The light domestic truck has, for makers & customers, effectively become the Yank Tank. If you really want a big •car•, you must buy foreign models like the Avalon.
Our family had a 1981 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser wagon, and yes, I’d agree with that assessment of the 1981 model year.
There’s a BMW 3.0CSL for sale in the classifieds section by Rick Rosner, one of the creators of CHiPs.