I think the take away is that the Germans and the Japanese won the war of the '70s and '80s. The Americans faced the challenge of trying to hold on to customers who liked what they had while also offering stuff to the increasing number of customers who were seeking the fuel efficiency of the Japanese competition and the better build quality of the German competition. Honda, Toyota and Datsun (Nissan) on the other hand, were able to grow their small econoboxes into worthy competitors to the Impalas and LTDs. A smaller Pontiac feels like you're being cheated. A bigger Accord feels like you're getting a treat.
One thing that really hurt the newly designed downsized cars of the late 70's early 80's was the huge increase in financing costs. Good credit could get you an 18% interest rate on a new vehicle!
I think if the entire pane on the rear door flipped out at the rear and slid back at the front, so air could enter at the front and exit at the rear for each passenger, the change might have been tolerable; it would have increased elbow room while being safer and quieter than roll-down windows. But those little triangular windows did nothing unless the front window was also opened, so they were barely useful.
I miss the "downsized" mid-size GM G-Bodies from the '80s like the Monte Carlo, Regal, Cutlass and Grand Prix from 1981-1987. I had one of each of them, and even had 2 different Cutlasses. I had both V6s and V8s in those cars, and they were GREAT. Drove the heck out of them. They sort of reminded me of the GM '60s A-Body cars ( i.e.Chevelle, LeMans, Skylark, and Cutlass). Fortunately, I still own a 1969 Buick GS 350, so I still occasionally get to have some fun! Thanks for the memories!!
I fundamentally blame misguided federal CAFE standards for all of this. While cars got smaller and smaller, people got bigger. And we accumulated far more toys and stuff to haul. With no more roomy full size cars and station wagons because they were essentially regulated out of existence, the only vehicle to meet peoples needs was the cheap (initially) full size pick-up truck, and later SUV's. -So, government CAFE standards for cars were so strict it killed the market and most moved on to trucks and SUV's. Ah, the law of unintended consequences! Government is too myopic and shortsighted to ever think things through.
Ha ha, I was shocked when I saw that! Whoever edited the photo did a great job and the “Crown Coupé” as you so appropriately called it never really existed, although it looked great. That photo was edited from the original 1979 Chrysler New Yorker brochure with a real 4 door New Yorker Fifth Avenue in front of the Pulitzer fountain on 5th Ave. in NYC.
My dad bought a brand new 1977 Caprice Classic, which was the MT Car Of The Year as our main family car. For me, as a 7 or 8 yo it was plenty big, I couldn’t fathom what Dad was going on about it being “downsized”. Lots of cross-country road trip memories in that machine…
Another excellently researched and produced video, HCG. My take mostly mirrors yours. I would add that buyers were becoming more quality conscious and were understandably unimpressed and disappointed with American offers compared to imports, particularly Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Also, the minivan phenomena starting in the mid-80s no doubt contributed to the sales declines in standard “cars” as a whole. Keep these videos coming! 👍👍👍
@@thehopelesscarguy Agreed. I think the lack of experience in building smaller but capable cars by American manufacturers definitely contributed to poor quality. I know Chevrolet never in a million years could have predicted the insane demand for the Citation in its first year which absolutely contributed to poor build quality, forever giving all the X-cars a black eye.
the first round of downsizing in the late 1970s was pretty successful the best selling car in the US in 1977-1979 was the downsized Chevrolet Impala/Caprice selling 1.75 million in those three years though the Impala had been a best seller for years by then including in fleet use as taxis cop cars and wagons as ambulances
The Fox body LTD from 1983 to 1986 was not called the Victoria LTD. It was just LTD. The Panther platform car was just called Crown Victoria starting in 1983 and the LTD name was dropped from the Crown Victoria name when the Fox body LTD came out.
So many excellent examples of cars here - Pontiac was utterly destroyed in its quest for style and engineering just 20 years before. Thank you for your continued dedication !
I was half listening to start. But I have to Go back. Full of great statistical info, and as someone who Pressed his nose against the glass of the 77/78 downsized GMs, I want to really listen and see the figures. Well done. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
A friend of mine bought one of those down-sized '80's 4 dr Olds Cutlasses. The rear door windows WERE FIXED IN PLACE. Cost-saving measure? Weight-saving? It blew my mind at the time.
Great job but I would have loved to see all the 1976 versus 1977 sales for the downsized. I heard most makes went up in numbers. I loved the 1975 to 1979 Nova and her sisters. It should have been left alone.
Fantastic! I must say excellent! I enjoyed this topic tremedously. I was smiling while I was watching and nodding my head. I appreciate the great effort placed into this video. I know it took some time to put this video together. I liked how you had numbers to back up what you stated and the photos as well. GM should not have downsized those cars in the 1980's. They thought a fuel crisis was coming that didn't and thought they would be ready. GM upsized those cars so fast starting in 1989-1992 time frame. The way they looked and were sized starting in 1989-1992 is what they should have been in 1985 and 1986. It would have turned out differently for GM. Engines were a factor as well the changing market as well with crossovers and suv's which dominate today. Ford played the game well with the panther platform. I again personally thank you.
Predicting market changes incorrectly as certainly caused issues for many companies. The 100% electric by 2025 seems to be the most recent by many brands.
@@thehopelesscarguy I noticed they have started backing off the electric change over full steam by cutting prices on models and their projections and keep the gas powered models. People are not totally ready for the transition yet and there are still issues like range anxiety and infastructure issues and costs of the batteries. I noticed more turbo models with smaller engines too. That is the issue predicting the market. I am worried about Cadillac as they are full steam all electric. Lincoln has not been full steam.
@@thehopelesscarguy I am watching as well.. It is about to get really interesting. This happened back in the early days of the industry and the late 1800's and early 20th century, the 1930's and a few other times and recently as the 2000-2012 time frame as well.
It depends so much on the mood of the public at the time, who's buying, and on how good the new model is relative to its predecessor. The neutered '79 Lincolns and '78 Eldorado probably sold well not because they were great, but because they were perceived as the last of their kind and large-car fans who could afford them all rushed to the showrooms at once. The Mustang II sold well, despite the lack of a performance engine, because buyers had shunned the '71-'73 for being too big and un-maneuverable. The '78-'79 Cutlass and Century were shunned not as much because they were smaller, but because they were perceived as ugly. If you can convince buyers that they are getting the same amount of car in a more maneuverable, economical package, they don't seem to mind driving something smaller. But if they see it as a step down, forget it.
There are a couple of minor mistakes in this video. At 2:41 - 2:46, you showed a car that was never produced. There was never a 2 door 1979 Chrysler New Yorker 5th Avenue coupe ever made. None of the R body cars made form 1979 - 81 ever offered a 2 door body style. At 8:10 - 8:15, the Buick Skylark you've shown is a 1981 model, not a 1982 model. Also, you mention several times a "Victoria LTD" when you're talking about the smaller Fairmont based mid size Ford made from 1983 - 1986. This car was just called the "Ford LTD". The full sized Ford was the LTD Crown Victoria - the one that police and taxi drivers drove many of. You mention smaller downsized cars not being successful - but I think you may be leaving out an important part of some of these smaller cars selling in fewer numbers - the economy. E.g. you compare the Malibu and Celebrity in 1982. In 1980 - 82, the entire American auto industry sold a lot less cars due to a recession. I think it needs to be recognized that the Big 3 did not have much, if any, choice when downsizing their cars. The government mandated that they meet increasing fuel economy standards between 1978 and 1985. They HAD to made the cars smaller and lighter with smaller engines to meet the government standards. Trucks and SUVs have never had to meet the same fuel economy standards as cars. Because of this, SUVs and trucks became viable alternatives to body on frame cars certainly by the 1990s. If you can't drive a full sized body on frame Chevy anymore, you can always switch over to a Jeep or a Tahoe or something like that. You mentioned less powerful engines and reduced competence of certain cars. The Big 3 again did not have much choice here. There were mandated emissions standards put into effect in the early 70s, and the standards kept increasing. This led to reduced compression ratios and reduced power because the cars had to meet the government emissions standards. The first wave of GM downsizing was quite sensible and pretty successful. The boxy late 70s/ early 80s cars were a lot more space efficient, so you got the same or more interior room with smaller exterior dimensions. A lot of people wanted smaller more fuel efficient cars because of the two 1970s oil embargoes. But the mid 80s downsizing, which was planned a few years before, happened as gas prices went down. So there wasn't this push to go to smaller cars a second time, yet smaller cars were offered. By forcing the Big 3 to downsize because of the fuel economy standards, people were pushed towards trucks and SUVs. The Big 3 was also never able to make as much of a profit per car on smaller cars as the Japanese companies could because they had much higher overhead costs (e.g. employee pensions, high salaries negotiated by the unions, highly paid executives, etc). The Big 3 needed to sell more cars to make the same profits as the Japanese cars. By forcing these changes on the Big 3, the U.S. government probably inadvertently encouraged people to buy Japanese cars while hurting the Bug 3 automakers tremendously.
There are many other factors that weren’t mentioned in this video that affected the sales of the downsized vehicles; such as the poor economy of the late 1970s-early 1980s, safety issues from smaller vehicles ( Pintos catching on fire) and poor build quality of domestic cars.
@@thehopelesscarguy I think that part of the reason for the lack of sales was the lack of a two door, a wagon and, initially, a Plymouth version. My Uncle went to trade in his second Fury in on a new one and when he was told that there was no full size Plymouth, he bought a Caprice. The salesman told him that the Newport was the same thing, but he did not think that he was a Chrysler level person.
@@thehopelesscarguy So true! I'm still awaiting delivery of my Toronado XSR! 😂 (How fitting that the last, most opulent Toronados should be badged 'XS', as in Excess...)
i think one of the reasons of the first year drops for these models is that, when the previous big cars were introduced, the cost of living was lower and the economy was doing better, while from 80-81 the economy went completely into the toilet.
I drive a 1988 Lincoln town car I which is a downsized car still big but really interior in pictures makes it feel alot more roomy than it actually is.
I was taking driver's Ed in 78In the winter.I still remember driving on the highway and the interstructor says 'stay in you're lane.there was only one lane open
Implying the Diplomat led to GM'S downsizing for 1977 is definitely in error because the downsized GM cars were introduced in the normal fall introduction while the Diplomat/LeBaron were unveiled in 1977 if I remember correctly about 6 months later.
You failed to mention the second oil crisis in late 1979 which caused a major drop in large and intermediate cars during the first few years of the 1980's which I feel caused the New Yorker/Newport and St. Regis to drop abruptly and didn't allow the Gran Fury to even get off the ground. Most of the market started to shift to the Japanese cars which were perceived to be more economical to the typical buyer while due to the exchange rate for currencies left the European cars as more niche vehicles where the German and to a lesser extent Swedish cars finding loyalty due to quality. In general the early 80's auto market became a period of upheaval which would winnow out a lot of cars by about 1983 that failed to meet the public's perception of more efficient vehicles and caused a lot of vehicles grief when they missed the mark such as the GM X body cars where they would have done a lot better if they could have gotten through their teething problems. The Thunderbird/Cougar of 1980 were looked at as fancier upgrades of the Fairmont/Zephyr which didn't work for them, while the Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Supreme and Regal were already known to be up market versions of the GM intermediates which worked for them. The 1980-83 Cordoba/Mirada pretty much had the pre bale out stigma attached to them while the Omni/Horizon could prosper because of the previously mentioned oil crisis. The early 1980's if I remember correctly saw GM post its first loss since 1921 and was one of only 2 auto manufactures to post a profit in 1932 the other being Nash. I trust that it's understood that GM's large car sales drop was due to reasons other than a design that was becoming old or why should the basic 1977 design for the Caprice last until 1990 model year and still remain profitable as a vehicle. I know, I know, GM was more used to mega profitability and that was what got them in trouble by 2009. One major corporation seemed to be hell bent in making major mistakes, ie what they did to Saturn in trying to wring large profits from what they initially as an attypical division and tried to force it to become one of the group.
@@thehopelesscarguy Oh, by the way, I'm probably almost as hopeless a car guy as you are, and your comment on the 1980 Gran Fury being 1/3 the sales of the last of the previous Gran Furys which goes right along with what I was saying about the 1979 oil crisis really tearing into the sales of the large car market for the early 1980's because the 1980 New Yorker and St. Regis was also hit hard.
At 20:28 that's a Jeep Wagoneer not a Cherokee. Very interesting video. I think people liked that space and towing capacity of the larger vehicles. It would be interesting to see what the sales will be on EV models as they roll out vs ICE vehicles. Part of the problem is the government tries to force changes that the public doesn't actually want at the time.
3 years of record growth in a market that barely existed before that has slowed to a crawl, suggesting the government will once again have to back track on trying to force sales of products people don't want.
Ihad a 1976 Malibu Classic which was a great car , 350 ci, lots of power, excellent ride and comfort then got a 1980 Malibu which was an okay car but simply not in the same class.
I think the take away is that the Germans and the Japanese won the war of the '70s and '80s. The Americans faced the challenge of trying to hold on to customers who liked what they had while also offering stuff to the increasing number of customers who were seeking the fuel efficiency of the Japanese competition and the better build quality of the German competition. Honda, Toyota and Datsun (Nissan) on the other hand, were able to grow their small econoboxes into worthy competitors to the Impalas and LTDs. A smaller Pontiac feels like you're being cheated. A bigger Accord feels like you're getting a treat.
One thing that really hurt the newly designed downsized cars of the late 70's early 80's was the huge increase in financing costs. Good credit could get you an 18% interest rate on a new vehicle!
The worst part of those downsized A/G body 4 doors was the fixed rear windows. What were they thinking?!?
I know hip room was the official narrative.
I think if the entire pane on the rear door flipped out at the rear and slid back at the front, so air could enter at the front and exit at the rear for each passenger, the change might have been tolerable; it would have increased elbow room while being safer and quieter than roll-down windows. But those little triangular windows did nothing unless the front window was also opened, so they were barely useful.
I miss the "downsized" mid-size GM G-Bodies from the '80s like the Monte Carlo, Regal, Cutlass and Grand Prix from 1981-1987. I had one of each of them, and even had 2 different Cutlasses. I had both V6s and V8s in those cars, and they were GREAT. Drove the heck out of them. They sort of reminded me of the GM '60s A-Body cars ( i.e.Chevelle, LeMans, Skylark, and Cutlass). Fortunately, I still own a 1969 Buick GS 350, so I still occasionally get to have some fun! Thanks for the memories!!
I fundamentally blame misguided federal CAFE standards for all of this. While cars got smaller and smaller, people got bigger. And we accumulated far more toys and stuff to haul. With no more roomy full size cars and station wagons because they were essentially regulated out of existence, the only vehicle to meet peoples needs was the cheap (initially) full size pick-up truck, and later SUV's.
-So, government CAFE standards for cars were so strict it killed the market and most moved on to trucks and SUV's. Ah, the law of unintended consequences! Government is too myopic and shortsighted to ever think things through.
2:47 Ooo! The beautiful and rare '79 New Yorker Fifth Avenue Crown Coupe! Funny, I've never seen one in real life.
Ha ha, I was shocked when I saw that! Whoever edited the photo did a great job and the “Crown Coupé” as you so appropriately called it never really existed, although it looked great. That photo was edited from the original 1979 Chrysler New Yorker brochure with a real 4 door New Yorker Fifth Avenue in front of the Pulitzer fountain on 5th Ave. in NYC.
My dad bought a brand new 1977 Caprice Classic, which was the MT Car Of The Year as our main family car. For me, as a 7 or 8 yo it was plenty big, I couldn’t fathom what Dad was going on about it being “downsized”. Lots of cross-country road trip memories in that machine…
Another excellently researched and produced video, HCG. My take mostly mirrors yours. I would add that buyers were becoming more quality conscious and were understandably unimpressed and disappointed with American offers compared to imports, particularly Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Also, the minivan phenomena starting in the mid-80s no doubt contributed to the sales declines in standard “cars” as a whole. Keep these videos coming! 👍👍👍
Downsizing seemed to actually hurt the quality of American products, while Asian imports were promoting a defects per unit process of quality control.
@@thehopelesscarguy Agreed. I think the lack of experience in building smaller but capable cars by American manufacturers definitely contributed to poor quality. I know Chevrolet never in a million years could have predicted the insane demand for the Citation in its first year which absolutely contributed to poor build quality, forever giving all the X-cars a black eye.
Wow! Excellent automotive histrionics! You did tremendous research and reporting. Thank you!
Thank you, this was really good. Have a nice weekend. 🚙
I owed a 78 Cutlass 442. It was one of my favorites I’ve owned.
the first round of downsizing in the late 1970s was pretty successful the best selling car in the US in 1977-1979 was the downsized Chevrolet Impala/Caprice selling 1.75 million in those three years though the Impala had been a best seller for years by then including in fleet use as taxis cop cars and wagons as ambulances
Most of the big cars of that period sold well.
The Fox body LTD from 1983 to 1986 was not called the Victoria LTD. It was just LTD. The Panther platform car was just called Crown Victoria starting in 1983 and the LTD name was dropped from the Crown Victoria name when the Fox body LTD came out.
The Foxbodies were LTD's, the panther body was the LTD Crown Victoria
So many excellent examples of cars here - Pontiac was utterly destroyed in its quest for style and engineering just 20 years before. Thank you for your continued dedication !
I was half listening to start. But I have to Go back. Full of great statistical info, and as someone who Pressed his nose against the glass of the 77/78 downsized GMs, I want to really listen and see the figures. Well done. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Well I guess that is one way to get additional views, thanks.
Great video. Love the first generation Seville, and I admit that I also really like the GM-10 FWD Regal as well. Good job!
A friend of mine bought one of those down-sized '80's 4 dr Olds Cutlasses. The rear door windows WERE FIXED IN PLACE. Cost-saving measure? Weight-saving? It blew my mind at the time.
I'm guessing it was marketed as a safety feature.
@@thehopelesscarguy They touted the extra elbow room in the brochures. In the first year or two, the K-cars had the same thing.
Great job but I would have loved to see all the 1976 versus 1977 sales for the downsized. I heard most makes went up in numbers.
I loved the 1975 to 1979 Nova and her sisters. It should have been left alone.
Fantastic! I must say excellent! I enjoyed this topic tremedously. I was smiling while I was watching and nodding my head. I appreciate the great effort placed into this video. I know it took some time to put this video together. I liked how you had numbers to back up what you stated and the photos as well. GM should not have downsized those cars in the 1980's. They thought a fuel crisis was coming that didn't and thought they would be ready. GM upsized those cars so fast starting in 1989-1992 time frame. The way they looked and were sized starting in 1989-1992 is what they should have been in 1985 and 1986. It would have turned out differently for GM. Engines were a factor as well the changing market as well with crossovers and suv's which dominate today. Ford played the game well with the panther platform. I again personally thank you.
Predicting market changes incorrectly as certainly caused issues for many companies. The 100% electric by 2025 seems to be the most recent by many brands.
@@thehopelesscarguy I noticed they have started backing off the electric change over full steam by cutting prices on models and their projections and keep the gas powered models. People are not totally ready for the transition yet and there are still issues like range anxiety and infastructure issues and costs of the batteries. I noticed more turbo models with smaller engines too. That is the issue predicting the market. I am worried about Cadillac as they are full steam all electric. Lincoln has not been full steam.
@@OLDS98 It will be interesting to see who survives the decade.
@@thehopelesscarguy I am watching as well.. It is about to get really interesting. This happened back in the early days of the industry and the late 1800's and early 20th century, the 1930's and a few other times and recently as the 2000-2012 time frame as well.
It depends so much on the mood of the public at the time, who's buying, and on how good the new model is relative to its predecessor. The neutered '79 Lincolns and '78 Eldorado probably sold well not because they were great, but because they were perceived as the last of their kind and large-car fans who could afford them all rushed to the showrooms at once. The Mustang II sold well, despite the lack of a performance engine, because buyers had shunned the '71-'73 for being too big and un-maneuverable. The '78-'79 Cutlass and Century were shunned not as much because they were smaller, but because they were perceived as ugly. If you can convince buyers that they are getting the same amount of car in a more maneuverable, economical package, they don't seem to mind driving something smaller. But if they see it as a step down, forget it.
Reasonable.
Can anyone confirm?
The '76 Seville, despite being Nova-based, was priced higher than the other Cadillac models.
Gutsy marketing move if true.
It is true. And it was successful too.
in the late 70;s and early 80;s all G.M. cars looked like the Seville.
There are a couple of minor mistakes in this video. At 2:41 - 2:46, you showed a car that was never produced. There was never a 2 door 1979 Chrysler New Yorker 5th Avenue coupe ever made. None of the R body cars made form 1979 - 81 ever offered a 2 door body style. At 8:10 - 8:15, the Buick Skylark you've shown is a 1981 model, not a 1982 model. Also, you mention several times a "Victoria LTD" when you're talking about the smaller Fairmont based mid size Ford made from 1983 - 1986. This car was just called the "Ford LTD". The full sized Ford was the LTD Crown Victoria - the one that police and taxi drivers drove many of. You mention smaller downsized cars not being successful - but I think you may be leaving out an important part of some of these smaller cars selling in fewer numbers - the economy. E.g. you compare the Malibu and Celebrity in 1982. In 1980 - 82, the entire American auto industry sold a lot less cars due to a recession. I think it needs to be recognized that the Big 3 did not have much, if any, choice when downsizing their cars. The government mandated that they meet increasing fuel economy standards between 1978 and 1985. They HAD to made the cars smaller and lighter with smaller engines to meet the government standards. Trucks and SUVs have never had to meet the same fuel economy standards as cars. Because of this, SUVs and trucks became viable alternatives to body on frame cars certainly by the 1990s. If you can't drive a full sized body on frame Chevy anymore, you can always switch over to a Jeep or a Tahoe or something like that. You mentioned less powerful engines and reduced competence of certain cars. The Big 3 again did not have much choice here. There were mandated emissions standards put into effect in the early 70s, and the standards kept increasing. This led to reduced compression ratios and reduced power because the cars had to meet the government emissions standards. The first wave of GM downsizing was quite sensible and pretty successful. The boxy late 70s/ early 80s cars were a lot more space efficient, so you got the same or more interior room with smaller exterior dimensions. A lot of people wanted smaller more fuel efficient cars because of the two 1970s oil embargoes. But the mid 80s downsizing, which was planned a few years before, happened as gas prices went down. So there wasn't this push to go to smaller cars a second time, yet smaller cars were offered. By forcing the Big 3 to downsize because of the fuel economy standards, people were pushed towards trucks and SUVs. The Big 3 was also never able to make as much of a profit per car on smaller cars as the Japanese companies could because they had much higher overhead costs (e.g. employee pensions, high salaries negotiated by the unions, highly paid executives, etc). The Big 3 needed to sell more cars to make the same profits as the Japanese cars. By forcing these changes on the Big 3, the U.S. government probably inadvertently encouraged people to buy Japanese cars while hurting the Bug 3 automakers tremendously.
There are many other factors that weren’t mentioned in this video that affected the sales of the downsized vehicles; such as the poor economy of the late 1970s-early 1980s, safety issues from smaller vehicles ( Pintos catching on fire) and poor build quality of domestic cars.
Where did you get a picture of a 1979 New Yorker two door since such a model was never produced?!
You know I didn't catch that, but it wouldn't be the first time there was literature for something that never made it to production.
@@thehopelesscarguy I think that part of the reason for the lack of sales was the lack of a two door, a wagon and, initially, a Plymouth version.
My Uncle went to trade in his second Fury in on a new one and when he was told that there was no full size Plymouth, he bought a Caprice. The salesman told him that the Newport was the same thing, but he did not think that he was a Chrysler level person.
@@danielulz1640 Could be.
@@thehopelesscarguy So true! I'm still awaiting delivery of my Toronado XSR! 😂
(How fitting that the last, most opulent Toronados should be badged 'XS', as in Excess...)
Great video. Shrinkflation
Back in the day I clearly remember the BIGGEST shock reaction was to the first front wheel drive Chrysler LeBaron…
I could see that.
i think one of the reasons of the first year drops for these models is that, when the previous big cars were introduced, the cost of living was lower and the economy was doing better, while from 80-81 the economy went completely into the toilet.
The economy certainly would have had an impact, but overall sales were still strong.
I drive a 1988 Lincoln town car I which is a downsized car still big but really interior in pictures makes it feel alot more roomy than it actually is.
I was taking driver's Ed in 78In the winter.I still remember driving on the highway and the interstructor says 'stay in you're lane.there was only one lane open
great job
Thanks.
By the mid 70s cars got bloated and not space efficient the first round of downsizing solved that
It did solve that, and other issues, while creating new ones. Durability and reliability being the big ones.
@@thehopelesscarguyAtop of all this we are still talking 'bout the melise era!. That era from 'bout 1973 to almost 1990 !!!!!.
Implying the Diplomat led to GM'S downsizing for 1977 is definitely in error because the downsized GM cars were introduced in the normal fall introduction while the Diplomat/LeBaron were unveiled in 1977 if I remember correctly about 6 months later.
You failed to mention the second oil crisis in late 1979 which caused a major drop in large and intermediate cars during the first few years of the 1980's which I feel caused the New Yorker/Newport and St. Regis to drop abruptly and didn't allow the Gran Fury to even get off the ground. Most of the market started to shift to the Japanese cars which were perceived to be more economical to the typical buyer while due to the exchange rate for currencies left the European cars as more niche vehicles where the German and to a lesser extent Swedish cars finding loyalty due to quality. In general the early 80's auto market became a period of upheaval which would winnow out a lot of cars by about 1983 that failed to meet the public's perception of more efficient vehicles and caused a lot of vehicles grief when they missed the mark such as the GM X body cars where they would have done a lot better if they could have gotten through their teething problems. The Thunderbird/Cougar of 1980 were looked at as fancier upgrades of the Fairmont/Zephyr which didn't work for them, while the Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Supreme and Regal were already known to be up market versions of the GM intermediates which worked for them. The 1980-83 Cordoba/Mirada pretty much had the pre bale out stigma attached to them while the Omni/Horizon could prosper because of the previously mentioned oil crisis. The early 1980's if I remember correctly saw GM post its first loss since 1921 and was one of only 2 auto manufactures to post a profit in 1932 the other being Nash. I trust that it's understood that GM's large car sales drop was due to reasons other than a design that was becoming old or why should the basic 1977 design for the Caprice last until 1990 model year and still remain profitable as a vehicle. I know, I know, GM was more used to mega profitability and that was what got them in trouble by 2009. One major corporation seemed to be hell bent in making major mistakes, ie what they did to Saturn in trying to wring large profits from what they initially as an attypical division and tried to force it to become one of the group.
I think you read into that something that wasn't there.
@@thehopelesscarguy Oh, by the way, I'm probably almost as hopeless a car guy as you are, and your comment on the 1980 Gran Fury being 1/3 the sales of the last of the previous Gran Furys which goes right along with what I was saying about the 1979 oil crisis really tearing into the sales of the large car market for the early 1980's because the 1980 New Yorker and St. Regis was also hit hard.
At 20:28 that's a Jeep Wagoneer not a Cherokee. Very interesting video. I think people liked that space and towing capacity of the larger vehicles. It would be interesting to see what the sales will be on EV models as they roll out vs ICE vehicles. Part of the problem is the government tries to force changes that the public doesn't actually want at the time.
3 years of record growth in a market that barely existed before that has slowed to a crawl, suggesting the government will once again have to back track on trying to force sales of products people don't want.
Ihad a 1976 Malibu Classic which was a great car , 350 ci, lots of power, excellent ride and comfort then got a 1980 Malibu which was an okay car but simply not in the same class.
I currently have a 76 Malibu estate, which rides incredibly well.
You’re comparing the sales numbers of the larger to smaller sized models. But the main factor was the switch to foreign cars by buyers.
I Like the Document about AMERICANS CARS YOU SHOULD Document JAPANESE Cars.
I do a little bit of everything.
On the whole most of these cars were awful
All ugly cars.
I luv all the production figures with stock photos of the cars of my youth! I am surprised at the production figures for many of them! 😮
12:20. Oh my. Pronounced (pəˌrēzēˈen). A girl or woman who lives in Paris, or something unique to Paris.