The Mondial 'trying to emulate' the side strakes of the Testarossa ... ? ? I think you may have meant the other way around, seeing as how the Mondial debuted in 1980 (with said side strakes) and the Testarossa debuted in 1984 ... ;)
True! I feel that they should have specified the Mondial 8 since the Mondial 3.2 and the Mondial T were pretty decent cars. Heck, the T had 300 bhp from the same 3.4 L engine as the 348.
Lancia Beta: My father had one when I was 12. We loved it, bcs it was so spacy and had best ventilation without AC. Yes, rust was an issue. i remember my mother loved driving it, as it was first car ever in the family with front-wheel drive. Handling was superb and the engine was much better than the audi's or VW's of the same era.
totally right, i´m a lancia fan and kept 7 of them mainly late 70´s to early 90´s ,still looking for a Lancia K coupé 2.0L turbo with 24 valves , they are rare but confortable and a fast coupé for it´s engine it´s fast from 80 km/h to 160 km/h as it is from 160 to 220km/h ,it´s a lancia common characterístic in it´s late 80´s to the early 2000´s cars
@@RUfromthe40s take a look at Gasi Garage youtube channel, he's an italian mechanic. He works on youngtimers and old cars, especially Lancia. He just finished restoring 4 Lancia Thema Ferrari 8.32 for an italian event 😉
@@Tipodatubo i know some guys who looked for and found their themas with ferrari engines , they do are fun to drive but ,normally they are stopped ,engine problems , i kept a 2.0L turbo gasoline engine ,never gave me problems ,the K was the model that substituted the thema ,but some years ago they released a new thema wich is not a normal thing for Lancia but with the body of some big chrisler sedans already released in Europe in the early 200´s by the time they released the crossfire with mercedes engine, that´s why they didn´t sold almost any car but interior wise were well equiped and not like other sedans but very original ,only with a already seen body from 20 years ago, the ones who had money to buy them already had the chrisler sedan with the same body, regards
In my opinion it is the most outstanding Aston Martin or Lagonda like it shall be named. For the time it had some pretty amazing tech, and it was expensive. It still is, selling for 300 to 400 grand in Germany.
@@automotiveaffairsshorts That, or it’s a bit crap. People that defend it haven’t ever driven another Ferrari. Compare it to a 308 (even that was far from a great car), you’ll see why it was panned by all the car journalists in the day. Like I say, they’re cheap for a reason. That and the GTB Dino (another car that people defend despite it what was so bad that Ferrari took their name off it). Oh and that 400
@@ParallelSyntax - All four seater Ferraris are cheaper than their 2-seater counterparts, because Ferrari snobs don't consider Ferraris with back seats to be "true Ferraris." The Mondial also suffers for this. 250 GTEs were also cheap for years. 400 GTs, 400is, and 412s are still cheap and oft-mocked, despite being fundamentally just 365 Daytonas with trunks and rear seats. The 456 GT is also fairly cheap today, despite being arguably the best thing Ferrari built in the '90s.
8:44 most sources appear to list the original Mondial 0-100 kph time somewhere between 7.8 to 8.3 seconds (0-60 mph would be covered in less time) and for the 1988 Ferrari Mondial 3.2 with 32 valves it was 0-60 mph in about 6 sec, 0-100 km/h in 6.3 sec. Perhaps the versions made for the US emissions market were slower, but for a video on the Goodwood channel, most people would assume you were talking about the car available in Europe.
Yes, no professional presentation, just a rant to attract the UA-cam crowd. They show works pictures of the European version of the Mondial QV which had 240 HP and accelerated from 0-62 mph (0-100 kph) in 7.4 seconds and reached a top speed of 150 mph (240 kph). Obviously they have no clue what they are talking about, which is astonishing for such a channel.
@@nicoroehr "WAAAHHHH THIS FREE CONTENT IM GETTING FOR FREE HAD A MISTAKE" no ones forcing you to watch mate, you can always unsubscribe and stop watching
They did mention that the later QV version was significantly faster. But still, i would expect more from a Ferrari. Even a much older BMW 6 series is as fast as the Mondial (635CSI: 7,6; 229km/h, M635CSI: 6,4; 255km/h). And the 635CSI was sold since 1978, the M635CSI since 1982, so several years older. But i agree: I would not call the Mondial an awful car.
The Mondial's hideous performance inspired Toyota to use the phrase, "If it was anything less, it'd be a Ferrari." This was used to advertise the Turbocharged MR2 introduced in 1990.
As the only Ferrari, I have ever had the honor of driving, I can say, that it was entertaining to drive on city streets, and sounded great, going thru the gears, for the least visually pleasing Ferrari, of the twentieth century. Also, you were exceedingly kind, to the Cadillac Cimarron and it's relatives in the other GM divisions. A friend of mine, while on a extended layoff from his regular job, supported his family of four, rebuilding those 1.8 liter engines, in his garage, and even built an extra, so he could have one in stock, for quick swaps.
see another person who knows what a car is ,and manual transmition , didn´t knew if they were made with automatic but that was considered a crime in Europe sport cars with automatic ,feels like sport cars for 90 years old persons, instead of rpm counter a big clock ,you don´t change the gears why a rpm counter or why a sport car ,a mercedes SE with automatic aceptable ,if one is fisically diminished and wants to feels a powerfull V8 , S-class from mercedes it is, and one can take the grandsons for a drive and eat a gelato or sorbete
I’d hate to hear your description of driving a 1980s Lamborghini Countach … a truly awful car to drive, especially in a traffic situation…. Of course it was iconic But nothing else … I should know, I Owned one … in 1986/7/8 But enjoyed the crowds it got everywhere it parked up…
also in mid 90´s i started to drive a BMW 1502 that i owned in mint condition from 1975 , it´s the same of the 2002 but with 1.5 engine but mine uses a 1.6 engine with one carburator ,instead of two in the 1602 or 4 barrel carburator in the 2002 model, when camping lot´s of kids mainly from germany always looking at the car and when i used to arrive from the beach, they used to ask me if it was really a BMW, none of them had ever seen this 02 models from the 70´s , some years ago when prices of the 2002 tii reached the 50.000€ they become more known and seen in car shows ,i used to show them the dash where functions are all printed in metal but in german language ,nothing there is written in english, and have to say a very practical and minimalist design ,normally the center console wrottens and i took it and only kept the ashtrey and the two conectors on that litle panel atatched to the lower part of the dash(in the midle) with two screws .
@@barryhill1044 Never had the opportunity, but the doors remind me of a chop saw, not inviting at all. Also wasn't impressed with the styling, a big let down, after the Miura!
The Mondial 8 is not a fast car but its ok to drive. I have owned one for 20 years. It is really meant as a touring car and not a fast car like the 308. Though heavier it gets you a Ferrari drive and its not expensive, although prices are going up lately. The Mondial owner is used to the hate from everyone. We enjoy the car and really do not care what people say about the car.
Upon review of these comments, I believe that the jury has spoken clearly regarding the Ferrari Mondial as innocent on all charges of being a less than worthy wearer of the prancing horse. Now, apologize and shake hands.
@@johnd296 I remember once on a jeremy clarkson program apparently the head of rover didn't like the head of triumph so refused him sales of the v8 even though they were under the Leyland umbrella. If it's really true or not I'm not sure.
While not many will accuse the Mondial of sexy, it is an extremely efficient design. V8, 4 seats, 2 trunks and it’s a convertible. In a car shorter than any Corvette.
Man even Citroën took a shot at the Ferrari Mondial in their UK print ad for the 2CV "FASTER THAN A FERRARI: Travelling flat out at 71.5mph the Citroën 2CV will easily overtake the Ferrari Mondial travelling at 65mph." The ad also said it was on par with a Rolls Royce and had more room than a Porsche lmao
The Stag's engine wasn't a bad design, it was badly built. The block would still be full of casting sand after it was built, so not only is there insufficient coolant, but it also can't circulate because the passageways are blocked with sand, and eventually so is the radiator. It doesn't matter what pump it has or where it's installed, it won't fix that.
I love all of these except the Cimarron and maybe the Arna. The Lagonda is legendary. The Camargue is beautiful and super interesting. The Mondial is a brilliant little design and makes a super enjoyable classic. Ditto for the BiTurbo. There are tons of mechanical upgrades available for the Stag and it can be a super rewarding driver when done right. So many of these mistakes are just misunderstood gems.
I thought you'd choose the Alfasud... For this new type, Alfa Romeo had chosen to build it at a new factory, built in Sicily right by the sea. The italian workers loved to go on strike for extended periods of time. And in that time the raw bodies, sans paint, were standing outside, next to the sea, and a nice sallt layer developed on the blank metal. So instead of the winter salt having to crawl through tiny cracks in the paint to do its devastating work, these cars had the salt already under the paint. So they were known to horrendously.
Re the Ferrari - the 8 was restricted by its engine…the QV onwards were great cars - my parents had one - they were a great drive. I’d sooner listen to John Pogson talk about his - remember this guy raced F40s, so knows a bit about them. And ti my eye, it’s much better looking than the Bertone styled 308GT4. There’s a reason Ferrari never used Bertone again. Mondials outsold 308gt4 (and 208gt4) by two to one. Oh, and the side strakes weren’t based on the Testarossa…the Mondial had them 4 years before that car was introduced. You’re just parroting what you’ve heard on Top Gear aren’t you.
The side strakes on the Mondial taken from the Testarossa? Au contraire. The Mondial was introduced in 1980 while the Testarossa came out in 1984, thus the Testarossa took that particular styling cue from the Mondial rather than vice versa as you assert....though I must agree that the Testarossa made much better use of it.
The side intakes on the Testarossa were for the engine cooling radiators. On the Mondial, they were for engine air intake on the right hand side, and oil cooler on the left hand side. They did not have to be as large as the Testarossa.
My father bought a second hand Lancia Beta in 1983. It was an automatic so my mother could drive it (she was forced to study driving on an automatic because of heath issues). The gearbox broke down in the first two months. My father found a mechanic who specialized in Lancias. He rebuilt the gearbox and from that day until we sold it, almost every other bit on the car broke down, except from the gearbox... oh, and we never had rust issues. Maybe because we live in the fricking desert.. My father calculated that if he took all the money he invested in this car over the years, he could've bought a Mercedes.. 😉 However, crappy as it might have been, when it was running well, it was fun to drive. It was the first car I ever drove after I got my license. On the open road, if you ignored the rattling and the knocking of the windows, you got a sense of the Lancia power. Sometimes I still miss this old bucket of bolts.
I love the Mondial. The 3.2 and T look very nice. The metric alloys and black bumpers took the look away the earlier cars, though. LJKS said Mondials were a better drive than the contemporary 308/328 and he knew his onions. 🇮🇹
One of my friends bought a Mondial because a) it was the cheapest Ferrari on the market and b) it didn’t require an engine out for the major service. Last time I saw said friend I asked how the Ferrari was, his reply: the engine is out.
The engine comes out really easily. Just undo the 4 bolts each side of the chassis mount, and the 3 nuts on top of the shock mount and you're pretty much done. The entire subframe with suspension, engine, exhaust etc comes out in one piece and makes for really easy servicing. I can do a clutch or a cambelt(s) without even having to take the engine out. Some people just prefer to take the subframe off instead. Its easy. Ive had my Mondial QV for 17 years and had no issues with it whatsoever.
The mondial 8 did 0-60 in 10 second, not the Mondial QV or any other Mondial. The Mondial never tried to emulate the Testarrossa .Do your research, it was made before that.
The Lancia Beta Coupe is nice if you can find a rust free example and a lot of the negative reaction to the Arna in the press was due to the feeling that it was a cheat to get Japanese cars into the European market. Having said that, I'd still prefer a hard to find rust free Alfasud than a Arna, even if the Japanese steel might have lasted a little longer than the Italian steel.
I quite like the Camargue actually. Every major car brand has made bunches of crap cars. the only brands that haven't are boutique sports car makers, and that's because there aren't enough examples of them floating around to tell if they are crap.
I’d like to do a Restomod Mondial using all Ferrari parts. Like a what if they made a Mondial Challenge kinda build. Always liked the early coupe for some reason. Just imagine it with let’s say Ferrari F40 LM Center lock 5 spoke wheels, + 2 delete with a 288GTO engine, and a period spec style body kit that looked like if the F40 and the Mondial had a baby. Magical
I thought of a similar Ferrari restomodding some years ago, when I had the means but never got it started. I got offered a key ready Enzo engine for $66k and my mind started racing for what to put it in! I thought of a 308 GTB 1975-77 fibreglass car with a wrecked engine but never got started on the mating process. Could have been so glorious!
I think the Mondial design is actually on point. It tried to expand the Ferrari model range to a lower price bracket, and to conquer that, the car had to be more practical and less flashy. The Mondial accomplishes that. Of course, most people don’t want or expect a Ferrari to be a sort of mundane looking, practical car, so that’s why it gets criticized.
Remember that a few of these paved the way for future models. The Cadillac Cimarron became the CTS (I wonder what the C stands for?), the Mondial became the FF, and the Lagonda became the Rapide. So yes the early concepts were crap but what came after is not bad at all. However I can’t believe that you missed the Ford Pinto.
The ATS is a more accurate equivalent in size to the Cimarron, and the FF is a V12 powered front engined car, not a mid engined V8 like the Mondial, the 360 and it's successors are more accurate.
The Cimarron had nothing in common with the CTS or anything else Cadillac ever built. It would only have required the swapping out of a few chrome-plated plastic bits to make a Cimarron externally indistinguishable from a Cavalier. In fact, if you wanted your Cavalier with leather as well as power windows, locks and seat, (why not??), the best way to get it would have been to buy a used Cimarron at a fire-sale price.
The "Russian Steel" myth was kind of a cover-up story for the fact that Fiat/Lancia factories routinely stockpiled their sheet steel outside in the rain. The steel therefore already was rusty before it was bent and folded into shape and then painted. You might say that the cars came with rust already "built in"
Lancia thought that they could make a lighter car with better performance using thinner gauge sheet metal. Naturally it also costs a bit less to produce. In the era before galvanized rustproofing became the norm, this was a death sentence. Here in South Africa where Highveld hailstorms are fairly common, hailstones punched their way right through the Lancia bodywork. For the same reason, recent Alfas aren't popular here either. Purely by the way, body panels are not bent and folded into shape. The sheet metal goes into a press and wham one second later there it is.
@@shadeburst Lancia had used that trick before and in the mild Italian climate that thinner gauge sheet metal worked fine. The problems with the steel quality started when Fiat took over Lancia and instead of Fiat raising their quality standards, they lowered Lancia's quality standards. Add to that the "zero f***s given" attitude of the Italian workers at that time and you have the full picture. I should have added pressing the steel to bending and folding it or just used that, as you're right, most steel sheet parts are now pressed.
If you look at the Tiiumph TR range as a garden, the 1 is the seedlings, the 4 and 5 the flower beds, the 6 the rose garden and the 7 the compost heap.
I had a Cadillac Cimarron as my first car. A neighbor purchased one brand new. Not the underpowered and unrefined 4cyl but the more power 2.8L V6. I did chores for her such as mowing her lawn and shoveling car snow for years. When the car was around 5 years old she had to stop driving and because she knew I was looking for a car she gifted it to me. It only had 18,000 miles on it and had been garage kept and meticulously maintained. I drove that thing through my remaining 2 years of high school. Four years of college and all the way through Veterinary college. Even lasted through my first two years of my first real job. Never failed to start or left me stranded and put up with years of delayed maintenance. It was still driving fine and everything worked on it except the cassette player when it was rear-ended at a stoplight with 258,000 miles on it. It wasn't a true Cadillac but it wasn't the horror that people claim it to be. It was comfortable fairly luxurious and surprisingly quick with the V6.
My first car was a Buick Skyhawk had the 2.0. So far as I could tell no benefit over a Cavalier. But the Cadillac at least had options, and would've loved a Cimarron to replace that Buick. Or better, one of the Z24's with the v6, 5 speed, and digital dash.
The Alfa's issue was Nissan did the styling, and Alfa did the engine and electrics. When it shoulda been Alfa doing the styling and Nissan do the engine and electrics
Back in the day when I had a 1969 Maserati Ghibli I followed the Bi-Turbo. I remember reading a test of one that attempted to make a positive thing of the engine's teardown results after 30,000 miles and finding that the main and rod bearings had only worn down to the second layer. At 30,000 miles.... yeah, sign me up for that.
My father was a huge fan of Italian cars from the mid-60’s until 1989 (when the last Ferrari 328 was made), and although he owned many different Italian sports cars (and several sedans) from that period, the Ghibli was his favorite. He has owned 6 different Ghibli’s since 1980, and right now he owns a ‘72 SS spyder with the 4.9 liter engine. To me the Ghibli is one of the most beautiful objects ever created, it’s perfect from every angle, coupe or convertible. I love driving them, the speed and the sound and the handling are just incredible. My father owned 2 Ferrari 365gtb4 “Daytona” and they’re also flawlessly beautiful and sound amazing, but it’s a handful until you reach highway speeds. The Bora’s my father had were amazing cars (although we both hated the hydraulic brake pedal), but mechanically it was an extremely complex car, and every mechanic said it was a nightmare to work on, as where the Ghibli was a more “normal” car to work on. The Bi-Turbo really did a lot of damage to Maserati’s reputation. My father never bought one, because the bad news came pretty quickly when they first came out. It’s really too bad, because it could’ve been a great car if it had just been built correctly. My dream car is a 1978-81 BMW M1, a perfect combination of Italian looks and BMW build quality. Unfortunately, they destroyed the molds to make the fiberglass body, so if you need a replacement panel, you’re screwed.
When saying an old car is ugly, it's really helpful if you contrast it with other cars of the period. Otherwise, it's hard to get a frame of reference.
The Stag suffered because of poor management. I've seen several Stags still with the original engine (derived from welding two Dolomite engines together) so the engine isn't that unreliable
Still be super cool to rock up anywhere in a Mondial, At least people would say he's got a Ferrari, can't imagine a Sierra Cosworth having the same ring to it
The Cimarron was an absolutely brilliant used-car buy in the '90s. You got a Cadillac interior for the price of an old Chevy, and since the original owners were almost all rich old ladies who'd always had Caddys but didn't want or need a big car anymore, they came to their second owners in great condition.
I never did pursue one myself, but I recall all the Cimarrons in the L.A. area seemed to be driven by old(er) women. I never did connect the dots for a sensible used car like that until later on (mid-2000s) when Buicks from a few years prior were sought after because of how well kept they were by their old(er) owners.
Meh. At the end of the day, still a puddingmobile, and there's always been heaps of lightly-used Camrys about. A better car in every way than a J-body, unless you're trying to get on the lawn at LeMons.
@@mhagnew The original poster mentioned these were great used cars in the 1990s. Of course nowadays, there are numerous better choices. I doubt there are any Cimarrons even for sale.
I think the worst car in UK was the Austin Allegro. It seemed to me at the time that they incorporated all the bad lessons learnt from previous cars into one vehicle. On the mini the rear subframe always rotted but the front subframe always stayed intact. They put a rear subframe into the Allegro and did away with the front subframe. Also the hydrolastic suspension in the Mini and 1100 cars was often leaking and making cars lopsided. They put that suspension into the allegro and just to put icing on the cake, an odd shaped square steering wheel.
The Mondial is very cool, maybe THE coolest Ferrari this side of the borderline psycho Testarossa. It just oozes that 70-s and 80-s unpredictable, on-the-edge lifestyle. Its no surprise that Magnum P. I. picked this car. I did hear from owners that service and maintenance was a nightmare, but in the 70-s no one expected a Ferrari to go a 100 miles without a visit to the mechanic (and the bank).
The BiTurbo was actually quite aheda of iets time from a styling perspective. It looks quite cool. The Lagonda is amazing and really deserves a main role in some crazy 80s Bond movie.
Another awful car is the Volvo 262 2 dr coupe .The Renault Wind 2 dr Coupe is another ! The Lamborghini Urus SUV-possibly the worst ever design . Personally, I don't mind the Camargue but its based on a Silver Shadow and the body is a bit too large .
I loved, and still do, the Triumph Stag. I had one way back in the day when I was in my early 20s. Dad was an exceptional mechanic and was forever trying to increase the performance and the reliability of it. At one stage he was itching to fit the heads from the Dolomite Sprint, which were 16 valve I believe, and he reckoned, would make it fly. Sadly he never got to try it as I lost control of it on a dark and stormy night on the Hogs Back somewhere near Guildford, and wrapped it around a tree. Dad has long departed this earth but I often wonder what the result of fitting those heads would have been. As I'm not mechanical in any way, would anybody have any idea what the result would have been?
Expect better than this from Goodwood. As a kid I remember the Lagonda stunned the world and 645 was big numbers for the company. The Mondial started poorly but the QV came along quickly and it is a beautiful thing, while the Camargue is now also cool.
Haha what a great video.... but I happen to think the RR Camargue and AML are just absolutely beautiful for all their faults ... if my lotto numbers come up well sorted examples of these 2 vehicles are the top of my shopping list!
Had a Biturbo come to the shop I was working at, by the time you fixed what it came in for, something else would break. It slipped the timing belt twice, bent the valves, and they could only get the needed parts from Italy. Worst part was, the owner was on a budget and was trying to fix it up to flip it. Just about made him go broke.
Mike and Edd had a BiTurbo through the Wheeler Dealers workshop. The previous owner cured the problem, he converted it to a milk float, well converted it to electric, They updated the electric system from a DC motor and lead-acid batteries to twin AC motors and modern battery tech
Always loved the Lagonda - 1979 (I think), I went to my first British GP at Silverstone (I'd be 16 or so at the time) - we park in the car park and get out our cheese butties and club biscuits. Then on the row behind us a Lagonda pulls up, opens the boot, out comes wicker picnic basket full of lovely goodies. Anyway, we went to the race on coming back to the car, peered into the Lagonda, no doubt leaving greasy fingerprints all over the windows. It was only as we were leaving that we noticed the reg was AML1 so it must have belonged to AM management. A truly visionary car, years ahead of its time and the available technology needed to make it what it should have been.
I can, probably, formulate an argument to defend at least eight of these cars. I won't, because I'm lazy, but I don't hate them at all. I'm rather fond of cars that were a little bit of a flop in the market and a little bit unusual in their looks and designs. However, the Arna.... Much as I admire Nissans and adore Alfas, I really can't even.
I agree with your script writer. The Beta was not only the car I learned driving in, it’s also the one my dad is reminiscing the most about. 😍Much more sophisticated, both in terms of technology and styling, than its competitors from Ford and GM. And rust was an issue with ALL Italian cars of that period. Thanks for the pictures anyway.
It was way way ahead of it's time and a GREAT drive. First front wheel drive practical family hatch back in the EU. Pity about the quality of the steel used because they actually did rust in the showroom from the inside out due to Russian steel not being correctly recycled - Yip: NOT a rumour. The steel ame from the eastern block recycling their ships and was full of ..... rust when delivered in great big rolls already.
@@team3383 not only rust, but also all kinds of metals, as they never bothered to clean the raw recycling stuff out of anythign that should not be there. these steel sheets were made all over eastern europe, and delivered across the iron curtain, and car makers were forced to use it because there was no other sheet available. so even Mercedes and Porsche from a certain era corrode like dipped in acid. add to it that nobody bothered with cavity-protection and stuff except some owners with bad experiences you have cars that would not pass technical inspection after their third year...
@@lotharrenz4621 I know, but somehow the "mainstream" ignore it and just say that the cars were poorly designed and just disappeared. It was the great "cold war" period and the beginnings of globalisation. Look where it's got us. I sound like my grandfather but I did prefer the 70's...
Rust was an issue because of British road salting , BMW's of that period were also rust buckets. The twin cam was the same as the Fiat, I had the 125 Special not another 1600cc could touch it and could give a Lotus Cortina a run for its money
I always thought the very obvious positive camber geometry on the front end of the Maserati Biturbo looked a bit old fashioned and strange. Other than that I quite liked them.
I always felt the Maserati Biturbos could have been more successful, at least in the US, if they had used DeTomaso's older formula of Italian sportscar/Ford V8 combination. A torquey Mustang 5.0 (really 4.9) liter engine and 5 speed T5 transmission would have had those cars with some serious horsepower AND reliability.
I was fortunate enough to have owned and driven a Maserati Bitubrbo for a brief period and what fun it was and a huge car-nut magnet with people coming up to me for a chat. Pedestrians turned their heads when I down-shifted and the engine made this glorious sound (yes I showed-off), Gabriel blowing his trumpet would be impressed. I like the Mondial and what a pity modern cars don't have the all-round vision of the Lancia and the Rolls is okay by me too, at least it was a step in the right direction.
There are some seriously cool cars on your list: Lagonda (A-MA-ZING!), Camargue (yes, please)… Maybe (surely?) not the best, but how cool are they when you show up in one of them… And I L O V E D my Maserati Biturbo Spyder i 2.5. What a brilliantly quirky car… Again, sky high cool factor.
In terms of rusting, I still prefer the 1956 Renault Alpine over the Lancia: "if you stood beside it, you could actually hear rusting." However, "Owners seemingly needing to keep an eye on their car just to make sure it didn't disappear overnight" is also a true gem of modern engineering ..
You forgot the Cimmaron’s biggest failure- the hideous upmarket price, far beyond other “J Cars”, and with little substantive difference from those supposedly lesser versions. Anyone who green-lighted the Cimmaron and those who approved the pricing, should have lost their jobs for the misbegotten and failed audacity surrounding both the car and it’s price.
The Lancia Beta did suffer extreme corrosion and considering that all cars corroded terribly in the 70's it takes a lot to stand out. Esther Rantzen and her prime time TV show called "That's Life" were extremely vocal in bringing the Lancia corrosion to the public consciousness and in particular the Lancia Beta. However, lets not forget that every single Ford Escort and Capri in the 1970's needed patch plates welded on the top of the front suspension to get through it's first MOT. Rust was the reason why most 70's car were scrapped in around 7-10 years from new.. and if you had a car that was 10 years old and had covered 100,000 miles it would seeming be something of a miracle.
"An attempt to take the 7 upmarket." best line of the whole video....#2 is " the body was made in Japan then shipped to Naples so Alfa Romeo could fit the mechanical and electrical bits.." say no more! #3: " in the 70's Aston Martin was short on funds, and that is a sentence you could apply to every single decade."
It's fitting that one of GM's most infamous lemons, the Citation, was inspired by Lancia's most infamous lemon, the Beta. Take a somewhat boxy (but passable) looking car with substandard quality, alter the details to make it scream "CHEAP! CHEAP!," put in a noisy junk motor, and come up with a noise mitigation scheme that literally misaligns the frame under acceleration. Way to go!
the only bad car was Arna . As Italians , we felt a little "betrayed" by Alfa because Arna, at the end, in a Nissan. They sold few of them, many to local Police. No regrets for Arna. All the other cars are , at least, interesting. Biturbo , a lot of problems, for sure, but a real legend.
The Lagonda looks like an early concept drawing for what would become the 1977 Caprice, before the compromises made to that design for buildability and functionality (the latter can be summed up by a Lagonda owner sending their Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive purchases home in a taxi, which of course would've been a Big Chevrolet).
I kinda like the Mondial tho... 4 seats AND mid engine, and it doesn't look that bad tbh, maybe not as pretty as the 2+2 front engine ferraris or the two seat mid engine ones. but I like it more than the Daytona or the F40 in terms of looks. it's no testarossa, super america or 612 ofcourse
Great video, though you said the Lagonda you featured was the second generation in conjunction with Aston Martin, it was in fact the third, if you count the Aston Martin DB4 derived Rapide produced between 1961 - 64
The Mondial 'trying to emulate' the side strakes of the Testarossa ... ? ? I think you may have meant the other way around, seeing as how the Mondial debuted in 1980 (with said side strakes) and the Testarossa debuted in 1984 ... ;)
I was going to mention this but you covered it 👍
True! I feel that they should have specified the Mondial 8 since the Mondial 3.2 and the Mondial T were pretty decent cars. Heck, the T had 300 bhp from the same 3.4
L engine as the 348.
"we all make mistakes from time to time"
THANK you for pointing that out!
Probably meant the 308.
Lancia Beta: My father had one when I was 12. We loved it, bcs it was so spacy and had best ventilation without AC. Yes, rust was an issue. i remember my mother loved driving it, as it was first car ever in the family with front-wheel drive. Handling was superb and the engine was much better than the audi's or VW's of the same era.
totally right, i´m a lancia fan and kept 7 of them mainly late 70´s to early 90´s ,still looking for a Lancia K coupé 2.0L turbo with 24 valves , they are rare but confortable and a fast coupé for it´s engine it´s fast from 80 km/h to 160 km/h as it is from 160 to 220km/h ,it´s a lancia common characterístic in it´s late 80´s to the early 2000´s cars
@@RUfromthe40s take a look at Gasi Garage youtube channel, he's an italian mechanic. He works on youngtimers and old cars, especially Lancia.
He just finished restoring 4 Lancia Thema Ferrari 8.32 for an italian event 😉
@@RUfromthe40s Also I think he restored and sold a light blue Lancia Kappa coupe 2.0 last year
@@Tipodatubo thanks for the info. ,regards
@@Tipodatubo i know some guys who looked for and found their themas with ferrari engines , they do are fun to drive but ,normally they are stopped ,engine problems , i kept a 2.0L turbo gasoline engine ,never gave me problems ,the K was the model that substituted the thema ,but some years ago they released a new thema wich is not a normal thing for Lancia but with the body of some big chrisler sedans already released in Europe in the early 200´s by the time they released the crossfire with mercedes engine, that´s why they didn´t sold almost any car but interior wise were well equiped and not like other sedans but very original ,only with a already seen body from 20 years ago, the ones who had money to buy them already had the chrisler sedan with the same body, regards
I have to say I really adore the Lagonda. Especially the interior
Yeah, I don't care what anyone says, I find them to be very very beautiful. Both inside and out.
Yeah, I absolutely love the lagonda
In my opinion it is the most outstanding Aston Martin or Lagonda like it shall be named.
For the time it had some pretty amazing tech, and it was expensive. It still is, selling for 300 to 400 grand in Germany.
@@LexusLFA554 - 300 - 400K? I don’t think so! 30 - 40K perhaps.
me too I adore the Lagonda
Wow, even the Brits are saying coop instead of coupe these days Sad.
The Mondial is beautiful and desirable!
Look at a white convertible. Gorgeous.
No accounting for taste. If it’s so desirable why is it far cheaper than any other Fezza?
@@ParallelSyntax because the masses aren’t smart!
@@automotiveaffairsshorts That, or it’s a bit crap. People that defend it haven’t ever driven another Ferrari. Compare it to a 308 (even that was far from a great car), you’ll see why it was panned by all the car journalists in the day.
Like I say, they’re cheap for a reason. That and the GTB Dino (another car that people defend despite it what was so bad that Ferrari took their name off it). Oh and that 400
@@ParallelSyntax - All four seater Ferraris are cheaper than their 2-seater counterparts, because Ferrari snobs don't consider Ferraris with back seats to be "true Ferraris." The Mondial also suffers for this.
250 GTEs were also cheap for years. 400 GTs, 400is, and 412s are still cheap and oft-mocked, despite being fundamentally just 365 Daytonas with trunks and rear seats. The 456 GT is also fairly cheap today, despite being arguably the best thing Ferrari built in the '90s.
Mondial; 10 seconds to 60 miles? That is not true. I like the Mondial and it is one of the more "affordable" Ferrari's
8:44 most sources appear to list the original Mondial 0-100 kph time somewhere between 7.8 to 8.3 seconds (0-60 mph would be covered in less time) and for the 1988 Ferrari Mondial 3.2 with 32 valves it was 0-60 mph in about 6 sec, 0-100 km/h in 6.3 sec. Perhaps the versions made for the US emissions market were slower, but for a video on the Goodwood channel, most people would assume you were talking about the car available in Europe.
Yes, no professional presentation, just a rant to attract the UA-cam crowd. They show works pictures of the European version of the Mondial QV which had 240 HP and accelerated from 0-62 mph (0-100 kph) in 7.4 seconds and reached a top speed of 150 mph (240 kph). Obviously they have no clue what they are talking about, which is astonishing for such a channel.
@@nicoroehr "WAAAHHHH THIS FREE CONTENT IM GETTING FOR FREE HAD A MISTAKE" no ones forcing you to watch mate, you can always unsubscribe and stop watching
Also those side strakes can't be emulating the Testarossa as the Mondial was launched first.
They did mention that the later QV version was significantly faster. But still, i would expect more from a Ferrari. Even a much older BMW 6 series is as fast as the Mondial (635CSI: 7,6; 229km/h, M635CSI: 6,4; 255km/h). And the 635CSI was sold since 1978, the M635CSI since 1982, so several years older. But i agree: I would not call the Mondial an awful car.
The Mondial's hideous performance inspired Toyota to use the phrase, "If it was anything less, it'd be a Ferrari." This was used to advertise the Turbocharged MR2 introduced in 1990.
Mondial’s are terrific. Had one and loved it.
Terrific is the Aston Martin
As the only Ferrari, I have ever had the honor of driving, I can say, that it was entertaining to drive on city streets, and sounded great, going thru the gears, for the least visually pleasing Ferrari, of the twentieth century. Also, you were exceedingly kind, to the Cadillac Cimarron and it's relatives in the other GM divisions. A friend of mine, while on a extended layoff from his regular job, supported his family of four, rebuilding those 1.8 liter engines, in his garage, and even built an extra, so he could have one in stock, for quick swaps.
Reminds me of that scene in The Scent of a Woman where Al Pacino (playing a blind guy) decides to take a Mondial convertible out for a test drive
see another person who knows what a car is ,and manual transmition , didn´t knew if they were made with automatic but that was considered a crime in Europe sport cars with automatic ,feels like sport cars for 90 years old persons, instead of rpm counter a big clock ,you don´t change the gears why a rpm counter or why a sport car ,a mercedes SE with automatic aceptable ,if one is fisically diminished and wants to feels a powerfull V8 , S-class from mercedes it is, and one can take the grandsons for a drive and eat a gelato or sorbete
I’d hate to hear your description of driving a 1980s Lamborghini Countach … a truly awful car to drive, especially in a traffic situation…. Of course it was iconic But nothing else … I should know,
I Owned one … in 1986/7/8 But enjoyed the crowds it got everywhere it parked up…
also in mid 90´s i started to drive a BMW 1502 that i owned in mint condition from 1975 , it´s the same of the 2002 but with 1.5 engine but mine uses a 1.6 engine with one carburator ,instead of two in the 1602 or 4 barrel carburator in the 2002 model, when camping lot´s of kids mainly from germany always looking at the car and when i used to arrive from the beach, they used to ask me if it was really a BMW, none of them had ever seen this 02 models from the 70´s , some years ago when prices of the 2002 tii reached the 50.000€ they become more known and seen in car shows ,i used to show them the dash where functions are all printed in metal but in german language ,nothing there is written in english, and have to say a very practical and minimalist design ,normally the center console wrottens and i took it and only kept the ashtrey and the two conectors on that litle panel atatched to the lower part of the dash(in the midle) with two screws .
@@barryhill1044 Never had the opportunity, but the doors remind me of a chop saw, not inviting at all. Also wasn't impressed with the styling, a big let down, after the Miura!
The Mondial 8 is not a fast car but its ok to drive. I have owned one for 20 years. It is really meant as a touring car and not a fast car like the 308. Though heavier it gets you a Ferrari drive and its not expensive, although prices are going up lately. The Mondial owner is used to the hate from everyone. We enjoy the car and really do not care what people say about the car.
Upon review of these comments, I believe that the jury has spoken clearly regarding the Ferrari Mondial as innocent on all charges of being a less than worthy wearer of the prancing horse.
Now, apologize and shake hands.
The Stag it wasn't perfect but still love the design and engine noise when it runs well
I regard it as the most beautiful mass-produced car EVER.
I still remember the first Stag I ever saw.
I suppose there must be some reason why they didn’t use the great Rover/Buick V8?
@@johnd296 I remember once on a jeremy clarkson program apparently the head of rover didn't like the head of triumph so refused him sales of the v8 even though they were under the Leyland umbrella. If it's really true or not I'm not sure.
While not many will accuse the Mondial of sexy, it is an extremely efficient design. V8, 4 seats, 2 trunks and it’s a convertible. In a car shorter than any Corvette.
Man even Citroën took a shot at the Ferrari Mondial in their UK print ad for the 2CV
"FASTER THAN A FERRARI: Travelling flat out at 71.5mph the Citroën 2CV will easily overtake the Ferrari Mondial travelling at 65mph."
The ad also said it was on par with a Rolls Royce and had more room than a Porsche lmao
The Stag's engine wasn't a bad design, it was badly built. The block would still be full of casting sand after it was built, so not only is there insufficient coolant, but it also can't circulate because the passageways are blocked with sand, and eventually so is the radiator. It doesn't matter what pump it has or where it's installed, it won't fix that.
"It's duned, Captain Mainwaring, doooned I tell ye!"
Everybody slates the Biturbo but it kept Maserati alive until FIAT took over....
The Lagonda is an amazing-looking car, it has always fascinated me. I would buy one.
I love all of these except the Cimarron and maybe the Arna. The Lagonda is legendary. The Camargue is beautiful and super interesting. The Mondial is a brilliant little design and makes a super enjoyable classic. Ditto for the BiTurbo. There are tons of mechanical upgrades available for the Stag and it can be a super rewarding driver when done right.
So many of these mistakes are just misunderstood gems.
The Seven S4 really was hideous though.
Lagonda is special!
Truly a revolution at the time.
i dont care how bad the lagonda is its so beautiful in an incredibly unique way
I thought you'd choose the Alfasud...
For this new type, Alfa Romeo had chosen to build it at a new factory, built in Sicily right by the sea.
The italian workers loved to go on strike for extended periods of time. And in that time the raw bodies, sans paint, were standing outside, next to the sea, and a nice sallt layer developed on the blank metal.
So instead of the winter salt having to crawl through tiny cracks in the paint to do its devastating work, these cars had the salt already under the paint.
So they were known to horrendously.
I love the Camarque it is one of the most elegant Rolls Royce ever made
My mum had a Stag when I was a kid. Rover engine. Back then it was fast and cool. And she drove it like she stole it. Bless her.
Re the Ferrari - the 8 was restricted by its engine…the QV onwards were great cars - my parents had one - they were a great drive. I’d sooner listen to John Pogson talk about his - remember this guy raced F40s, so knows a bit about them. And ti my eye, it’s much better looking than the Bertone styled 308GT4. There’s a reason Ferrari never used Bertone again. Mondials outsold 308gt4 (and 208gt4) by two to one.
Oh, and the side strakes weren’t based on the Testarossa…the Mondial had them 4 years before that car was introduced.
You’re just parroting what you’ve heard on Top Gear aren’t you.
So true
I think the 308GT4 is one of the most beautiful cars ever built!
The side strakes on the Mondial taken from the Testarossa? Au contraire. The Mondial was introduced in 1980 while the Testarossa came out in 1984, thus the Testarossa took that particular styling cue from the Mondial rather than vice versa as you assert....though I must agree that the Testarossa made much better use of it.
The side intakes on the Testarossa were for the engine cooling radiators. On the Mondial, they were for engine air intake on the right hand side, and oil cooler on the left hand side. They did not have to be as large as the Testarossa.
I absolutely love the Lagonda, specially the shooting break version
My father bought a second hand Lancia Beta in 1983. It was an automatic so my mother could drive it (she was forced to study driving on an automatic because of heath issues). The gearbox broke down in the first two months.
My father found a mechanic who specialized in Lancias. He rebuilt the gearbox and from that day until we sold it, almost every other bit on the car broke down, except from the gearbox... oh, and we never had rust issues. Maybe because we live in the fricking desert..
My father calculated that if he took all the money he invested in this car over the years, he could've bought a Mercedes.. 😉
However, crappy as it might have been, when it was running well, it was fun to drive. It was the first car I ever drove after I got my license. On the open road, if you ignored the rattling and the knocking of the windows, you got a sense of the Lancia power. Sometimes I still miss this old bucket of bolts.
I love the Mondial. The 3.2 and T look very nice. The metric alloys and black bumpers took the look away the earlier cars, though.
LJKS said Mondials were a better drive than the contemporary 308/328 and he knew his onions. 🇮🇹
Aston Martin Lagonda and Rolls-Royce Camargue are among the coolest albeit quirky cars of all time. And the Lotus Seven is a timeless classic.
Nothing wrong with the Mondail IMO. Its proportions are much more balanced than the Testarossa. Being a bit understated, its looks have endured
One of my friends bought a Mondial because a) it was the cheapest Ferrari on the market and b) it didn’t require an engine out for the major service. Last time I saw said friend I asked how the Ferrari was, his reply: the engine is out.
The engine comes out really easily. Just undo the 4 bolts each side of the chassis mount, and the 3 nuts on top of the shock mount and you're pretty much done. The entire subframe with suspension, engine, exhaust etc comes out in one piece and makes for really easy servicing. I can do a clutch or a cambelt(s) without even having to take the engine out. Some people just prefer to take the subframe off instead. Its easy. Ive had my Mondial QV for 17 years and had no issues with it whatsoever.
The more time goes by the better the Mondial starts to look though, there will be a time where everyone loves them i think.
Completely wrong with the Mondial. The Mondial 8 was admittedly slow, but they’re great cars
I love the voice of the narrator... Beautifully done!
The mondial 8 did 0-60 in 10 second, not the Mondial QV or any other Mondial. The Mondial never tried to emulate the Testarrossa .Do your research, it was made before that.
With the exception of the Lancia and the Alfa, I'd love to own any of those cars.
The Lancia Beta Coupe is nice if you can find a rust free example and a lot of the negative reaction to the Arna in the press was due to the feeling that it was a cheat to get Japanese cars into the European market. Having said that, I'd still prefer a hard to find rust free Alfasud than a Arna, even if the Japanese steel might have lasted a little longer than the Italian steel.
The biturbo v6 produced 196 hp? That’s actually very respectable for that era.
That's what I thought! Not far off Sierra Cosworth level.
A friend of mine has one that he has done some mods to and it is around 250 hp. That is one fun car to drive.
It's an old USDM rating though so that's probably at the crank, on a test bench, with none of the pumps and accessories attached.
@@boheyo how do you think all engines of that era and before were rated.
@@donziperk In Europe you primarily saw German DIN ratings that were typically like 30% lower than their US SAE equivalents.
I actually quite like the Mondial Cabriolet. (The coupe, not so much).
Yeah the spider looks better because you don't have the C-pillar/buttress to highlight how awkwardly long the car's tail is.
I quite like the Camargue actually.
Every major car brand has made bunches of crap cars. the only brands that haven't are boutique sports car makers, and that's because there aren't enough examples of them floating around to tell if they are crap.
I’d like to do a Restomod Mondial using all Ferrari parts. Like a what if they made a Mondial Challenge kinda build. Always liked the early coupe for some reason. Just imagine it with let’s say Ferrari F40 LM Center lock 5 spoke wheels, + 2 delete with a 288GTO engine, and a period spec style body kit that looked like if the F40 and the Mondial had a baby. Magical
I thought of a similar Ferrari restomodding some years ago, when I had the means but never got it started.
I got offered a key ready Enzo engine for $66k and my mind started racing for what to put it in!
I thought of a 308 GTB 1975-77 fibreglass car with a wrecked engine but never got started on the mating process.
Could have been so glorious!
I think the Mondial design is actually on point. It tried to expand the Ferrari model range to a lower price bracket, and to conquer that, the car had to be more practical and less flashy. The Mondial accomplishes that. Of course, most people don’t want or expect a Ferrari to be a sort of mundane looking, practical car, so that’s why it gets criticized.
The Mondial sat above the 308/328 in the Ferrari range. It was more expensive. (Full disclosure I have an ‘83 QV. It really is an excellent car)
@@AdrianFClarke interesting, when I read about the Mondial, it's touted as being the most affordable/cheapest Ferrari back in the day
I'd love a Mondial.
Remember that a few of these paved the way for future models. The Cadillac Cimarron became the CTS (I wonder what the C stands for?), the Mondial became the FF, and the Lagonda became the Rapide. So yes the early concepts were crap but what came after is not bad at all. However I can’t believe that you missed the Ford Pinto.
The ATS is a more accurate equivalent in size to the Cimarron, and the FF is a V12 powered front engined car, not a mid engined V8 like the Mondial, the 360 and it's successors are more accurate.
CATERA
The Cimarron had nothing in common with the CTS or anything else Cadillac ever built. It would only have required the swapping out of a few chrome-plated plastic bits to make a Cimarron externally indistinguishable from a Cavalier. In fact, if you wanted your Cavalier with leather as well as power windows, locks and seat, (why not??), the best way to get it would have been to buy a used Cimarron at a fire-sale price.
they missed the Pinto because FORD is not a brilliant brand at all
1980-82 Corvette. Great looking. Anemic power plant. Horrible reliability.
The "Russian Steel" myth was kind of a cover-up story for the fact that Fiat/Lancia factories routinely stockpiled their sheet steel outside in the rain. The steel therefore already was rusty before it was bent and folded into shape and then painted. You might say that the cars came with rust already "built in"
Lancia thought that they could make a lighter car with better performance using thinner gauge sheet metal. Naturally it also costs a bit less to produce. In the era before galvanized rustproofing became the norm, this was a death sentence. Here in South Africa where Highveld hailstorms are fairly common, hailstones punched their way right through the Lancia bodywork. For the same reason, recent Alfas aren't popular here either. Purely by the way, body panels are not bent and folded into shape. The sheet metal goes into a press and wham one second later there it is.
@@shadeburst Lancia had used that trick before and in the mild Italian climate that thinner gauge sheet metal worked fine.
The problems with the steel quality started when Fiat took over Lancia and instead of Fiat raising their quality standards, they lowered Lancia's quality standards. Add to that the "zero f***s given" attitude of the Italian workers at that time and you have the full picture.
I should have added pressing the steel to bending and folding it or just used that, as you're right, most steel sheet parts are now pressed.
What? No TR7?
If you look at the Tiiumph TR range as a garden, the 1 is the seedlings, the 4 and 5 the flower beds, the 6 the rose garden and the 7 the compost heap.
@@simondavis5415 lol. I like that.
I had a Cadillac Cimarron as my first car.
A neighbor purchased one brand new.
Not the underpowered and unrefined 4cyl but the more power 2.8L V6.
I did chores for her such as mowing her lawn and shoveling car snow for years.
When the car was around 5 years old she had to stop driving and because she knew I was looking for a car she gifted it to me.
It only had 18,000 miles on it and had been garage kept and meticulously maintained.
I drove that thing through my remaining 2 years of high school. Four years of college and all the way through Veterinary college.
Even lasted through my first two years of my first real job.
Never failed to start or left me stranded and put up with years of delayed maintenance.
It was still driving fine and everything worked on it except the cassette player when it was rear-ended at a stoplight with 258,000 miles on it.
It wasn't a true Cadillac but it wasn't the horror that people claim it to be.
It was comfortable fairly luxurious and surprisingly quick with the V6.
My first car was a Buick Skyhawk had the 2.0. So far as I could tell no benefit over a Cavalier. But the Cadillac at least had options, and would've loved a Cimarron to replace that Buick. Or better, one of the Z24's with the v6, 5 speed, and digital dash.
The Alfa's issue was Nissan did the styling, and Alfa did the engine and electrics. When it shoulda been Alfa doing the styling and Nissan do the engine and electrics
2:06 - In the immortal words of James May: "Styled by Nissan, built by Alfa Romeo."
Back in the day when I had a 1969 Maserati Ghibli I followed the Bi-Turbo. I remember reading a test of one that attempted to make a positive thing of the engine's teardown results after 30,000 miles and finding that the main and rod bearings had only worn down to the second layer. At 30,000 miles.... yeah, sign me up for that.
My father was a huge fan of Italian cars from the mid-60’s until 1989 (when the last Ferrari 328 was made), and although he owned many different Italian sports cars (and several sedans) from that period, the Ghibli was his favorite. He has owned 6 different Ghibli’s since 1980, and right now he owns a ‘72 SS spyder with the 4.9 liter engine. To me the Ghibli is one of the most beautiful objects ever created, it’s perfect from every angle, coupe or convertible. I love driving them, the speed and the sound and the handling are just incredible. My father owned 2 Ferrari 365gtb4 “Daytona” and they’re also flawlessly beautiful and sound amazing, but it’s a handful until you reach highway speeds. The Bora’s my father had were amazing cars (although we both hated the hydraulic brake pedal), but mechanically it was an extremely complex car, and every mechanic said it was a nightmare to work on, as where the Ghibli was a more “normal” car to work on.
The Bi-Turbo really did a lot of damage to Maserati’s reputation. My father never bought one, because the bad news came pretty quickly when they first came out. It’s really too bad, because it could’ve been a great car if it had just been built correctly. My dream car is a 1978-81 BMW M1, a perfect combination of Italian looks and BMW build quality. Unfortunately, they destroyed the molds to make the fiberglass body, so if you need a replacement panel, you’re screwed.
When saying an old car is ugly, it's really helpful if you contrast it with other cars of the period. Otherwise, it's hard to get a frame of reference.
The same goes for saying an old car is slow.
The Stag suffered because of poor management. I've seen several Stags still with the original engine (derived from welding two Dolomite engines together) so the engine isn't that unreliable
Dolomites was horrible
Still be super cool to rock up anywhere in a Mondial, At least people would say he's got a Ferrari, can't imagine a Sierra Cosworth having the same ring to it
The Cimarron was an absolutely brilliant used-car buy in the '90s. You got a Cadillac interior for the price of an old Chevy, and since the original owners were almost all rich old ladies who'd always had Caddys but didn't want or need a big car anymore, they came to their second owners in great condition.
I never did pursue one myself, but I recall all the Cimarrons in the L.A. area seemed to be driven by old(er) women. I never did connect the dots for a sensible used car like that until later on (mid-2000s) when Buicks from a few years prior were sought after because of how well kept they were by their old(er) owners.
My thoughts exactly. I would have the Cimarron as a used car anyday. But would not have bought one new at twice the price of the Chevy version.
If they released it with the V6 from the gate it would have been a success
Meh. At the end of the day, still a puddingmobile, and there's always been heaps of lightly-used Camrys about. A better car in every way than a J-body, unless you're trying to get on the lawn at LeMons.
@@mhagnew The original poster mentioned these were great used cars in the 1990s. Of course nowadays, there are numerous better choices. I doubt there are any Cimarrons even for sale.
I think the worst car in UK was the Austin Allegro. It seemed to me at the time that they incorporated all the bad lessons learnt from previous cars into one vehicle. On the mini the rear subframe always rotted but the front subframe always stayed intact. They put a rear subframe into the Allegro and did away with the front subframe. Also the hydrolastic suspension in the Mini and 1100 cars was often leaking and making cars lopsided. They put that suspension into the allegro and just to put icing on the cake, an odd shaped square steering wheel.
The agro was bad.
But worse was the Princess.
Both trounced the Marina .
That takes some doing
Allegro was my first thought, but title says from brilliant brands.
I like the Mondial ...the QV of course ....and engineering issues aside the bi-turbo and stag are both desirable " if " mechanically sorted.
I have had my Mondial QV for 17 years and it really is an excellent car.
The thing is, I would absolutely own each and every one of these - and love it!
The Mondial is very cool, maybe THE coolest Ferrari this side of the borderline psycho Testarossa. It just oozes that 70-s and 80-s unpredictable, on-the-edge lifestyle. Its no surprise that Magnum P. I. picked this car. I did hear from owners that service and maintenance was a nightmare, but in the 70-s no one expected a Ferrari to go a 100 miles without a visit to the mechanic (and the bank).
Nice video, now make the cars from awful/unpopular brands that are brilliant
A mate had a Stag. After a year! He opened the boot and found the spare was about to depart through the floor along with several gallons of rain
Some historical inaccuracies. Acceptable elsewhere, not from Goodwood.
Well I love the Lagonda and the Mondial and the Carmargue so you can probably guess how old I am.
Cadillac Allante -GM really got it wrong with this overpriced FWD luxury coupe.
The BiTurbo was actually quite aheda of iets time from a styling perspective. It looks quite cool. The Lagonda is amazing and really deserves a main role in some crazy 80s Bond movie.
Another awful car is the Volvo 262 2 dr coupe .The Renault Wind 2 dr Coupe is another ! The Lamborghini Urus SUV-possibly the worst ever design . Personally, I don't mind the Camargue but its based on a Silver Shadow and the body is a bit too large .
I loved, and still do, the Triumph Stag. I had one way back in the day when I was in my early 20s. Dad was an exceptional mechanic and was forever trying to increase the performance and the reliability of it. At one stage he was itching to fit the heads from the Dolomite Sprint, which were 16 valve I believe, and he reckoned, would make it fly. Sadly he never got to try it as I lost control of it on a dark and stormy night on the Hogs Back somewhere near Guildford, and wrapped it around a tree. Dad has long departed this earth but I often wonder what the result of fitting those heads would have been. As I'm not mechanical in any way, would anybody have any idea what the result would have been?
The Sprint's engine had a bore of 90,3 whereas the Stag's was 86 mm.
Probably a harder impact with the tree.
Stag heads are handed so you wouldn't be able to put Sprint heads on both banks of the Vee.
I just love the look of the carmague
Personally, I feel that the Mondial, especially in its final "t" version, was a better car than the 308 GT4, whcih I don't find "cool" at all.
Expect better than this from Goodwood. As a kid I remember the Lagonda stunned the world and 645 was big numbers for the company. The Mondial started poorly but the QV came along quickly and it is a beautiful thing, while the Camargue is now also cool.
I like the Biturbo, and the Carmague. Both are cool.
Haha what a great video.... but I happen to think the RR Camargue and AML are just absolutely beautiful for all their faults ... if my lotto numbers come up well sorted examples of these 2 vehicles are the top of my shopping list!
Cadillac's advertising tag line was "Best of all, it's a Cadillac". The brand name was its best feature.
Had a Biturbo come to the shop I was working at, by the time you fixed what it came in for, something else would break. It slipped the timing belt twice, bent the valves, and they could only get the needed parts from Italy. Worst part was, the owner was on a budget and was trying to fix it up to flip it. Just about made him go broke.
Mike and Edd had a BiTurbo through the Wheeler Dealers workshop.
The previous owner cured the problem, he converted it to a milk float, well converted it to electric,
They updated the electric system from a DC motor and lead-acid batteries to twin AC motors and modern battery tech
Pontiac Aztek should have been on this list imo.
That would be saying that pontiac was a "brilliant car brand".
@@RenotsBoy oh riiiight...lol
It's too ugly, to put on a list on UA-cam, might scare away subscribers!
@@ramblerdave1339 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
For Aston, why the Lagonda and not that rebadged Toyota Aygo?
Always loved the Lagonda - 1979 (I think), I went to my first British GP at Silverstone (I'd be 16 or so at the time) - we park in the car park and get out our cheese butties and club biscuits. Then on the row behind us a Lagonda pulls up, opens the boot, out comes wicker picnic basket full of lovely goodies. Anyway, we went to the race on coming back to the car, peered into the Lagonda, no doubt leaving greasy fingerprints all over the windows. It was only as we were leaving that we noticed the reg was AML1 so it must have belonged to AM management. A truly visionary car, years ahead of its time and the available technology needed to make it what it should have been.
I can, probably, formulate an argument to defend at least eight of these cars. I won't, because I'm lazy, but I don't hate them at all. I'm rather fond of cars that were a little bit of a flop in the market and a little bit unusual in their looks and designs.
However, the Arna.... Much as I admire Nissans and adore Alfas, I really can't even.
I agree with your script writer. The Beta was not only the car I learned driving in, it’s also the one my dad is reminiscing the most about. 😍Much more sophisticated, both in terms of technology and styling, than its competitors from Ford and GM. And rust was an issue with ALL Italian cars of that period. Thanks for the pictures anyway.
It was way way ahead of it's time and a GREAT drive. First front wheel drive practical family hatch back in the EU. Pity about the quality of the steel used because they actually did rust in the showroom from the inside out due to Russian steel not being correctly recycled - Yip: NOT a rumour. The steel ame from the eastern block recycling their ships and was full of ..... rust when delivered in great big rolls already.
Hmmm, looks like a badly executed copy of a Citroen GS to me.
@@team3383 not only rust, but also all kinds of metals, as they never bothered to clean the raw recycling stuff out of anythign that should not be there.
these steel sheets were made all over eastern europe, and delivered across the iron curtain, and car makers were forced to use it because there was no other sheet available. so even Mercedes and Porsche from a certain era corrode like dipped in acid. add to it that nobody bothered with cavity-protection and stuff except some owners with bad experiences you have cars that would not pass technical inspection after their third year...
@@lotharrenz4621 I know, but somehow the "mainstream" ignore it and just say that the cars were poorly designed and just disappeared. It was the great "cold war" period and the beginnings of globalisation.
Look where it's got us.
I sound like my grandfather but I did prefer the 70's...
Rust was an issue because of British road salting , BMW's of that period were also rust buckets. The twin cam was the same as the Fiat, I had the 125 Special not another 1600cc could touch it and could give a Lotus Cortina a run for its money
How did you manage to leave out the Pontiac Aztek?
Biturbos coupe just looks so freaking cool, i love those. And there is a certain quirkiness to the Mondial that i actually enjoy
I always thought the very obvious positive camber geometry on the front end of the Maserati Biturbo looked a bit old fashioned and strange. Other than that I quite liked them.
The spider rear end rather looks like the first convertible 3 series bmw in 1986..
I always felt the Maserati Biturbos could have been more successful, at least in the US, if they had used DeTomaso's older formula of Italian sportscar/Ford V8 combination. A torquey Mustang 5.0 (really 4.9) liter engine and 5 speed T5 transmission would have had those cars with some serious horsepower AND reliability.
I was fortunate enough to have owned and driven a Maserati Bitubrbo for a brief period and what fun it was and a huge car-nut magnet with people coming up to me for a chat. Pedestrians turned their heads when I down-shifted and the engine made this glorious sound (yes I showed-off), Gabriel blowing his trumpet would be impressed. I like the Mondial and what a pity modern cars don't
have the all-round vision of the Lancia and the Rolls is okay by me too, at least it was a step in the right direction.
I too really like the Mondial and the Biturbo.
What about the pontiac fiero?
Ferrari Mondial still looks great. I’d love to own a well-sorted one.
There are some seriously cool cars on your list: Lagonda (A-MA-ZING!), Camargue (yes, please)… Maybe (surely?) not the best, but how cool are they when you show up in one of them… And I L O V E D my Maserati Biturbo Spyder i 2.5. What a brilliantly quirky car… Again, sky high cool factor.
In terms of rusting, I still prefer the 1956 Renault Alpine over the Lancia: "if you stood beside it, you could actually hear rusting." However, "Owners seemingly needing to keep an eye on their car just to make sure it didn't disappear overnight" is also a true gem of modern engineering ..
You forgot the Cimmaron’s biggest failure- the hideous upmarket price, far beyond other “J Cars”, and with little substantive difference from those supposedly lesser versions. Anyone who green-lighted the Cimmaron and those who approved the pricing, should have lost their jobs for the misbegotten and failed audacity surrounding both the car and it’s price.
That Lotus looks like the world's most expensive dune buggy!😳😳😳
Indeed!
My thought too.
The Lancia Beta did suffer extreme corrosion and considering that all cars corroded terribly in the 70's it takes a lot to stand out. Esther Rantzen and her prime time TV show called "That's Life" were extremely vocal in bringing the Lancia corrosion to the public consciousness and in particular the Lancia Beta. However, lets not forget that every single Ford Escort and Capri in the 1970's needed patch plates welded on the top of the front suspension to get through it's first MOT. Rust was the reason why most 70's car were scrapped in around 7-10 years from new.. and if you had a car that was 10 years old and had covered 100,000 miles it would seeming be something of a miracle.
Toyota Turdcel was pretty bad back in the 80s...
"An attempt to take the 7 upmarket." best line of the whole video....#2 is " the body was made in Japan then shipped to Naples so Alfa Romeo could fit the mechanical and electrical bits.." say no more! #3: " in the 70's Aston Martin was short on funds, and that is a sentence you could apply to every single decade."
Fantastic historical video! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
I think the early mondials look pretty cool tbh, later ones not so much.
I'm thinking the same thing, although performance is a dog
I was surprised the Morris Marina wasn't mentioned, but on re-reading the second part of the video title, I understood why. :)
I am super-delighted that Paddington Bear is all grown up and. Is narrates auto videos. (Top tier voicing!)
It's fitting that one of GM's most infamous lemons, the Citation, was inspired by Lancia's most infamous lemon, the Beta. Take a somewhat boxy (but passable) looking car with substandard quality, alter the details to make it scream "CHEAP! CHEAP!," put in a noisy junk motor, and come up with a noise mitigation scheme that literally misaligns the frame under acceleration. Way to go!
the only bad car was Arna . As Italians , we felt a little "betrayed" by Alfa because Arna, at the end, in a Nissan. They sold few of them, many to local Police. No regrets for Arna. All the other cars are , at least, interesting. Biturbo , a lot of problems, for sure, but a real legend.
The Lagonda looks like an early concept drawing for what would become the 1977 Caprice, before the compromises made to that design for buildability and functionality (the latter can be summed up by a Lagonda owner sending their Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive purchases home in a taxi, which of course would've been a Big Chevrolet).
I kinda like the Mondial tho... 4 seats AND mid engine, and it doesn't look that bad tbh, maybe not as pretty as the 2+2 front engine ferraris or the two seat mid engine ones. but I like it more than the Daytona or the F40 in terms of looks. it's no testarossa, super america or 612 ofcourse
Great video, though you said the Lagonda you featured was the second generation in conjunction with Aston Martin, it was in fact the third, if you count the Aston Martin DB4 derived Rapide produced between 1961 - 64