Cars have been evolving for decades now and emissions have never been stricter. It seems whenever cars have to evolve drastically like going from a carbureted engine to a fuel injected engine or even today- going from an ICE to a net-zero electric vehicle, it seems to work but not long-term in the end.
So throughout all vehicles made in the 70s and 80s- all vehicles including regular everyday cars, pickup trucks and sports cars, with everything to do with the EPA regulations, fuel crisis and switch from carburetion to fuel injection was any of those vehicles any good despite a good handful of them being underpowered and not being computerized?
going from a carbureted engine to a fuel injected engine ... not long-term in the end.
I disagree I'd say fuel injection worked out pretty well.
was any of those vehicles any good
Well they looked better.
But you can ask any mechanic who worked on cars back then. They need less maintenance now. And they are more reliable in the short term.
"Short term" is the key phrase here.
Indeed. Everything was overbuilt back then, so they could last a long time. Now everything is engineered to last as long as the warranty.
You're talking about a pretty long time period here. Things in 1970 were very different than they were in 1989. In 1970 everything had carbs and breaker-point ignition. Some didn't even have electric windshield wipers yet! By 1989 electronic ignition had been standard for nearly 15 years and there were very few carbureted vehicles left.
There were definitely good engines during that period but they were hampered by crude emission controls particularly in the mid to late 1970s when regulations tightened up and the technology to meet them and still run well had not been developed. This started to get better in the 1980s for fuel-injected cars, but those with carbs were nightmares. (Having owned 1980s-vintage AMC Eagles I know this from personal experience.) The advent of fuel injection was definitely a major step forward. I've never really had trouble with fuel injection on my cars. Fiddling around with carbs is a pain, particularly emission-control carbs.
Some of those old engines could last quite a long time but the further back you go the more maintenance they needed to keep from wearing out prematurely. We're going backwards today though in terms of long-term durability with the trend to small-displacement forced induction GDI engines blown to within an inch of their lives.
There were good and bad compared to one another but nothing that grate compared to today's standards. Maybe with some exceptions among the more expensive cars. I generally consider the mid 70's to the mid 90's to be the dark ages of automobiles.
The odometers only went to 99,999 miles because most cars were pretty well shot by then.
I hated the smog equipment during that time period. They had not figured it out and were testing things. I find it usually either broke, or robbed too much power.
