1980s

The 1980s and 1990s weren’t exactly my favorite era for automotive design, but the period did give us some interesting vehicles nonetheless. Among the more compelling ideas to arrive in 1987 was the Mazda Pair – which combined a tiny van and trailer and is one of the cutest concept car designs I’ve ever seen.

To celebrate 40 years of production and more than 4 million cumulative sales, Toyota has announced a special edition of the 4Runner SUV highlighted by retro graphics and bronze wheels. The retro graphics have stripes in yellow, orange, and red running up the side of the vehicle.

One of the most iconic cars of the 1980s was the Ferrari Testarossa. Its iconic stature was thanks largely to the popular TV series Miami Vice and a plethora of posters plastered on bedroom walls all around the world.

It’s been a long time since you could purchase a new Peugeot here in America, but back in the 1980s you still could. During that period, the French automaker built the Quasar, a boldly styled concept vehicle that turned up at the 1984 Paris Motor Show.

No matter where you looked in the 1980s, there were F-150 pickups with two-tone paint jobs running all over the place. Two different people in my family owned Ford trucks of the vintage, and one of them was red and white two-tone, with the other being a strange red and maroon combo.

Many children of the ’80s will have vivid memories of Saturday morning cartoons and watching commercials that seem to be mostly for cereals and toys. One of those iconic toys of the era was a remote control car from Tamiya called the Wild One.

Back in 1983, Nissan challenged itself to look forward to what their cars might look like in the 21st century. The concept car they came up with not only had an unusual design, but an unconventional drivetrain to go with.

There’s no question that the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am is one of the most iconic cars of the 1970s and 1980s. After all, it was the car that Burt Reynolds and Sally Field used to evade the fuzz in Smokey and the Bandit.

Long before Kia put the name to good use, Pontiac took us to the “excitement edge” with its futuristic Stinger. The 1989 Stinger Concept was created as a sporty, recreational vehicle, and revealed just one year after the Pontiac Banshee concept.

The 1980s were an odd decade. While they produced many iconic objects and styles which are still appreciated to this day, they also produced a boatload of bad cars. Sure, there were some needles in the haystack, but for the most part, we got dogs like Cadillac Cimarron, the Mercury Lynx, the Geo Metro, the Pontiac Fiero, and yes, the Yugo.

MMMMM… Mustang! It’s interesting to see how Ford was positioning the Ford Mustang back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Instead of touting power and masculinity, the car was marketed as having high mileage and economical pricing.

A company out of Indiana called Gruppe5 Motorsports wants to build the craziest BMW 2002 cars ever. The cars start with an original 1968 to 1975 BMW 2002′ steel structure, and get upgraded with an alloy roll cage and bonded carbon fiber body panels.

Back in 1979, the Ford Mustang was in its third production generation, being built on the popular Fox platform, which was shared with many other less sporty vehicles, and gave the car its first ever sharp-edged design.

All of the car-themed TV shows I watched growing up in the ’80s are part of the reason I am a car guy today. One of the ones I loved the most was Knight Rider. I watched that show each week, and after seeing the first episode where KITT transformed into pursuit mode, I prayed each new episode he would do it again.

Ford truck fans in the U.S. have been clamoring for the return of the Bronco for many years. Sadly, we’ve yet to get a new model, or even a concept design to drool over. To tide you over, check out this unusual concept variant of the Bronco, which turned up back in the early 1980s at the Chicago Auto Show.