Burnside Body Shop

Factoids about Cars in the 1970s

The 1970s were all about shag carpeting, big collars, and of course, disco music. It wasn’t unusual to find shag carpeting in one of the far out cars during that era and most likely the eight-track tape cartridge would be playing disco tunes from the Bee Gees, Donna Summer or KC and the Sunshine Band. At Burnside Body Shop, some of us remember the 1970s here in Modesto, CA so here is some trivia to enjoy.

In response to the 1973 oil crisis, the National Maximum Speed Law of 55 mph was enacted. It was one of the provisions of the 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act. Many motorists disregarded the speed limit and some states opposed it.

One of the innovative cars during this decade was the NSU Ro80. Marketed by the West German company NSU, the four-door, front-engine sedan had modern styling but was known to be unreliable.

The Volkswagen Golf Mk1, a successor to the Volkswagen Beetle, was known as “the Rabbit” in the United States. The convertible version was called a Cabriolet. The small car was first produced in 1974.

Oldsmobile built a subcompact car from 1975 to 1980 called the Starfire. The four-passenger vehicle was the smallest Oldsmobile since before World War II.

A compact car named the Apollo was produced by Buick in 1973 using the same body shell as the one for the Chevrolet Nova.

Opera windows were a common design feature during the 1970s. The small windows were located in the C-pillar of some cars where passengers sat.

American Motors introduced a compact car named the Pacer in 1976 with a rounded “jellybean” body style. 

During the mid-1970s, many Chrysler vehicles, including the 1974 Imperial LeBaron and the 1975 Cordoba, were said to use Corinthian leather. It was actually just part of a marketing campaign devised by an ad agency and the leather wasn’t from Corinth. Instead, most of the leather used came from a supplier in New Jersey.

Nothing like traveling in comfort. Designers in the 1970s provided comfortable seating in many vehicles such as the Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, which had thick button-tufted pillow-topped seating. Faux wood was often used in the 1990s on clock radios and even cameras. Car manufacturers added it to their station wagons and dashboards. Some of the “woodie” station wagons included the 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna, the 1976 Pontiac Acadian, and 1976 AMC Matador Brougham station wagon.  

After reminiscing about the 1970s, you probably have a few memories of your own. Can you dig it? That’s ‘70s talk for “Are you OK with that?”

Sources: Wikpedia, AOL and Yahoo