http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jalopnik.com.png http://jalopnik.com/tag/1982 http://jalopnik.com/tag/1982

Most car lovers are familiar with the sensation detailed in this 1982 Datsun commercial, even if the object of their "someday dreams" isn't a 280ZX. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5858915&view=rss&microfeed=true

It takes the right stuff to make a great performance car and that was exactly what the 1982 Toyota Celica Supra had—at least according to race car driver/designer Dan Gurney. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5856797&view=rss&microfeed=true

Why did Ford build the giant pile of logs seen at the beginning of this classic advertisement from 1982? To demonstrate why the company designs it's 4x4s to "log" high mileage without sacrificing toughness. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5834219&view=rss&microfeed=true

We aren't sure there is such a thing as a normal AMC Eagle, but we feel safe saying other models of the 4x4 car were a lot less strange than this Sundancer convertible model. These convertible Eagles were offered through AMC dealers as an expensive coach built option for only two years. The Eagle's notoriously rust prone nature combined with the very low initial production numbers makes surviving Sundancers like this one currently on Ebay very rare birds. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5830541&view=rss&microfeed=true

Saddle up and take a look at what the Datsun truck lineup had to offer for 1982. The little trucks were advertised as being rugged and thrifty, just like the unnamed cowboy spokesman who owns 3 of them. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5710510&view=rss&microfeed=true

The movie Tron must have had a profound effect on GM's marketers, who apparently decided that the semi-computerized Quadrajet on the Firebird's 305 engine was really a time machine! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5630297&view=rss&microfeed=true

Say you're a banjo-pickin' young stud a-hankerin' for a nice new Cadillac Cimarron, but just can't come up with that fat inflationary Cadillac price tag? No problem! The General has an Olds-badged J Body just for you! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5589656&view=rss&microfeed=true

A few months back, I spotted this '82 Renault Le Car in the "fixer-upper" section of an East Bay wrecking yard. "How much?" I asked. "800 bucks!" was the reply. Nobody bought the little Renault, and now it's Crusher bait. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5555981&view=rss&microfeed=true

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Alameda has quite a few Rabbit pickups seeing daily-driver service, so let's check one out today. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5523835&view=rss&microfeed=true

We're pretty sure that's the late rally monster Ove Andersson getting all sideways in a growling '82 Starlet, although it's possible that Toyota honored the Starlet's utter cheapitude by substituting Joe "Over" Andersson, Wisconsin dirt-track racer, for this ad. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5502570&view=rss&microfeed=true

There's much more to an engine swap than making the new engine fit under the hood. Say you're trying to drop a Ford 302 into an '82 Corolla, and the Toyota center link won't clear the new engine's oil pan… More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5470167&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Datsun 810 became the Maxima for the 1982 model year, but the Datsun-to-Nissan changeover hadn't taken effect yet. That means you're looking at a very rare Datsun Maxima wagon… and it's doomed. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5447896&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Charade's ill-considered name didn't help its North American sales any, but perhaps Daihatsu would have moved more of them off the showroom floor if they'd pushed its glorious racing history over here. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5438615&view=rss&microfeed=true

When was the last time you saw an LN7 on the street? This car going to the junkyard probably cuts California's LN7 population by 20% More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5378937&view=rss&microfeed=true

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Mercedes-Benz built the R107 for nearly 20 years- definitely DOTS-worthy! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5302374&view=rss&microfeed=true

Now, Bert Weinman Ford in Chicago was sacrificing those new '82s at below dealer cost, but who cared when you could pick up an air-conditioned '77 LTD Country Squire 9-passenger wagon for $2,188? More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5298528&view=rss&microfeed=true

Certain high-end Datsun models of the Late Malaise Era came with a seriously science-fictiony feature: the car talked to you! That's no big deal nowadays- $1.29 worth of silicon- but back then it took hardware.
More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5246380&view=rss&microfeed=true

Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! The lowly flatworm can learn to avoid pain, but not us. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5188848&view=rss&microfeed=true

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. In the German cars of DOTS, the Rabbit count was too low!
More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5186545&view=rss&microfeed=true

Would you prefer a pure Italian Quattroporte with 288 honest Maserati horsepower… or one with a blown Ford 5.4 modular V8 grunting out 626 Detroit horses? And what would you pay? More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5125140&view=rss&microfeed=true

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Here's a little car that's nearly extinct in rust-prone areas.
More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5121961&view=rss&microfeed=true

UDMan is writing for the CarDomain blog these days, but he's been kind enough to share some of his latest finds with us. The '83 Callaway Porsche 944 we saw earlier today got us in a German Callaway sort of mood, so let's check out this super-rare '82 Callaway Volkswagen Scirocco that UDMan spied while covering a Callaway event: More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5106218&view=rss&microfeed=true

What's a really cool used vehicle worth? Yesterday, 60% of you opined that 300 grand was too much for a beautiful Citroën DS21 Chapron Palm Beach, so today we're going with another much-beloved, yet more affordable, machine: a 1982 VW Rabbit Diesel pickup. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5101741&view=rss&microfeed=true

Near as we can tell, this video for the Sonido Lasser Drakar song "82 Pontiac Firebird" shows a wholesome-looking refrigerator-white 3rd-gen Firebird that turns into K.I.T.T. when the sun goes down; meanwhile, the car's driver becomes a werewolf, thirsty for the blood of the Badly Choreographed Cheerleaders. Thanks to Franzouse for the tip! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5099678&view=rss&microfeed=true

Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! It seems that the Japanese won't be celebrating an improbable victory over PCH Superpower Britain this time around, with the Land Rover beating the Nissan Patrol 57% to 43% in our poll. Today we're going to return to a couple of perennial PCH heavy hitters, cars that we all really really want, yet make us stagger back in awe and horror when contemplating the magnitude of the task they represent: the Mercedes-Benz 6.9 and the Jaguar V12!
More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5092727&view=rss&microfeed=true

Those sand rails had better look out, because the Starlet- right off the boat from Japan and sporting JDM fender mirrors and right-hand-drive- now rules the desert! Never mind the fuel-economy thing; it's off-road prowess that gets Starlets off the showroom floor! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5089971&view=rss&microfeed=true

The problem facing the producers of this ad was plain: they had a budget of roughly $2.99, yet needed to show how futuristic and advanced the new third-gen Celica really was. The solution? Huff paint until your vision goes all woobly, then start the cameras rolling! Arriving on the planet in a snow globe Space Sphere, the Celica awed the world with its quasi-flip-up headlights and ability to drive in a straight line! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5080331&view=rss&microfeed=true

Of course we realize that the books were cooked on that 58 MPG figure; the old EPA test had about as much to do with real-world driving as the image of Sea Monkeys has to do with real brine shrimp. Still, though, the '82 Sentra sipped gas through a cocktail straw, and entry-level econoboxes 26 years later are guzzling the stuff by comparison. Would present-day car buyers find this Datsun intolerably loud, cramped, and bouncy, pissing themselves in terror every time an Expedition loomed in their field of vision… and what's with the hand-cranked windows and lack of air conditioning? Yeah, a car like this would have no chance today, but let's see what happens when gas hits 10 bucks per! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5078418&view=rss&microfeed=true

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. The BMW E24 is not exactly an endangered species, but it's such a good-looking car that every single one I see in Alameda qualifies for this series. Never mind that I have photographs of six Alameda 2002s stockpiled- it's 6 Series time again!
More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5068674&view=rss&microfeed=true

Now, you might think German men would be at a disadvantage when trying to score with the ladies in Paris, but she'll be saying "Ja, ja!" when Hans rolls into town in a brand-new Ford Granada. No, not this kind of Granada- we mean the European Granada; Ford thought the name was so good that they needed to assign it to two totally different vehicles. Paris-based Franzouse gets the credit for sharing this one with us; we can assume he's now heading to Berlin to see what kind of effect his Mehari will have on the women there. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5046298&view=rss&microfeed=true

Sold as the Datsun 200SX in North America, the Nissan Silvia for '82 didn't get silly roller-coaster ads in its home market. No, Japanese car shoppers learned that the Silvia 240RS was pretty much the exact same thing as the Silvia race car! Special bonus points to Nissan for including the FJ20 reference in the ad. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=399488&view=rss&microfeed=true

In the early 80s, it looked like American cars couldn't compete with the imports so well any more. But wait! Here comes the '82 Pontiac 6000, which does its talking where it counts: on the road. Loaded for bear with a (90 horsepower) four-cylinder engine and totally different from its Chevy Celebrity sibling, the 6000 no doubt had Japanese auto execs diving out of office windows. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=398890&view=rss&microfeed=true

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Today's car is one I see frequently, and I've spent months wrestling with an internal debate over its eligibility for this series; sure, it's a quarter-century old and a great-looking car, but probably 98% of the diesel W123s ever sold are still on the road today and it's a stretch to call this one a survivor. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=398885&view=rss&microfeed=true

Amazingly, a Chevy (well, Chevy/Buick) managed to beat an obscure, 40-year-old German microcar in a heads-up Project Car Hell competition, with a 57-43 split in yesterday's voting. Today we're going back to the common-theme idea; inspired by all the love for the DOTS Cressida, we decided we ought to do a Project Car Hell matchup featuring a pair of Late Malaise boxy Japanese midsize sedans, complete with luxury features, independent rear suspensions, and big inline-six engines. Japanese stuff isn't normally hellish enough, however, due to their boring reliability and tediously good build quality. In order make things more interesting, these projects are going to require massive horsepower upgrades. Boost, engine swaps, whatever it takes! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=398235&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Smokey & The Bandit II cachet, coupled with the challenges inherent in a compu-Q-Jet-ized turbocharged Pontiac 301, handed the Indy 500 Pace Car Turbo Trans Am a solid 60/40 win over the Saab 99 Turbo in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll, giving Detroit bragging rights- if that's the right term- over Järfälla for the day. Today, we're going to look at the price on the gas pump and laugh! You see, if you want to flaunt your success to the world, you need to light your Cuban cigars with $100 bills (since Tricky Dick pulled all the higher-denomination bills from circulation in 1969, the C-note is the best you can do) and drive a vintage British luxury machine that drinks high-octane gazoline the way Winston Churchill chug-a-lugged fine brandy! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=395999&view=rss&microfeed=true

My DOTS-detectin' antennae are getting more sensitive every day; I caught the briefest glimpse of something red and vaguely wedge-shaped down a side street out of the corner of my eye while riding as a passenger in a car and made a mental note: Possible Fiat X-1/9! Investigate later! Sure enough, when I went back to that block later on, here was a red X-1/9 and not a Toyota MR2 or Pontiac Fiero (not that there's anything wrong with either of those two, but they're not anywhere near as rare as the Fiat). This ability comes at a price, as I now drive at a maddening 15 MPH in Alameda- the better to scan for interesting iron- and I'm sure my car is hated by the impatient types who don't understand that I'm on an important mission. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=393144&view=rss&microfeed=true

What with all the racin' madness lately, I haven't had a chance to descend into the lake of burning 90-weight that is Project Car Hell for a few days. In our last matchup, we almost had an upset for the ages, with a Japanese car nearly beating a French car in the Dangel Peugeot Wagon versus V8 Fairlady poll. And that Peugeot was a tough one, too! You fans of Japanese Car Hell can feel proud... or ashamed, depending on how you look at it. Today we're getting away from the PCH Superpowers and mixing it up a bit, with a perennial German Choose Your Eternity favorite going up against a proud Detroit native. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=390117&view=rss&microfeed=true

I must admit that the Mazda 626 has spent its entire existence without really registering on my personal automotive radar screen. A generic-looking Mazda sedan with no rotary? Yet the first-generation 626 sold quite well and gained a reputation for reliability... and now most of them are gone forever, fed into the ravenous jaws of The Crusher. So even though it's no AE86 or RX-7, this car has earned DOTS status by surviving everyday use for 26 hard years. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=384433&view=rss&microfeed=true

You could be stuck in a snowdrift, spinning the rear wheels on what appears to be a mid-70s Buick... or you could head on down to your Plymouth dealer and buy one of the fruits of the US Government's bailout of Chrysler Corporation: The 1982 Horizon, Reliant, and TC3! Remember the TC3? Yes, the Plymouth clone of the forgettable Dodge 024... and who could forget the Horizon Miser? Still, these cars helped haul Chrysler out of the abyss. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=379774&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Murfreesboro Vanden Plaschero inspired a lot of discussion about the pros/cons of Americans hacking up fine European machinery in order to add pick-em-up truck beds. Don't forget, though, that Europe itself has a fine tradition of Caminoization stretching back for many decades. Take, for example, this pair of fine Old World cartrucks. We've got a 1982 Mercedes-Benz 500SE with pickup bed from Germany and a 1977 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow on a Dodge truck chassis from the Netherlands. Which would you drive? Make the jump and do the voting thing! Thanks to Martjin and Sasho for the tips. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=378600&view=rss&microfeed=true