It's far from the most attractive station wagon ever made, but to us that's a large part of the malaise quirk and charm of the 1977 Chrysler Lebaron Town & Country. Just don't tell the ultra serious Chrysler spokesman also featured in this vintage commercial.

What is the best way to make a malaise machine seem like the shiny squeak-free new car you've always desired? It seems in 1979 Ford believed the answer was getting Bill Cosby to explain their "Sneaky Squeak Test"

These days President Barack Obama might travel in a heavily armored high tech limo nicknamed "The Beast", but the commander-in-chief began his driving career in a decidedly low-tech Malaise-mobile.

Modern car bumpers are, in the vast majority of cases, like famous heiresses: beautiful, and useless. They just don't work. There've been many studies and articles decrying the often insane amount it costs to repair damage from fairly minor accidents in modern cars — in many cases, thousands of dollars for a repair…

Nothing says 1980 like a car lot with almost nothing someone in the cult of the automotive obsessed can drool over. Times were dark in the automotive world in 1980—the malaise era was in full swing and there weren't many cars to get excited about.

The spokeswoman featured in this commercial had men buying cars for her entire life. From the really cool Nash Metropolitan her Dad purchased for her to the significantly less cool Malaise era GM clamshell station wagon provided by her husband, the car making decisions had been made for her by someone else.

When people think about the malaise era, great cars are not always the first things that come to mind. Although it wasn't the best automotive decade, some great cars were still produced. What is your favorite car from the 1980s?

For many, the score was Mustang II, muscle car fans zero. But time wounds all heels, and for today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe we're seeing if it's really that bad, and if this one's price is even worse.

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!

The very nervous DOHC Lotus "Torqueless Wonder" 900 series engine powered all manner of crazy Lotus machinery over the years, and now here's one that will be melted into Chinese dishwasher parts any day now.