Inflation spiked. Oil shocks hit. Wars broke out. It was a rough time to be a consumer. It was also the 1980s.
Most people remember this decade for big hair and synth-pop. They don’t remember the weird, wonderful, and wildly impractical cars that clogged our highways. We’re looking back at vehicles that either defined their moment or got crushed by it. These are the rides history almost deleted.
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Subaru BRAT
Ronald Reagan drove one for twenty years on his California ranch. He didn’t drive a tank. He drove the Subaru BRAT.
It looks like a Lancia pulled by a tractor. It is rugged. It is harebrained. It is basically a pound-shop homage to European sportiness. Subaru sold them from 1977 to 1994. Over 100,00 people bought the thing. That sounds small compared to modern numbers. For its time? It was a monster.
Americans called it “Fun on Wheels.”
Later versions got a gutsy turbocharged 2-liter engine. That little turbocar did more than move people from point A to point B. It built Subaru’s reputation. It paved the way for their massive success in the US market decades later. If you own a Subaru now, thank this goofy truck.
Plymouth Sapporo
Mitsubishi had a contract with Chrysler. It was a business arrangement that should have died a thousand deaths. Instead, it birthed the Plymouth Sapporo.
Think of an offer customers couldn’t refuse. The Sapporo had it. Extravagant options mixed with fuel economy that still looks decent on paper today. You got bucket seats with real lumbar support. Tinted glass. Power-adjustable mirrors. The list of extras would fill a brochure.
It promised 40 mpg. That is not a typo. 40 miles per gallon in a personal coupe during the height of the emissions crunch. 70,00 people saw the deal and said yes. Performance kept them entertained, too.
Then it disappeared. Why? Chrysler changed hands. The relationship shifted. Mitsubishi started selling the Mitsubishi Conquest. Same car. New name. Better marketing. The Plymouth name just… faded.
Midas Bronze
Harold Dermott’s company was going to be big. The Midas Bronze looked like the start of something special. An affordable sports car market had room for one. Then a fire hit in 1989.
Not a small leak. A devastating factory inferno. The Midas Bronze burned. The Gold model that followed burned with it. The tooling? Gone.
Launched in 1978, this wasn’t just another hatchback. It used a glassfibre monocoque. This was a first for crash tests at the time. The styling was neat. Richard Oakes designed the shape. Gordon Murray worked on the aerodynamics. The man who designs Formula One cars touched your weekend driver.
500 were made. Bronze and Gold combined. They are rare now. Ground-breaking design rarely lasts forever if you can’t manufacture it. Midas folded soon after. The Bronze is slowly being remembered, though. Most of us didn’t catch it the first time around.
Alfa Romeo Alfa 6
Alfa Romeo planned this car in 1973. The oil crisis killed the vibe. Suddenly, a big, fuel-hungry sedan sounded like a terrible idea. Executives shelved the project.
Fast forward to the late 1979. The oil market felt settled. Time to revive the plan? They changed a few things. Production started. The car came off the line looking outdated. The 1973 sketches were already old news.
Under the hood sat a carburetted 2.5-liter V. A gem of an engine, sure. But it guzzled gas. Eyebrows raised even in 1979 when fuel costs were the topic of the century.
1983 tried to save it. Styling updates. Bosch fuel injection. An available turbodiesel engine. These changes were meaningful. But they came too late. Production ended in 1986. Roughly 12,00 were sold. A dedicated fanbase keeps these alive now. Back then? It just added to Alfa’s reputation for brilliant, flawed machinery.
Buick Century Turbo Coupe
We are still listing these cars. The Buick Century Turbo Coupe landed in 1979/1980. It looked like a standard GM coupe. Sleek. Boxier than today’s glass tanks but smooth enough to slice air.
Then there was the turbo. Buick slapped a 3.8-liter V-6 with a turbocharger under the hood. This was Detroit power. Heavy, smooth, and surprisingly fast if you punched the gas. The “Turbo” badge became a badge of honor. Not just for speed, but for tech. Fuel injection was the big leap forward here, replacing carbs that froze and flooded.
It wasn’t as flashy as the Fox Body Mustang. It wasn’t as exotic as a Trans Am. But for a Buick? It was cutting edge. The 80s loved chrome and cubic inches. This car had the engine that could have been standard if gas wasn’t so precious. Instead, it became a niche legend. Quiet power for people who wanted to glide but could roar when needed.
History is full of what-ifs. The BRAT could have been the standard. The Sapporio could have won Chrysler out. Midas could have taken Ford’s head off in the mini-sports market. We got a weird decade of weird cars.
We still have the BRAT. We have the Buick Turbo Coupe. We have memories. The rest are just stories in forums and fading paint jobs.
Which one should come back first? The Bronzereliable and weird. Or maybe the Turbo Coupe. Practical with a punch. Or are you just glad the fuel pumps work better now?
Probably all three.
