When was the "Golden Age" of American cars? Were they

Never, really.
Their golden age was in the 50s though.

>>17611792
Average American cars were ahead of Europeans technologically in the 50s especially the British. Britcucks were running around in Anglias with 1200cc sidevalves while Amerifats had cars with OHV 5L+ V8s with 10:1 compression and 4 speed Automatics

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>>17611739
The 70s

Which is why they're still obsessed with trying to recreate it.

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>>17611936
>The 70's
>Golden Age

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>>17611936
>malaise shit

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>>17611936
Bullshit. The '50s were great, the '60s were solid, the '70s was when everything comprehensively went to shit. Safety bumpers, emissions equipment, 55 mph speed limits, brown and beige, tasteless brougham styling, fake woodgrain all over the place, rubbery body panels that rot away, interiors ruined by huge slabs of plastic that didn't even pretend to be well engineered anymore.

The 50's and 60's. The 70's oil embargo completely fucked them and Ford and GM are just beginning to get best again.

Daimlerwopchrysler is fucked.

>>17611977
Don't forget about those v8 big blocks barely making 200hp

>>17611830
You sort of got neutured in the 70's by smog regs

>>17611830
Dude, you forget the italians were already making high powered (for the time) V12s back in the early 50s.
The germans and the french also had quite advanced cars.

And by the way, Fiat had DOHC engines back in 1912. Peugeot and Alfa Romeo followed suit a couple years after.

Americans had displacement, that's about it.

>>17611830
Then 60's showed up with rs1600 and lotus cortina and the sports convertable boom

>>17611739
>thread about american cars
>shows a pic of a german car

65-71 for muscle
50s-70s for barges
lmaowhocares for commuter cars

Before the FWD takeover, so sometime before 1995.

>>17612567
Pretty much all of what you said was limited to either racing cars in the 50's, or took place in the 60's. The immediate postwar era was hard for the europeans, they simply did not have America's incredibly strong economy at the time.

>>17612726
Nah, there were fast and advanced regular european cars back in the 50s.
The Citroen DS is an excellent example of european tech.

Chrysler brought the fucking engineering marvel that was the TURBINE into the world and other great cars and then they got spooked by the fucking krauts...


AND NOW THEY'RE OWNED BY FUCKING DEIGOS
WHAT THE FUCK CHRYSLER
FIAT? SERIOUSLY?

>>17612726
On the other hand luxury doesn't lead to innovation, hardship does. American "innovation" consisted of simply making engines bigger to increase horsepower, and keeping the rest generally the same apart from styling. By the '80s they were still driving around on the same sluggish, heavy frames and leaf springs as 30 years earlier.

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>>17612850
Take this for example. We're looking at a car here that was sold
- in the US
- new from the factory
- as a flagship model
- in 1989 !!

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1908 - 1927

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1rlyl8VZFM

1970-1995

Big blocks, to smog anchors, to turbo I4's.

What a transition.

>>17612894
Dodge 1920 vs Dodge 2010 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhnfRU2QnI0

>>17612567
Except I was taking about AVERAGE cars. I just used engines as an example. A Ford Thunderbird in 1958 was a unibody, available with an automatic, air conditioning, power steering and power brakes, and 300HP and would add a 345 HP optional engine the next year. Yet even with every single option added it would still cost less than a Rolls-Royce. Who wouldn't even offer air conditioning until 1965 and had an 180HP engine that was bigger than the 300HP engine in the Ford

>>17612908
fucking kek

>>17612850
Except in the 1950s they weren't just increasing size to get more power. They were upping compression and experimenting with forced induction and fuel injection.

>>17612935
ikr

>>17612633

being made from Mercedes-Benz's recycling bin doesn't make it any better

>>17612908
Anyone want to explain this video? How did the 1920's car get through all that without limited slip diff or traction control? Purely because it's so light?

>>17612869
kek
looks like a fake volvo made in bangladesh desu

>>17612955
faith in the holy spirit

>>17612955
manual

>>17612869

Those things were comfy as fuck but the 302 in the front made all of 130 HP three decades ago.

>>17612955
Narrow tires with harder rubber meaty treads. Actually sinks through the top layer of mud and drives on the drier stuff beneath. The Tires could get through the mule paths that they called roads back then but couldn't stop or turn for shit on a paved surface in comparison to modern wide soft tires.

>>17612928
Fucking this, american cars were great since the very beginning of the automotive culture , they had equipement options like our average euro cars got today 40-60 years later. Also engines, designe, comfort and automatic transmissions were the best in the bussines until mid eighties. After that euro cars were better but in the early 00s and today USA cars are great again. One of their mistakes was that they didnt try to seel their cars here in yuroland 50 years or even 30 years ago when in europe we didnt even came close to producing cars like that. Now they have to rebuild the reputation of their cars and thats hard in the age of fanboys and stupid people(shitpossters on /o/ about usa cars). Personally i would buy american in a heartbeat but for now i just cant afford it becouse yuro wagecuck.

>>17613694
american cars are cool and everything but you probably mostly love them (like i do) because of their over representation in american media
they're in no way practical on european roads
nowadays they're mostly a representation of the land of plenty, huge people and straight lines

I think the golden era is when manufacturers actually gave two shits about their cars. Now your average car is simply mass produced. Every car from every country suffer this. The only thing reliable about modern cars is their engine, and even that only applies to some car makers.

>>17616250
>nowadays they're mostly a representation of the land of plenty, huge people and straight lines
Why would they build them any other way though? America has huge open roads.

>>17616299
>Why would they build them any other way though?
Never said they should.
>America has huge open roads.
When Europe has tiny streets and twisted backroads (same as Japan).
American cars are strangely appropriate in China, though.

>>17612222
Good
Quads confirms it

>>17611739
>When was the "Golden Age" of American cars?

most would say the 50s thanks to the post war economic boom

>Were they ever particularly good?

no

>Was there ever an era when they outstripped their competitors?

no

American cars never held a candle to foreign makes and rely on being cheap and nationalism to make sells

>>17616250
>they're in no way practical on european roads
Who the FUCK cares??

>>17616829
>America
>nationalism

You mean patriotism, right? Because muh red white and blue and apple pie does not make nationalism.

Most would consider the golden age of American cars to be the 50s or 60s. They were nightmarish death traps though. The 90s were the best decade for American manufacturers in my opinion. Can't think of many cars that weren't at least up to par from that period.

>>17617121
>thinking that American patriotism is anything but nationalism

hurr muh Murica #1 attitude

>>17617169
If patriotism was nationalism they would be the same word you absolute fucking idiot

>>17617173
yeah calling something by a different name automatically means its something different

>>17611739
Golden age of style was the 50s and 60s. The golden age of performance is right now. The golden age of quality hasn't come yet. American cars have always been a little on the cheap side.

I mean, American muscle was just slapping a truck engine in a two door coupe. That's fantastic but not really "quality".

>>17612850
>luxury doesn't lead to innovation, hardship does
Competition leads to innovation.

>>17617180
What countries truly provide "quality" for the common man in their cars other than Japan?

>>17617177
The two different words exist for a reason. Pick up a fucking dictionary you absolute fucking idiot.

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>>17617209
Pick up a thesaurus, fag.

>>17617194
>common man
>quality
Cheap commuters are cheap for a reason dude. Not even Jap Scrap truly provides quality for the common man.

>>17617215
That's a big word for you. Did you learn it all on your own?

Here, because you're too fucking stupid to do this on your own http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Patriotism+vs+Nationalism

>>17617218
How do you figure the common man drives a cheap commuter? Not everybody is a complete poorfag.

>>17617232
>common man
>not a poorfag
Lmao dude. Absolutely lmao.

If you're making less than 70k per year you are, indeed, a poorfag and you probably drive a Camry or some other "sensible" snoremobile.

>>17617261
Post your car, fag.

>>17617261
post bread on hood

>>17616250
No, I said why i like them(design, comfy ride, a lot of room, usually rwd, better automatics than competition, great engines, very good mechanical reliability, the sound... And your point about practicality is just plain stupid. American were huge compared to euro cars but today germans cars are also longer than 5 meters and heavier than 2 tones and are still widelly present in euro cities and everywhere else.

>>17613694
You europoors would have found most 50s american cars garish and unattractive. You also wouldn't have been able to afford them.

>>17611739
>When was the "Golden Age" of American cars?
Literally right now. Tesla is bringing a new age of automotive technology

>>17617633
Tesla is rubbish

>>17618745
Sure pal. That's why your country banned gas within the next 20 years!