33 Classic 1970s Cars That Defined the Decade

There was one thing about automobiles within the Nineteen Seventies — they weren’t simply one thing you drove to get from right here to there, you have been the automobile. In the beginning began to blur collectively, style- and design-wise, your automobile stated precisely who you have been as a result of it served a objective, not who you wished to be. The man with the Boattail Riviera? Properly, he wasn’t the identical as the girl within the wood-paneled wagon. These automobiles had totally different functions.

How ’70s Vehicles Stood Aside Earlier than the ’80s Modified Every thing

On the time, the “Large Three” dominated the backroads and Primary Streets of the nation, however there have been nonetheless loads of fashions and trims to go round—and actually, I discovered the sheer quantity to be stunning whereas researching this text. Very similar to the style on the time, automobile corporations weren’t thinking about making an attempt to suit right into a single mould. Automobiles have been heavy, daring, outsized, and even at instances impractical. The sound of a heavy door on a Chevy Impala was unparalleled.

MORE ’70s CARS: 14 Traditional ’70s Automobile Advertisements From Magazines

Then the ’80s occurred, and also you began to see an actual shift. Streamlined grew to become the defining issue, and as gasoline costs rose, issues have been changing into extra environment friendly—and with that got here extra automobiles that, past fashions and firms, began to look… the identical. (Although there are nonetheless loads of options from that period we’d gladly deliver again—like those we rounded up in our have a look at automobile options we miss from the ’80s.)

Again When Vehicles Had Tales — and So Did the Folks Driving Them

Had been the ’70s the final decade the place you could possibly look at a automobile and immediately know when it got here from? Even in the event you grew up within the ’70s, you’ll end up seeing a automobile from that interval at a present and considering “classic”—however you most likely aren’t saying that about ’80s automobiles.

To associate with the “automobiles with character” theme, we’ve compiled a listing of ’70s automobiles which have precisely that—and had somewhat enjoyable describing precisely who we expect might need pushed them. To the Garys, Lindas, Rons, Debbies, and Steves on the market—this one is for you.