Why are (British) 80s cars being scrapped?

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BBC investigates - 4 minute report

The BBC asks why cars from the 1980s aren't as well preserved as those from the 1960s and 1970s

Uh, because most of those are British Leyland vehicles. That's why. I'm pretty sure lots of 1980s non-British cars like Mercedes W190s and BMW E30s are still popular amongst enthusiasts...

As soon as he said "Austin Montego - what a wonderful car!" I knew he was lying. The Montego, despite my secret liking of it, was only good in the hands of Russell Swift.
 
Even the non-BL British cars of the time were grandfather clock rustbuckets.

TVR are famed for their reliability and dependability. Oh no wait, it was completely the opposite.
 
It's also fairly shortsighted in assuming that it's somehow limited to 80s British cars. All classic cars are available in incredibly small numbers compared to when they were new - I mean honestly, I own an example of the most numerously-produced cars on the planet but how many old Beetles do you see around these days? Classic Minis even? You barely even see Mk1 Mondeos these days, which they sold hundreds of thousands of, and that's a mid-90s car.
 
This goes for American cars from the 80s and 90s. There are still a lot of 90s cars around but most of them are hunks of junk. The 80s cars hardly exist anymore.
 
Christ, don't let W&N hear you saying that, Keef. He'll go up the bloody wall if anybody puts a chink in Pontiac and GM's impregnable armour.
 
Coincidentally I just read this piece on the same subject. Interesting stuff, I think the numbers must cover road-registered cars only though, there may be many more off the road or awaiting some resto work.

Oddly I've recently seen an SD1, Sierra and Marina in the wild, have pics of the Rover and Ford I need to post on the DYSAGT? thread, along with a ton of others. Also at a classic car show recently I saw a few mint examples of some of the cars in question, so they are slowly becoming collectable.
 
A lot of cars got scrapped when people started doing "hand in your old car for a discount" deals on car sales. Those cars that got handed in were more often than not scrapped, same for a lot of 1990s cars.
 
MG Montegoes are cool.

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Dat bodywork. Dat turbo. Would love to drive one, to be honest.
 
Yeah, my dad worked for Rover from the early 80's until the early 90's... they were company cars and he still would have preferred something else.

We had a number, SD-1's, Maestro's, Montego's, 200's and 800's (at least they're the ones I remember... apparently we've had a Metro at some-point too).

In my early youth I did lust after one of these..

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And, in my mid teens, one of these..

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Although the only Rover I owned myself was a 216GSi, it was alright I suppose, but I killed it... and have never missed it.
 
In fairness, despite their mechanical hilarity, Rover built some handsome cars.
Thanks to Honda

The 800 fastback is just pure sex. Especially post-facelift.

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I remember my dad's old Austin Metro. It's the earliest car memory I have. I must have been eighteen months to two years. An absolute piece of excrement.
 
Keef
This goes for American cars from the 80s and 90s. There are still a lot of 90s cars around but most of them are hunks of junk. The 80s cars hardly exist anymore.
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Depends on your location. I see a LOT of '80s vehicles still around.
 
My dad apparently owned a beige Maestro not long before I was born before replacing it with an Orion, which probably wasn't the best upgrade available in '91.

However, my step-dad went through three Metros in the mid-to-late 90s, including borrowing a white Vanden Plas for a few days which was a good as it got. He bothered to replace the first Metro (which had a replacement passenger door fitted not long before we scrapped it. And no, it didn't match the original car colour) with another, even older one. We even had to endure an early model MkII Cavalier for a few months after he got rid of the last Metro too. Good times.

That said, they're so rare these days that I've only seen one Metro this year. Of all the ones left on British roads, it was an early model in an understandably rare colour, Applejack Green. Very much like this:

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And yet the one I spotted was the most solid-looking example I've seen this side of 2000. There's a reason why that colour is so uncommon, yet someone decided to preserve one.
 
Keef
This goes for American cars from the 80s and 90s. There are still a lot of 90s cars around but most of them are hunks of junk. The 80s cars hardly exist anymore.
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That may be true in the rust belt (in this case, the rust belt meaning anywhere they use salt on the roads to keep them from freezing), but it's definitely not true universally. As a particular example, it's fairly easy to find Fox-body Mustangs.

Heck, 80's and early 90's cars are the foundation of the fields for 24 Hours of LeMons and ChumpCar races.
 
There are very clean MG Metros and Montego turbos on eBay UK at the moment, the Montego is resprayed Moonraker Blue on some nice alloys and looks really good.

Linky

Linky 2
 
Liquid
Even the non-BL British cars of the time were grandfather clock rustbuckets.

TVR are famed for their reliability and dependability. Oh no wait, it was completely the opposite.
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That's what TVR stands for: "Terrible Vechile Reliability":sly:
 
But yeah it is a true fact that cars made from the 80's and 70's in Britain were terrible piles of crap. If you don't know what this post is about, watch Top GEar episode 7 season 10.
 
MrWednesday
That may be true in the rust belt (in this case, the rust belt meaning anywhere they use salt on the roads to keep them from freezing), but it's definitely not true universally. As a particular example, it's fairly easy to find Fox-body Mustangs.

Heck, 80's and early 90's cars are the foundation of the fields for 24 Hours of LeMons and ChumpCar races.
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Fox Bodies are Mustangs, of course they're still going to be around. They have an almost cult following. Your point about the lemons race just proves his point about them being junk. While I do see some American cars from the '80s to early '90s, I too live in an area where that segment is dominated by Japanese cars.
 
Mustangs, Camaros, pick up trucks, SUVs and cars are still very abundant where I am at.
 
Whereas getting somewhat back on topic, Austin Allegroes, Triumph Acclaims and Austin Ambassadors are all too rare on British roads. I've seen one Triumph Acclaim and, moving away from the 1980s, one Morris Minor and one Triumph Spitfire in my DYSAGT travels.

There's good reason for that. Most of the 1980s cars I see knocking about are from other European manufacturers. Or non-British Leyland marques such as Vauxhalls, Jaguars and Fords.
 
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Not sure, I know there's an loads of '80s cars here, tons of Caprices, Olds, Fords, Mopars from the '80s, & always tons in the demo derbies. I daily drive an '80s Car, I'm derbyin an '80s car... etc.

That said, there's no '80s British cars here.. the odd Jaguar but only those who have been looked after well, the rest broke long ago.
 
Which is comparable to there not being many vintage American cars over here. Chiefly because a huge number of them weren't available.

The seldom few ADM cars I've spotted are a Mercury Cougar XR-7 and a Ford Mustang. Maybe the odd rotting C3 Corvette here and there. And not one of those I've mentioned is from the 1980s.
 
RDF97
But yeah it is a true fact that cars made from the 80's and 70's in Britain were terrible piles of crap. If you don't know what this post is about, watch Top GEar episode 7 season 10.
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...aaaaaaand with that, your opinion becomes invalid.

Some stuff from the UK in the 70s and 80s was crap. In reality, only a small proportion - a lot of it was built badly, but that doesn't automatically make them bad cars. The Austin Princess used in that episode was never any good, but the Triumph Dolomite Sprint and Rover SD1 were two of the better cars in their respective classes of their eras.

It's probably worth pointing out that Top Gear traditionally buys bad examples of the cars it uses in its challenges. It makes for bad TV if they buy good examples that happily last the episode without breaking or failing.
 
Top Gear is hardly a programme of reputable, factual accuracy. It's entertainment and opinion.
 
The 80's were an unremarkable era for design, boxy and without any flair in the majority of cases. Collectors and fans will still preserve some of the more interesting models, but they'll be used sparingly, much like 60's and 70's era cars are at this moment in time.

There are very few cars from the 80's that i'd shed a tear for if i was never to see one in the flesh again.
 
TheCracker
The 80's were an unremarkable era for design, boxy and without any flair in the majority of cases.
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You say boxy, but in terms of cookie cutting, two door fastback was pretty common too.

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For a British take on it, imagine a Rover Vitesse in the same shade of red.
 

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