These Cars Filled Every Parking Lot In The ’80s: Now They’re Almost Gone

The 1980s saw an explosion of cheap, efficient, and (mostly) fun-to-drive cars. The Malaise Era from the 1970s was over, and the big underpowered V8s were going in favor of four-cylinder cars. The oil crisis that plagued the US auto market was fading into the rearview mirror and automakers remained optimistic.

Also, Japanese automakers like Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda were making inroads into North American pop culture, perhaps starting the love many of us have for JDM cars and the like.

Almost forty years ago in the 1980s, some of the cars you can see in the mall parking lot are still there. GM and Ford trucks will probably outlive humanity and true collector cars like Toyota Supras, Nissan Z-cars, Chevy Corvettes, and Fox Body Mustangs sit in climate-controlled garages awaiting auction.

But for others, like your mom’s van or your history teacher’s station wagon, they’re probably no longer in the area.

From the late 1970s and into the late 1980s, Chrysler produced the K-platform, affectionately called “K-cars” (not to be confused with the Japanese kei cars). The platform and its many variations and variants saw coupes, convertibles, pickups, station wagons, and the very first van. It was credited with saving Chrysler at the time. (I have two).

Now, K-Cars and its siblings like the Dodge Aries, Chrysler Town and Country, Chrysler LeBaron, and Dodge Omni are virtually absent from anything but enthusiast circles. The original “magic” that made the K-car so special was the modeling of the platform. Almost every Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth model built at the time was front-wheel drive and was available with a 2.2-liter four-cylinder that was sometimes turbocharged if you were willing to spend a little more money.

Unfortunately, with many budget-oriented cars like the K car, the car can be considered more of a disposable item than something you’d like to keep forever. Collectible cars like the related Dodge Omni GLH-S still exist if you look hard enough, but good luck finding many more from Chrysler’s star-wearing era.

Ford debuted the Taurus and Mercury Sable in the 1986 model year and it was a hit from the start. RoboCop even drove one. With a pause in production, it continued until 2018 when Ford decided to kill all its sedans.

First- and second-generation Tauruses and Sables still exist in rare collections and are sometimes sold on sites like Cars & Bids, but the days when you’d see them as part of a taxi or police car are long gone.

In the 1980s, the Taurus was a technological marvel, with standard features such as four-wheel independent suspension and sound deadening. 40 years later, it still feels “modern.” Outside of modernity, however, you’d be hard-pressed to find an original Taurus or Sable puttering today. Being a family car or fleet vehicle means that you are often driven hard and neglected.

Tauruses served their owners well (my family had a Mercury Sable wagon), but after retirement, they were often consigned to the dirt.

Vintage Hondas are automotive icons, but they’re pretty rare if you’re looking to find anything from the 1980s outside of Southern California. Baltimore, with its salty winter roads and humidity, doesn’t handle Japanese classics well.

The second-generation Honda Accord may be credited as marking the end of America’s largest land fleet. It taught drivers that not only Japanese companies know how to make cars that perform well, but also cars that are amazingly engineered and look good while making them.

The Accord became the passenger car of choice for millions of drivers and that trend continues today. There are conventions everywhere, but only since the 1990s. Like Chrysler K-Cars, old Accords, and even Civics and Toyota Camrys, they’ve been treated more like a tool than anything you’d like. Thus, when the warranty expired or rust appeared, the family Accord was returned to the used car lot before disappearing into the ether of history. Today, you are more likely to see Hondas from this era that have been heavily modified, as that means someone took care of them. Stock, well-maintained examples that have seen only light use are rare.