Amazing what seven short model years will do to a car. In 1977 when this car was young, Motor Trend named it their "Car of the Year" as it was considered nothing short of a revelation. A foot shorter than the car it replaced while weighing almost a thousand pounds lighter, it also had more interior and truck volume as well. Cars like this didn't come around but once in a lifetime.
Fast forward to 1984 and this car was seen in a negative light just as the car it replaced was. Too big, too heavy, too thirsty, too crude and primitive. What happened? Thank a second gas crisis in ten years and the influx of smartly engineered, impossibly perfect cars from Japan. Those brilliant imports weren't just better in every way; they also showed Americans just how bad their cars were.
Why anyone would buy one of these after driving a contemporary Camry or Accord is beyond me. The one thing this car and cars similar to it, those GM "B and C bodies", did offer was considerably more interior room than the Camcords. Did Grandpa buy his 1984 Caprice because he could put a little trash can under the dashboard?
If you're of a particular age, like I am, you perhaps have an appreciation for these cars that goes perhaps beyond reason. This car is 31 years old going on 90. If you're honest with yourself, there's nothing quite like the chill of realizing that you're not as young as you used to be. Despite your own best intentions not to be as old as the those who were "old" when you were young.
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