The ’70s was in a way the golden era of the automotive industry, albeit also mixed with a bit of tragedy. In this era, automakers were pushing the boundaries of car design, testing wedge-shaped designs and large wings on vehicles that were also restricted on performance and engine build.
That meant that this decade was bound to create starkly contrasting marques. On one end of the spectrum lied formidable machines that immediately grabbed buyers' attention and made them dig into their pockets just to park one at their driveway. On the other hand, some marques were too unappealing to grab a window shopper’s attention.
In this piece, we’ll be looking at both. The 5 greatest still stand as a collector’s favorite today, while the 5 worst are still detested by drivers.
10 Greatest Design: 1977 Ford Bronco
The 1977 Ford Bronco didn’t just win the hearts of truckers. This impressive marque also grabbed the attention of sports car enthusiasts who labeled it the hairy-chested sports car of trucks. The 1977 Ford Bronco was small, ballsy, and packed a ton of grunt that made formidable foes like Jeep look girly.
Its grit is visible today by how well most 1977 Broncos have survived. You can still get this marque in the used car market in terrific condition. Its design has also been called timeless, given how sexy the car still looks today compared to more modern trucks.
9 Greatest Design: Chevrolet Corvette (C3)
The C3 generation Corvette was not everyone’s cup of tea. But it is the cup of tea everyone should have taken. This mad machine carried the most serious grunt ever seen on an American sports car. The C3 Corvette not only came with massive, big power engines but also sexy looks that leave gearheads drooling to date.
The Chevrolet Corvette C3 was thus a certified American sports car. It had a long production run that spanned one and a half decades, from 1967 to 1982. The game-changer with the C3 was not the engine or chassis, since both of them had been carried over from the C2. Rather, the new body and interior are what sold this car as the sexiest American sports car you could get your hands on.
8 Greatest Design: 1970 Dodge Challenger
The 1970 Dodge Challenger has a rather interesting story. This marque was not very popular when it was first released into the market. The 1970 Dodge Challenger only came to get the recognition it deserved later into the years. Today, it is a rare and very expensive collector’s item.
The 1970 Dodge Challenger was conceived, you guessed it, to challenge the menacing Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro. When it came out that year, this muscle car donned a chiseled physique that gave it a tough look. Not only did this car command a lot of attention but also it came with the legendary HEMI V8s that made it no slouch.
7 Greatest Design: 1970 Chevrolet Camaro
This was the second generation Chevrolet Camaro, launched halfway through 1970. This mighty marque would go on to last for over 12 years on the market before Chevy finally touched it to offer something different. What would eventually stop this mighty production run was emission and crash standards set up by regulators.
The 1970 Chevrolet Camaro was based on the F-Body platform. Still, it was engineered much like the first-generation marque. It, therefore, still had a unibody structure with leaf springs in the back, a front subframe, and A-arms at the front for suspension. The engine options were nothing short of tantalizing, with buyers getting a basic 155hp engine up to a monstrous 375hp big-block V8.
6 Greatest Design: 1970 -1978 Ford Mustang Mach 1
The Ford Mustang Mach 1 was introduced as part of Ford’s rapid evolution of its now-famous Ford Mustang nameplate. The Mach 1 was born in 1969 as the sixth variant of the Mustang. This marque would remain in production for about 8 years before finally, in 1978, Ford would discontinue the brand until 2003. That in itself should tell you how desirable this 1970 – 1978 beauty is.
The Mach 1 shares one thing with the Boss and the Bullitt. All these versions are unicorn Mustangs. The Mach 1 in particular was built to bridge the performance gap between the GT and the Shelby GT350 Mustangs. It thus had a powerful V8 engine that was fixed into the Boss and the Shelby as well.
5 Failed To Hit the Mark: 1970 AMC Gremlin
The 1970 AMC Gremlin was not a car you’d want to look at twice. This horrible machine was so bad and so cheap. It sold for two-thirds the price of small cars in the market at the time. But that made sense since what you were getting was two-thirds of a car.
The inexplicable thing is how successful, in terms of sales, this car was. But that’s only if you view it from a gearhead perspective. No one wanted this car. But from a corporate perspective, selling something cheap to develop and right for a time when everyone was trying to save gas, was a sure way to make a ton of money, at least according to AMC standards.
4 Failed To Hit the Mark: 1970 Ford Thunderbird
The Ford Thunderbirds sold in the late ‘60s were impeccable machines. They were pretty to look at, by most standards and drove just fine. But that was until, at the turn of the new decade, Ford decided to butcher everything pretty they’d ever done with this marque.
The 1970 Ford Thunderbird was a terrible thing to look at. Apparently, the design team at Ford forgot that thunder is electrifying, and instead decided to focus on the birdy aspect of this marque. That’s what inspired them to add a noticeable giant beak at the front of this marque and make it detestable for eternity.
3 Failed To Hit the Mark: 1974 Ford Mustang II (Ghia)
There’s a lot of debate as to whether this downsized Ford Mustang II (Ghia) was a genius move or a national muscle car tragedy. But what most people can agree on is that the Ghia looked silly. In particular, the opera windows made Mustang enthusiasts throw up.
The idea behind this ridiculous design was to make the mini-Stang more appealing. According to Ford, the opera windows, color-keyed bumpers, and padded-vinyl roof were meant to add a luxury vibe to the Mustang II. Instead, the marque just looked like a horrible crime against humanity.
2 Failed To Hit the Mark: 1978 Buick Century/Oldsmobile Cutlass Aeroback
The 1978 Buick Century/Oldsmobile Cutlass Aeroback was born out of a ridiculous idea by GM to downsize its already successful midsize cars. That downsizing was to be done in a very European way – by converting these formidable marques into hatchbacks.
The result was nothing short of awful. Instead of building a true hatchback, GM created a “hybrid” that had a conventional trunk lid, unlike what buyers would normally expect from a hatchback. Thankfully, no one complained since no sane person was interested in either car at the dealership.
1 Failed To Hit The Mark: 1977 Leata Caballero
The Leata Caballero is the one car that should have never seen the light of day in the ‘70s or automobile’s history. This repulsive machine was a re-worked Chevette, yet another repulsive car, with 350lbs of added weight. The result was a car that was not only ugly but also painfully slow thanks to engineers who couldn’t cram Newton’s second law.
Incredibly, about 100 people (definitely not gearheads), purchased this marque at double the price of the already troublesome Chevette. It’s painful to explain how quickly this car depreciated months after purchase, and why it is America’s most forgotten 1970s marque.