(first posted 3/4/2016) Most of you will remember “10 best” articles R&T used to do from time to time. Some were also uploaded here on CC.
This is the cover story of R&T’s 1987 December issue. The criteria was “by Value and Passion”, as it were:
Road & Track’s Ten Best Cars for 1988
– Posted on March 5, 2022
The fact that two of the three US cars on the list were Fords was quite prescient IMO, seeing how great their current lineup is.
I’m flummoxed that the VW Fox beat out the Omni/Horizon for an honorable mention in the under-$7500 bracket. More power, more doors, longer warranty and lower parts costs once out of it. I’ve never driven a Fox (the one I looked at used in the mid-90s had too many trim pieces falling off even for a $500 beater); did they really handle that much better than the Mopar L-body?
VW Foxes were surprisingly flimsy-feeling IMO, especially being made by the same company who was pumping out vault-like Golfs and Jettas like mad.
@ Say WHAT?
The Fox was designed and built by VW of Brazil instead of Germany.
My sister bought a new Fox at the same time my first wife got a new Omni from her parents (they were Mopar folks). I had a chance to drive both, and the Fox was the far better car from a driver’s perspective. In the mountains west of Denver the Fox was a pleasure to take through the curves, while the Omni was not.
I’m sure the GLH or GLHS versions were better, based on what I have read, but the base version of the Omni was no match for the Fox when it came to driving fun. The Fox also proved to be a more reliable car – we had nothing but constant problems with the Omni, eventually trading it in on a Civic, while my sister drove the Fox for almost a decade with only routine maintenance.
My only regret is that I didn’t buy it from her when she upgraded to a new Jetta. Her only regret was buying that Jetta – it turned her into a Honda owner, just like my ex-wife.
I’d happily drive one of those Civics today.
On the other hand, early Legends were quite soggy handlers, even by the day’s standards, as were front-drive Corollas (bar the GTSs). I’d have replaced those with the Saab 900 and Mazda 323, respectively (though I realize a Saab 900 with automatic is a pretty miserable contraption).
Glad to see the MR2 with supercharger get some credit. All other reviews say it ruined the magic of the original, which I find just a bit difficult to believe.
Best 80s car was the town car, grand marquis and Ltd crown Vic followed by the Chrysler new Yorker fifth avenue m body. These lists always have awful unreliable cars on them like the SCorpio.
Buy American?
I prefer cars wthat can make 100k without blowing their transmissions.
M-Bodys are fine if you can live with 19mpg
The early AODs weren’t great, but as the run went along they became quite reliable.
Proper adjustment of the TV cable was essential for the best shifting on the early FoMoCo AOD transmissions.
At least the Ford AOD didn’t needlessly/endlessly hunt/shift back and forth between third gear and fourth gear as the early GM overdrive automatics did.
Their 735i photo is actually of a 750iL. Most of these would have been good cars to own, but recommending the Scorpio was a dirty trick. First year Tauruses were nice in every way except quality and durability. They signified that Ford’s ‘quality is job one’ push was peaking. The Mazda RX7 Turbo II was a technically fascinating car that we studied in my high school advanced physics class, but there were safer choices one could write a check for.
They really weren’t too obsessed with credibility when they came up with high performance car classifications. Why break apart 2+2 cars from 4-seaters only to call the Mustang, Camarobirds, Prelude and Celica 4-seaters? How small do the +2 seats have to be to count as +2 seats? I rode in the back of a Mustang exactly like the one in the photo. The best solution was to fold the seat and for me to ride under the hatch, and I was only about 180 lbs at the time. That was the most commodious of that group too.
Maybe the hatchback was worse? Two different college friends had notchback Mustangs of this same generation, and I spent a decent amount of time in the back seat of both, as few of us had cars freshman year. Sure, space was tight, but I fit back there okay and I was 5’10” 190ish.
A price ceiling of $27,500! Suddenly I feel very old.
That was enough to buy any car in the world in 1971. MSRP in the US for a Mercedes-Benz 600, a grander car than anyone makes today, was $24,600. That was 25% more than a Rolls-Royce and 20% more than a Ferrari 365 GT 2+2. Stutz Blackhawks, which were essentially rebodied Pontiac Grand-Prix, were the second most expensive cars at $22,500. I think the Lamborghini Muira would have been up there too, but it isn’t listed in my Automobile Almanac.
In 1971, perhaps, but certainly not in 1988.
$27,500 in 1988 is around $55,000 today adjusted for inflation. You can get some pretty nice cars today for that sum…
Funny that the Sterling 825 was a runner up in the Acura Legend sedan’s category, as it was in fact, a Legend in English clothing.
They used to bracket the JD Power CSI. The Legend was the highest quality car you could buy in the US. The Sterling was lowest quality car you could buy in the US. I worked for Crutchfield back in the day. We developed car stereo installation kits and instructions for most cars to be sold over our phone-sales operation. The Legend was built as simply and robustly as a Honda. You could take them apart and reassemble them exactly as they were when new. Wiring could stand up to massive increases in current. The Sterlings were cobbled together with no thought to serviceability or endurance. Everything was built to the standards of a photo prop. Volkswagen wouldn’t ship cars with their wiring quality. I wonder it they made good engine donors.
I suppose if you stripped out anything with a Lucas logo and replaced with parts off the smaller-engined Honda it was going into…
I figured the Legend would outpoint the Sterling, but I didn’t expect the margin of superiority to be so dramatic, and I’m well aware of the reputation of British cars.
I wonder how they define best, The Honda Legend coupe certainly had great dealer warranty service here a friends mother still has hers and since the warranty ran out has clocked up a massive mileage but when it was new she had endless trouble with it and had planned to ditch it for anything else, but the nice people from Honda would flatbed it away and return it going and valeted every time it failed so she kept it and at 90 will probably not heed another car.
My uncle’s BMW 735i…as hard as this is to believe…spent more time in the shop getting repaired than the eight year old Jaguar he traded for it. The last straw was when he was offered his old Jaguar, all spiffed up and ready for sale as a used car, as a loaner while the BMW spent yet more days…which wound up being two weeks…getting fixed.
Not that much of a surprise – that generation of the 7-series has a terrible reputation. Back when I was a BMW driver, my mechanic told me that one should avoid that generation (E32), especially the ones with the M60 V-8 engine, which self-destructed at an alarming rate.
Of all the finalists, personally I’d take the Audi 90 Quattro.
I’m sure Paul is pleased that the W124 made the list.
This reads like a swipe at Car and Driver.
Probably, and rightly so IMO. I subscribed to both in those days and every 10 best issue was guaranteed to be the worst issue of the year.
So very many candidates for Worst C&D Issue of the Year; how does one pick? In all fairness, as a teenager I thought it was a great magazine at that time, very clever and insightful. I haven’t been a teenager for a number of decades, and, well…
Speaking thereof, how does the Honda Accord manage to make the 10 Best (excuse me, “10Best”) list every single year from 1983 or so onward? It’s a good car but not THAT good.
What other cars in that market segment would you nominate? No snark intended, I’m honestly asking.
Well, depending on model year, I can think of Camry, Altima, Legacy, Mazda6, Taurus/Sable, possibly even Malibu and Passat.
I’d forgotten how overpriced the Taurus was then.
The base model wasn’t really all that base, it was still crank windows with a/c costing extra but the trimmings were plush. There was less need for a truly strippo “Custom non-300” since fleet buyers normally either went smaller or bought the unfashionably dated but tough LTD Crown Vic as pool vehicles, with those Tauruses going to fleets being a perk for those assigned them (or an upgrade as a daily rental).
What a fantastic year for cars, I’ll take all of them but especially the Legend Coupe – what a beautiful delicate design.
A woman I worked with bought a new ’88 Coupe…red of course…I remember her talking about the price (around $25k) and trying to figure out if it was worth it for her…she was driving a Mazda GLC at the time so the Legend was a big step up. Hers was the 5 speed with black cloth.
Even knew a guy who had a Sterling 825…he was a salesman for a company we were doing business with at the time..I can say I’ve actually seen one.
Her office mate at the time splurged on a ’90 Nissan 300ZX he bought new a couple years later. He was driving a VW Bug, so it likewise seemed like a big step up for him too.
I’d bought my ’86 GTi a couple years before, so I wasn’t in the market, but that’s when I spent the most time by far looking at cars…not only in number, but in type, after which I really haven’t strayed at all…but (sadly?) I’ve only bought one car since then….my ’00 Golf.