The 1980's Part II, American Automobie Co's re-group, Technology in cars evolve and turn a decade around.

The decade of the 1980's for automobiles did not get off to a good start, that's an understatement. Ronald Reagan wont the Presidency in 1980, and also assumed an economy that was on life support. Unemployment, interest rates and inflation were all at record highs.

Some how I embraced the idea that I wanted to take a stab at selling cars. It was April,1983 and the country was in the middle of a terrible recession. My sales career was short lived, but it was a great learning experience. During this recession, AMC closed it's doors and The Chrysler Corp., led by Lee Iacocca, was given a bailout by the U.S. Gov't., an unprecedented  move to bail out a car company.

As the '80's rolled along something happened that no one saw coming,. there was not a production 1983 Chevrolet Corvette. WHAT ! They skipped a year ? The missing year for Corvette was not for that lack of trying. Quality and production issues prevented the timely roll-out of the 1983 model. A lot of people don't realize this, there were actually 44 units built. They ended up being utilized for crash/safety testing and also used to work the bugs out for the new C-4 (generation 4.) 43 test mules were crushed and one, #23, was saved for the Corvette Museum in Kentucky.

 The introduction of the (C-4) 1983 Corvette was supposed to go on sale in September of 1983, but due to the new design was a complete and complicated update that incorporated much new technology, production for the 1984 Corvette began on 01.03.83 and the 1984 models hit the showroom floors in March or 1983. Chevrolet missed the 30th anniversary of the Corvette because of the lost year in production.

A few final notes for the 1980's, And these milestones were pivotal. In 1983, Chevrolet introduced the 1983 Monte Carlo SS, I think you know where this is going. A  year later Oldsmobile introduced a reincarnated 1984 Hurts Oldsmobile. Buick, not wanting to be outdone by it's sister divisions at GM, Introduced the 1987 Buick GNX, a beefed up 231 cubic inch V-6 that was turbocharged. It boasted 276 H.P., and would do the 1/4 mile in 13.8 seconds. It was actually competitive with the Corvette ! This is where the U.S. Automakers started quietly resurrecting the Muscle cars we have today.

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