North American automobile models

[torikoos]

Perhaps I've mentioned this before, but is anyone else missing good north american quality automobiles in HO (or other scales)?

 

What the likes of Herpa, Athearn, Wiking and many more , fail to seem to produce are models of ordinary cars, build anywhere between 1970 and 2000.

 

The majority of cars are modern or transition era, and with that they are usually top of the range or otherwise desirable cars in many cases.

 

I want to model the ordinary, as will probably most every one else, to make your scenes look realistic.  I need chevy Caprice classics, lincoln towncars,  Saturns, Acuras, Buicks,  Toyota Camry , etc etc. Not Dodge Vipers, Mercedes SL500, Ferrari F360,  BMW X5 , not to mention an endless variety of company variations on the same Ford F150 pick up truck, or the same bright coloured truck+ trailers with a variety of company logos. 

 

Where are the ordinary cars, the older pick up trucks, non descript trucks and trailers? 

 

I know that the manufactures cater to collectors, and they tend to release current models but surely a rerun of some of the older models (updated with modern detailing/tooling) would be great. There is also an overwhelming variety of European manufacturer models, and much less of the north american car industry , that will need to change for those modeling US/Canadian outline, my opinion anyway.

 

Anyone with influence at the manufacturers reading this? Thanks very much. 

 

Koos

 

[Eggesford box]

Ditto for the sixties

[bxmoore]

I've got a good handful of HO-scale Classic Metal Works, Model Power and Atlas automobiles dating from the mid-sixties to the early eighties, Koos, so they are out there. 

 

Brian

[shortliner]

The upcoming releases in HO from Oxford Diecast are all in the early part of my lifetime, so don't qualify

[highpeak]

An outfit called Fresh Cherries makes some cars from the 70s and early 80s. Walthers seems to suggest they are not in stock, but they show up on eBay. Models included the AMC Gremlin, Pacer, Hornet, Ford Pinto, Escort, Tempo. If you google Fresh Cherries + one of those models you may find some. There's a green Pacer on Amazon for instance at http://http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Cherries-1978-Green-Pacer/dp/B004HLU73I

 

Atlas also listed a 78 Fairmont, a 96 Taurus and an F150. Can't get much more mundane than those.

Lifelike made a car rack loaded with Chevy Citations, I have no idea how good the car was, but the Citation was another dull as ditchwater car from the early 80s. You can pick them up pretty cheap on eBay.

Classic Metal Works is mostly earlier vehicles but they do include a 78 Impala.

Busch has some American cars in their lineup, including police cars that could be civilianised. For later periods, they include a Chrysler minivan.

As Brian (BxMoore) noted, there are vehicles available, it just takes a bit of digging around.

[Adrian Wintle]

In HO there are the Fresh Cherries line:

 

'75 Honda Civic

'82 Honda Accord

'74 AMC Gremlin

'78 AMC Pacer

'77 Ford Pinto Wagon

'81 Ford Escort

'84 Ford Tempo

'75 Mercury Bobcat

'74 AMC Hornet

'71 Ford Mustang

etc.

 

I think they also did a Chevrolet Vega (for those of you with Vert-A-Pak cars)

 

Adrian

 

I need a bunch in N...

Edited November 6, 2013 by Adrian Wintle

[Glorious NSE]

As Brian says, there are at least some out there, though you might need to dig a bit to find them - certain others are also available at a high "kerching factor" (google Neo scale models for some beautiful but pricey models of some serious American metal!)

 

To add to the suggestions...Trident do a lovely set of 80s Chevys, they do a Van (with integral, box, ambulance, minibus, school bus versions,) and a Pickup (with long, short, flareside, utility, wrecker, Blazer and Suburban versions,) - tooling is great, finish a little less so, reccomend getting plain ones (also a little cheaper) and spraying them. Swap the grilles between pickup and van for a reasonable attempt at a backdated (to 70s) version of the pickup. They were tooled originally for the military 4x4 versions, so if you're doing a 2x4 truck or van version then lowering the body over the front axle slightly (with a few seconds work with a scalpel) pays dividends to the look.

 

Trident also do a 90s F150 crew cab, haven't got one of them yet...

 

Along with the Fresh Cherries, there have been assorted other cheap diecast 1/87 vehicles that also drop into the "everyday" category, really a case of having a search on ebay going for 1/87 vehicles and seeing what pops up.

[JWB]

3000 Toys has about 5 pages of 1:87 cars, good prices, no "collector" items http://www.3000toys.com/catalog/products.asp?start=1&TYPE=CARS&SCALE=1/87&ORDER=M&setup= Nobody mentioned Model Power above, I don't think, nor Woodland Scenics, which has some late 50s that would certainly still be running in the early 70s.

[shortliner]

.

Lifelike made a car rack loaded with Chevy Citations, I have no idea how good the car was, but the Citation was another dull as ditchwater car from the early 80s. You can pick them up pretty cheap on eBay.

There is one of those currently on US ebay - currently very cheap but the int'l shipping is around £11.00

eBay item number:

111206200825

A bit basic to say the least, but you do get six - BTW, be very careful about Lifelike and Aurora HO cars -  despite the heading a lot are NOT HO scale but are slot cars which are totally different scale

[Adrian Wintle]

The Woodland Scenics cars are not-quite-prototypes to avoid licensing issues.

 

Adrian

[Adrian Wintle]

Lifelike made a car rack loaded with Chevy Citations, I have no idea how good the car was, but the Citation was another dull as ditchwater car from the early 80s.

 

 

The Citation's chief claim to fame was that it was the first mass-produced small* front-wheel-drive North American Chevrolet. Otherwise it was a pretty ho-hum car.

 

I know a lot of the late-70s to early-80s cars as those were the years of my car-aware youth.

 

*small is a relative term and must be taken in the context of the late-70s

 

Adrian

[Glorious NSE]

*small is a relative term and must be taken in the context of the late-70s

 

...and American cars in general...

[shortliner]

The reason why I said "a bit basic" is that a mouse-over will show the poor fittting/moulding of the windscreens - may be worth displaying as "rear-views" only - the other alternative may be "up on bricks" without wheels, or as "burned out/scrapper"

Edited November 6, 2013 by shortliner

[torikoos]

It does indeed take digging around, it is all similar to railway models, a limited run, then nothing for years. If you look at the regular resellers, they sell zillions of the same car in different versions, but very little else.

 

I guess it will be digging through e-bay etc for a while longer to populate my streets reasonably realistically.

[Adrian Wintle]

...and American cars in general...

 

True, but a small American car of the late '70s is a mid-sized car of today. Consider that a Citation had a longer wheelbase than a Ford Sierra.

 

Adrian

[highpeak]

I suspect the Lifelike rendition of the Citation may be no better than the 1:1 model, the model wasn't in Lifelike's selection of cars in the 2008 Walthers catalog.

 

UK residents will no doubt be surprised that the smallest engine was a 2.5L job, the Pontiac Iron Duke ("too much iron, not enough duke"), as others have noted, small is relative. GM in particular seemed not to quite get downsizing.

[torikoos]

GM in particular seemed not to quite get downsizing.

Doesn't that go for their Locomotives too :-)  They got bigger and bigger, more cylinders, more horsepower etc etc :-)

[Adrian Wintle]

 GM in particular seemed not to quite get downsizing.

 

 

Considering that a large proportion of the market ws busy buying V8 pickup trucks and the ones who wanted small cars were buying Japanese (or Chevettes), can you really blame them? Front-wheel-drive was a new voodoo technology.  They had TV ads of Citations with the backs chopped off to demonstrate it.

 

In 1975, our small, cheap car was a Plymouth Valiant with a 225cu.in.(3.7L) slant 6. In 1983 we replaced it with a 1.6L Honda Accord.

 

After the Citation/Omega/Skylark/Phoenix GM did produce (1982) the Citation/J2000/Cimmaron/Firenza/Skyhawk/Sunbird with a 1.8L engine. There was also the Chevette/Acadian which did sell reasonably well.

 

Adrian

Edited November 6, 2013 by Adrian Wintle

[CVSNE]

The reason why I said "a bit basic" is that a mouse-over will show the poor fittting/moulding of the windscreens - "

 

Just like the prototype cars of that era........

[PhilJ W]

An outfit called Fresh Cherries makes some cars from the 70s and early 80s. Walthers seems to suggest they are not in stock, but they show up on eBay. Models included the AMC Gremlin, Pacer, Hornet, Ford Pinto, Escort, Tempo. If you google Fresh Cherries + one of those models you may find some. There's a green Pacer on Amazon for instance at

http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Cherries-1978-Green-Pacer/dp/B004HLU73I

 

Atlas also listed a 78 Fairmont, a 96 Taurus and an F150. Can't get much more mundane than those.

Lifelike made a car rack loaded with Chevy Citations, I have no idea how good the car was, but the Citation was another dull as ditchwater car from the early 80s. You can pick them up pretty cheap on eBay.

Classic Metal Works is mostly earlier vehicles but they do include a 78 Impala.

Busch has some American cars in their lineup, including police cars that could be civilianised. For later periods, they include a Chrysler minivan.

As Brian (BxMoore) noted, there are vehicles available, it just takes a bit of digging around.

The link just comes up Error 404

[highpeak]

Considering that a large proportion of the market ws busy buying V8 pickup trucks and the ones who wanted small cars were buying Japanese (or Chevettes), can you really blame them? Front-wheel-drive was a new voodoo technology.  They had TV ads of Citations with the backs chopped off to demonstrate it.

 

In 1975, our small, cheap car was a Plymouth Valiant with a 225cu.in.(3.7L) slant 6. In 1983 we replaced it with a 1.6L Honda Accord.

 

After the Citation/Omega/Skylark/Phoenix GM did produce (1982) the Citation/J2000/Cimmaron/Firenza/Skyhawk/Sunbird with a 1.8L engine. There was also the Chevette/Acadian which did sell reasonably well.

 

Adrian

The Citation was GM's third attempt to compete with imports, the first two being the Corvair (produced when the Beetle started to appeal to Americans) and the Vega (a response to the inroads being made by Toyota and Datsun).  All three were dreadful cars, regardless of whether they were front or rear wheel drive, and despite considerable investment failed to stem a precipitous loss of market share for cars (trucks were protected by tariffs and by the fact that nobody else really made pickup trucks that would appeal to US and Canadian consumers). In 1970 Japanese automobile sales in the US accounted for 3% of the market, by the end of the 80s it was up to 30%.

The Citation's initial sales were pretty good, if they had sorted out production problems they could have sold a million in the first year (actual sales were 811,000), so I don't think US consumers were that confused. A good number of them wanted an efficient vehicle, but the Citation was so bad that as soon as word got out, sales plummeted. There's an amusing tale at http://http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/12/curbside-classic-1980-chevrolet-citation-gms-deadliest-sin-ever/

All of the big three lost car sales, largely because they just didn't build energy-efficient cars very well, and with the various energy crises of the period an increasing number of consumers wanted that type of vehicle. It took the mania for minivans and SUVs to recapture market share.

Funnily enough in the late 80s I was given a Dodge Asspain with the slant 6, I quickly concluded that buying an Accord would pay for itself in fuel savings quite quickly!

The Big 3 have improved their game, but I haven't bought any of their products for 20 years because they still don't make anything that suits my needs (small, manual gearbox, wagon, preferably diesel)

Edited November 6, 2013 by highpeak

[Adrian Wintle]

An outfit called Fresh Cherries makes some cars from the 70s and early 80s. Walthers seems to suggest they are not in stock, but they show up on eBay. Models included the AMC Gremlin, Pacer, Hornet, Ford Pinto, Escort, Tempo. If you google Fresh Cherries + one of those models you may find some. There's a green Pacer on Amazon for instance at http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Cherries-1978-Green-Pacer/dp/B004HLU73I

">http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Cherries-1978-Green-Pacer/dp/B004HLU73I

 

Be very careful. The one you linked to is 1/64. After the run of 1/87 cars they then came out with them in 1/64 (Hot Wheels size) and I believe those are the ones in the blister packaging. The 1/87 ones came in plastic display boxes.

 

Adrian

[Adrian Wintle]

It was really the Chrysler K-Car (1981), the Ford Escort/Mercury Lynx 'World Car' (1981), and the GM J-Cars (1982) that showed the North American market that they could live with a smaller, lighter, front-wheel-drive car and still be loyal to the North American industry (that was and, to an extent, still is a big market driver)

 

Unfortunately, there were also some seriously awful cars that fell out of that, like the Ford Tempo/Mercury Topaz (which, in their defence, did sell well). We will try forget Ford's attempt to make 'sporty' cars out of the Escort platform - the Ford EXP/Mercury LN7 that were actually slower than the cars they were based on. Of course the Chrysler K platform was used to create the minivan and all the dreariness that followed from that.

 

Adrian

[highpeak]

The cars you mentioned did stem the Japanese invasion but weren't good enough to reverse the trend.  Just as some consumers were loyal to Detroit's products, those who had bought Japanese developed their own loyalty and a K-car wasn't going to win them back. Then the Japanese opened US plants, US companies sent production outside the US and by 2005 the Big 3's share of the car market was just slightly ahead of the Japanese.

It's worth noting that in the early years of the Japanese invasion penetration of the US market by imports was not uniform. I would imagine you would be less likely to see imports in the mid-west, at least in the earlier years of the OP's period. In other regions, Japanese cars would be more common, Subaru established a strong presence in New England fairly early on for example.

[F-UnitMad]

The lack of 70's & 80's cars is true for O scale, too, although I have managed to track down 1980 Chicago Police car & Chicago Taxi models.

 

One problem I have :- How do you search for American cars & trucks easily on Ebay?? 'Car' & 'Truck' are more Railroad terms on Ebay.com than anything that has rubber tyres....!! "Automobile" doesn't seem to throw up much, as vehicles tend to be listed by make & model specifically.

Oh and the other problem in O is the variation in scale... with 1:43, 1:48 & 1:50 all to choose from, although I do admit I mix them all quite freely as they're pretty close - far closer than 1:76 & 1:87 are to each other; one 'scale' description I loathe is "OO/HO"......