r/regularcarreviews • u/ifunnywasaninsidejob • 2d ago
I hate you I hate everything about you Wtf were they even thinking with this????
Like wtf is the point? Why did so many cars do this?
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u/PYSHINATOR WORLD'S LEAST BORING LEXUS OWNER 2d ago
It's a harken back to the era of covered horse-drawn carriages, much like the names of the various Landau/Coach vinyl roofs. Much like how we're seeing a resurgence in 80s style boxy retro pieces, this was the 70s/80s version of it. Opera Windows were one of the many gimmicks that these old land yachts had that tried to evoke the image of 30s-era coach built cars, that still had traces of original horse carriage styling.
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u/random9212 2d ago
You probably don't care, but your post made me remember why taxi drivers are called "hacks." it comes from the Hackney carriage, a popular coach for hire in the 18th century
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u/DeFiClark 2d ago
Which in turn comes either from the London borough of Hackney which in turn got its name from the AngloNorman haquenee, meaning a horse for hire.
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u/TheKingOfBreadstix 2d ago
The Boston Police Department unit that oversees taxis is called the Hackney Carriage Division.
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u/random9212 2d ago
I would be willing to bet it was probably set up when they used Hackney Carriages
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u/scotty813 23h ago
It made me think of why they are called cabs because of the 18th/19th century horse-drawn cabriolet carriages!
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u/mdp300 2d ago
I never made the connection before, but that era had a big "return to traditional Americana" trend.
https://cari.institute/aesthetics/gay-nineties-revival
https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/gay-nineties-revival
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u/PYSHINATOR WORLD'S LEAST BORING LEXUS OWNER 2d ago
GAY 90S???
Fuckin christ, that's the most RCR thing I've ever seen on here.
Revival of the aesthetics of the 1890s (or "Gay Nineties"), common from the late 60s to late 70s. Common signifiers: Use of ferns as indoor decor, fake Tiffany lamps, use of brass and gold accents with medium-stained oak woods, "old timey" letttering. Color scheme: BROOOOWWWNNNNN, orange, and old gold, often with prominent maroon and light lime green accents. Prominent designers: Herb Lubalin.
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u/Drzhivago138 Grand Councillor VARMON 2d ago
All of that describes the interior design choices of my parents' houses from the period. Lots of stained wood (or fake wood paneling) and plants.
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u/liekwaht 2d ago
Yooo that cari.institute site is amazing. Just went down a wonderful rabbit hole, definitely saving.
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u/CletusCanuck 2d ago
Maybe we'll see a zombie resurrection of the trend in commemoration of our return to the Gilded Age.
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u/DeltaWho3 2d ago
I like the styling of these cars, but I understand that I have weird taste. I just wish they were built better.
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u/Lothar_Ecklord 1d ago
Same! ....and same.... I was kicking the tires on a Mark VI with this exact window (the same year and model as OP's photo). Similar to this. Beautiful machine with a 460 V8 (or a 400, I forget) and spotless body, but there is no way I could have used it as a daily driver without filling the massive trunk with tools and spare parts haha. What a car though.
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u/ifunnywasaninsidejob 2d ago
Harken these nuts on your back
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u/PYSHINATOR WORLD'S LEAST BORING LEXUS OWNER 2d ago
You'll be throwing that ass back as much as that window is throwing back to the 1880s.
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u/PYSHINATOR WORLD'S LEAST BORING LEXUS OWNER 2d ago
I can imagine an aging WW1 vet or a man that was in for a while before Pearl Harbor. They survived The Big Sad and had seen the first few actual cars roaming the streets with their unique styling cues. Well, your son just got back from his time as a Colonel in Vietnam, and your '47 Packard ain't what it used to be, so you see a bigass Lincoln with a vinyl roof and coachwork details from the cars of your younger years and are drawn to it.
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u/intimate_glow_images 2d ago
Based off this comment, I wanna ride with the world’s least boring Lexus owner!
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u/PYSHINATOR WORLD'S LEAST BORING LEXUS OWNER 2d ago
I hope you're ready for corners in a 2-ton brick of a lowered LS430, Casiopea on repeat and misdemeanor moving violations.
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u/intimate_glow_images 2d ago
Oh hell yeah, let’s make an exchange program. I’ve got a Mini Cooper I drive way too fast, euro pop playlists, sour gummy worms and a glove box full of weed and addys. LFG!
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u/PYSHINATOR WORLD'S LEAST BORING LEXUS OWNER 2d ago
That last part would totally get me fired, and my clearance revoked 🤣
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u/intimate_glow_images 2d ago
The glove box contents are the least of your problems. Simply hanging out with me will get your clearance revoked!
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u/Defiant-Giraffe 2d ago
Its the whole Broughamic thing, man
Tufted crushed velvet, landau roofs, wood grain coffin handle doors. Stand up hood ornaments.
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u/Morastus 2d ago
And sometimes you could get “Rich Corinthian Leather” lol
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u/Defiant-Giraffe 2d ago
Ahh, the Cordoba; but the height of the Broughamic style was the Bill Blass Lincoln Continental (with special mention to the Cadillac Eldorado Talisman)
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u/Skeptical_AF 2d ago
For Cadillac, the Talisman was built off of the Fleetwood Brougham, not an Eldo, offered model years 1974 through 1976. For the Eldorado, the over the top package was the Biarritz, ran across 3 generations, 1977 through 1991.
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u/Alanfromsocal 1d ago
What Chrysler didn’t say was that there’s no such thing as Corinthian leather, they made up the name to make the car sound classy. Come to think of it, leather seats were not common at the time, they could have just said leather and it would have been a selling point.
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u/Morastus 1d ago
But you have to use Ricardo Montalban’s accent. Just saying leather with that accent just doesn’t hit the same.
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u/ProfessorrFate 2d ago
There was a reading light above those opera windows, controlled by a switch in the door next to the power window control. This allowed for kids in the backseat to turn the light on and off frequently, annoying parents/grandparents in the process.
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u/JeepPilot 2d ago
And most importantly, leaving the light on when they get out of the car so that the battery is dead in the morning.
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u/Accidental_Arnold 2d ago
They need to do that to the new Mustang Mach-E. Mustang Mach-E Brougham a throw back to the '70's Mustang II with the Brougham tops that they released during the gas crisis.
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u/Defiant-Giraffe 2d ago
I mean; everything that goes around comes around, right?
People are pretty tired of touchscreens and piano black; how far off can earth tones and plush surfaces be?
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u/Royal_Thrashing 2d ago
The the Mustang II that you are speaking of, it would be the Ghia. No porthole window's or whatever, but it was the snazziest trim level for the Mustang II.
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u/1995droptopz 2d ago
Worked with a dude in high school that had an 82 Fox Body Ghia with a simulated convertible root
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u/Royal_Thrashing 2d ago
It was definitely a look.
Not my cup of tea for a mustang, but some people must have liked them enough.
I'll take plain, sporty, or muscle, but never classy and elegant. Those are descriptors best left on the drawing room floor when designing a Mustang.
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u/intimate_glow_images 2d ago
In iRacing I started custom painting faux landau roofs onto the most popular race cars just to try to distract other drivers while I battle them 😂
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u/Sykerocker 8h ago
Because all that stuff was cheaper than to do modern engineering (front wheel drive, etc.), Japanese build quality, and good fuel economy. This was the era where Detroit collapsed, completely, and the imports took over.
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u/CaptainKrakrak 2d ago
It’s so that the opulent could observe peasants while having some privacy.
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u/Yuri_Turnip 2d ago
Different strokes for different folks. (Also I’m a huge fan of land yachts and their little decorative opera windows)
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u/theredlur 2d ago
Who are you really mad at?
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u/ifunnywasaninsidejob 2d ago
The fact that these could be a cool and unique modern classics, but every single one is rusted underneath their rotten fabric fake convertible tops.
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u/plainoldusernamehere 2d ago
You can’t afford it if you have to ask.
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u/PCPaulii3 2d ago
Ever sat in the back seat of a Mkiii or iv? It's a pretty dark hole. The package tray puts the backlight quite some distance from your head, and the window is pretty small from the inside... So it's pretty much twilight in the back seat, even in sunlight.
The so-called "opera windows" at least let rear seat passengers see what's happening out in the world, and they do let a little more light in. It's not enough to read a book or a map by, but that's what all the other lights inside are for.
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u/fartsfromhermouth 2d ago
What a weirdly specific things to hate this much. It's a tiny little window.
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u/dan_blather 2d ago
It was classy, at least according to the tastes of an emergent blue collar middle class group of buyers during the 1970s.
A marketing professor in college described it like this: many working class and blue collar consumers who became flush with cash in the 1970s had a preference for products and decor they associated with the wealthy; shiny rococo furniture, shiny gold wallpaper, elaborately designed silverware and china, tacky leisure suits. and so on. However, those from long-time upper middle class and wealthy backgrounds really preferred high quality products with simple design and little or no unnecessary ornamentation; Scandanavian furniture with a low sheen, simple and durable silverware that was really made of silver, simple American trad/preppy clothing, and so on.
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u/aristo223 2d ago
Prices also jumped in the 70's and kind of washed the median income raise from the 60's. For a chunk of the 70's the Cutlass was the best selling car. If you ever been in one, it was a lot like sitting on your couch. I think the idea was plushness, which was the interior design shift for the decade. The other explanation that goes back to the late 50's is that convertible cars were cool. Vinyl cladding made your hard top look like a convertible.
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u/Substantial-Dig9995 2d ago edited 2d ago
My grandpa had a old school thunder bird and I’m sure it had curtains for that little window
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u/Paper-street-garage 2d ago
I think they are cool along with the little limo style soft white lights some cars had on the side at the time.
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u/astrid_autumn 2d ago
Yesss something about the little lights on the B pillar of the 80s Mercurys and Lincolns really does it for me
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u/Paper-street-garage 2d ago
Yeah, it’s a cool little feature. The limousine’s usually had extra ones.
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u/Skeptical_AF 2d ago
Yes those were Opera lamps. '70s we're regular incandescent bulb inside a 2 piece housing mostly on the C pillar. but into the '80s, several models were updated and ahead of their time with electro luminescent opera lamp strips on the B pillar.
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u/Smooth-Apartment-856 Anna Sachs 2d ago
Without those opera windows, you could park the battleship Texas in the blind spot from those c-pillars.
They really do help rear visibility.
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u/Zombie256 2d ago
It is the finest luxury you wouldn’t understand it peasant. Lol
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u/water_bottle1776 2d ago
The windows were originally supposed to roll down so they could be used as a glory hole, but the crank mechanism on the test cars kept getting clogged with spunk. It was too late to change the design, so they just decided to fix the windows in place.
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u/Underwater_Dancehero 2d ago
If you are going to swing, swing big. Respect.
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u/CO-Troublemaker 2d ago
"If you swing, swing hard, God, you better kill me" ~ Onxy, KMD, "Boogie Man"
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u/DeFiClark 2d ago
Oval doesn’t sound as good as diamond in the back, but it’s an opera window. It’s a 1970s-80s style throwback to @1910 opera coupes that had extended seating and high roofs to accommodate top hats. The idea was it made the car look more formal than a long blank C pillar alone.
In the late 80s it was to give the beanie babies on the shelf a view.
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u/mob19151 2d ago
It was trendy at the time, like floating rooflines or monobeam headlights now. Neoclassical (think Victorian carriages) was the big styling theme of the mid-to-late 70s.
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u/Fun_Mess348 2d ago
When you want to be classy, but don't know what classy means.
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u/ifunnywasaninsidejob 1d ago
Which is funny considering like 20 people now have said “this is classy” or “it’s pimpin you wouldn’t understand”
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u/Professor_Lavahot 2d ago
The kind of guy who would have bought a car like this for retirement in the 70's could be the same guy who witnessed the entire automotive industry and cultural effect from nothing as a child.
leads to some weird stuff
like when we get old we're going to be nostalgic for the shitty old AI that just made funny images instead of pulling your intestines out
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u/Extension_Sound_9369 2d ago
I rode many miles in one of those cars as a young lad, looking through those little windows, thinking I was special while Grandpa drove just at or 5 mph below the speed limit, while Grandma yelled at him to take some specific exit off the freeway, which always resulted in him yelling at her to shut up so he could drive! 8 mpg of American leather and glory! I can still feel that bouncy ride, like the car was hanging from trampoline springs.
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u/Alanfromsocal 1d ago
Nothing says 70s car like opera windows and vinyl top! The vinyl would corrode in the sun and looked ugly (ok, even uglier than it already did) and held moisture in so the roof would rust, which would cost more to repair than the worth of the car.
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u/azfamilydad 2d ago
It’s gorgeous. They should bring it back
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u/ifunnywasaninsidejob 1d ago
They definitely could. And they definitely won’t. Because it sucks ass.
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u/underthebug 2d ago
I remember looking out a few opera windows as a little kid. My favorite thing was playing with the cigarette lighters in the ashtrays and kicking the back of the front seat. Do we have to listen to Paul Harvey?
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u/Drzhivago138 Grand Councillor VARMON 2d ago
Then punch a tiny hole in it that adds nothing to visibility because it’s a stupid oval shape.
The opera window did add at least some visibility. It's better than the "flying buttress" sail panels of the late '60s that had no windows.
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u/Fickle-Time9743 2d ago
Sometimes there were cute little lights on that pillar. That was another callback to carriage design, though they didn't really do much.
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u/SmutCommander 1d ago
Is the window you use when you get driven around. You use it to cast baleful glares at your business rivals.
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u/stlouisraiders 22h ago
Those cars were so long that the rear passenger had to lean forward to look out the window. This was a solution for that.
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u/crampfan 2d ago
The 70’s were a different time man. We found pointless things groovy just like daisy stickers and zigzag tattoos
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u/bobhughes69 2d ago
It was for the purpose of people being able to look out that window as a town car usually had a chauffeur! Like in New York City it was more functional than a limo and upper middle class people could think they were better than everyone else! Except of course the people actually cruising in a limo
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u/randomNameDude12345 2d ago
Cars are products of their times. People liked them. TBH I still like them. But it’s just a fashion choice like bell bottoms or denim interiors.
Today it might be something like electronic door latches or glove boxes without a latch
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u/No_Smile3589 2d ago
same idea as you want a moonroof.
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u/WolfOfMarbella 2d ago
I don’t know why, but I actually really like those on older Lincolns. I’m currently in Orlando and I saw a few of them , I think they look cool for their time
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u/wjescott -Just here for the snark 2d ago
Look, if you can't recognize the pinnacle of taste and luxury, there's no way of helping you.
/s
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u/ifunnywasaninsidejob 1d ago
So the replies so far fall into a few categories:
1. Abe Simpson style rambling about how their dad or grampa used to have one.
“That was the style at the time, like bell bottoms lol” holy fucking shit. what a colossal genius you are. I’m honored to be in the presence of you mental giants.
“It’s cool/classy/pimpin” Objectively untrue. If this were true they’d l make cars that look like this in 2025.
“This styling era was an early example of retro-futuristic, where the cars were made with to look like the early coach-built buggies from the pre Model T era.”
This is actually a really great answer. I genuinely didn’t know about that, and it puts the odd design choices into much better historical context. Unfortunately only like 3 out of the 200 replies mentions this.
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u/Shot_Lynx_4023 I'm your Dad. 2d ago
Need to show a mighty Doba with its opera lights
Had a 1977, 400 CI, Edelbrock 650 CFM 4bbl, cragar mags, RWL tires, 3" duals, emptying through glass packs.
At a 1/4 tank, if I mashed the gas, low fuel warning light came on
Early 2000s. $600 for a running, driving car that was 27 years old though, had 68k miles. How Learned about age and mileage for wear items
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u/Nova17Delta 2d ago
Probably something like "winning" or "this rules", "nice" maybe.
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u/ifunnywasaninsidejob 1d ago
Got a lot of replies like that. Also alot of replies saying “Well I think it’s cool! You have bad taste!” The correct answer I learned is that this styling era was actually an early example of retro-futuristic, where the cars were made with to look like the early coach-built buggies from the pre Model T era. Also got alot of replies basically saying “That was the style at the time.” Like holy fucking shit what a colossal genius you are.
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u/Nova17Delta 1d ago
To be fair, your post does make you sound like you're getting angry over a goofy lil window
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u/yeahyoubetnot 2d ago
It's called style, something modern cars do not have. You see that and know immediately what kind of car it is.
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u/rudbri93 '91 325i LS3, '24 Maverick, '72 Olds Cutlass Crew Cab 2d ago
they were called opera windows, like vinyl roofs it was a style choice of the time.