Just a fun thing I wrote. Please let me know if you disagree:

Snoozeville! 5 Dullest Cars of the Past 40 Years - The Daily Drive | Consumer Guide®

 

I certainly don't disagree with your choices but, there could have been 10 or even 20 dull cars of the time period. Mid 70's to mid 80's was a horrible time frame for American automakers. They were looking for more power and efficiency while doing battle with the insurance companies, and the EPA was breaking their nuggets for stricter emissions that ultimately strangled otherwise good running engines.

I'd like to add the Dodge Omni, Pontiac Transport and it's siblings, Ford Tempo, Chevy Citation, rear wheel drive Datsuns and Toyotas and the Yugo just for laughs.

 

Hats off to you for being able to boil the list down to just 5. I would have trouble pruning the list much below 25, if that.

 

K Car comes to mind.

 

I can certainly vouch for the Fairmont being dull. My grandfather had one with an 6 cylinder/auto combo and it wouldn't even spin the tires in gravel! Seriously? It looked boring inside and out, was boring to drive and in all honesty I cannot imagine Ford selling more than one. How anyne could drive that thing and think, "Yeah, I like it!" enough to actually pay to own one is beyond me...

 

Because your other options are a Chevy Citation or a Plymouth Fury.
At it's core, though, it's a Fox chassis waiting to be exploited. I want to take one, build a wickedly high revving 289 and shove that in with a five speed manual. Keep it fairly stock looking on the outside but it may need bigger wheels to fit bigger brakes, electric cutouts, and then go around scaring people. Go from a mild little grandma car to fire breathing pair of taillights in the distance in seconds-

 

Pinto station wagon, and chebby vega comes to mind. Unless either one might have a small block V8 in it.

 

Introduced in 1978, Fairmont/Zephyr were the first Fox bodied cars. Standard equipment was the 2.3L SOHC 4, optional engines: 200 I-6, 255 & 302 V8's. Discontinued at the end of the 1983 model run.

Restyled kissin' cousins: 1983/86 (mid-sized) LTD & Mercury Marquis. 1985/86 LTD's were available with the Mustang 5.0L HO, many were used as police cruisers.

A private company offered a Fairmont pickup ala Ranchero. Using the Fairmont Futura as a base, they removed the decklid, back glass, rear body panel.

Modified the Fairmont wagon tailgate, welded in new sheet metal for front panel and inner bedsides, bed floor. Sales were poor, so it didn't last very long. I forget what name it went by.

Foxes: 1978/83 Fairmont/Zephyr / 1979/91 Mustang/Capri / 1980/97 Thunderbird/Cougar / 1982/87 Continental Sedan / 1983/86 LTD/Marquis / 1984/98 Continental Mark VII/VIII / 1992/2002? Mustang.

 

This...

end of thread

 

That was called the Durango. One really bad oversite was that the rear lights were on the tailgate, so when the gate was down there were no lights to the rear.

 

I think the biggest oversight was the fact someone actually put time and money into a Fairmont to try and make it worthwhile to own. Sorry, there was only one Fairmont in history worth owning, Bob Glidden's undefeated '78 Pro/Stocker, but it's a long way from anything available from the dealership...

 

Last night at Samʻs Club a BEAT TO HECK Tempo parked next to my truck, I
was put back when I read the Tempo name plate on that thing, I forgot
about that gem produced by FoMoCo.

 

Dull, yes - but damn tough cars...

Some years back, a friend of mine and I took his Aries K out on a fishing trip - as with any good fishing trip, we didn't rely too much on roads. At one point, we found ourselves barreling through some kind of grain field - we had no idea were we were going (literally), but we had fun getting there...

We actually tried to kill that car but it refused to die...

I think it did, eventually, die - but I can't remember what killed it...

 

I used to transport those "gems" in the early 90's... We were also transporting other makes besides Fords and, given how minimalistic the Tempo/Topaz was, I still preferred to get in one of them rather than the Chevys...

 

Remember CAB FORWARD design?
http://www.allpar.com/photos/eagle/vision/vision.jpg

I never understood it or let alone noticed the difference.

I remember in the 70s, Ford selling the square sharp edges as aerodynamic?

I do have fond memories of driving a Fairmont - Dark blue with white vinyl roof

and white interior.