Malaise era

Malaise Era refers to the period of American-made vehicles in model years 1973 to 1983, when changing government regulations and customer preferences initiated a focus on fuel efficiency. American automakers had a hard time competing with the smaller, efficient import cars.

This time corresponds with significantly increased oversight of the automotive industry by the US Department of Transportation in response to the 1973 oil crisis and 1979 energy crisis. The resulting vehicles were significantly less powerful and slow due to new emissions restrictions being applied to older, heavier vehicle designs which also often included aggressively detuning the existing large engine designs to meet regulations and deliver desired efficiency.

Effects

Before the 1973 oil crisis, the most popular cars were large, heavy, and powerful. In 1971, the standard motor for a very common model of car (the Chevrolet Caprice) was a 400-cubic inch (6.5 liter) V8, which achieved no more than 15 highway miles per gallon, and even less with any of the other optional, more powerful engines...^[1]

With skyrocketing oil and gas prices (the price of oil in the US had more than quadrupled)^[2] due to the OPEC oil embargo in late 1973, the much smaller, far more efficient Japanese and European cars (which utilized four-cylinder engines, unibody construction, and, most, front-wheel drive) dramatically increased in popularity. American automakers' attempts at compensating were relatively poorly received, as the offered vehicles were still much heavier and less efficient. Additionally, import automakers introduced North America only models that were somewhat larger (though not as large as most American brand models) to appeal to existing preferences.

With the 1979 energy crisis, oil and gas prices again increased significantly (doubling over a 12-month period), the automotive industry saw a further shift in customer preference to smaller, more efficient vehicles and American automakers began introducing a series of smaller, less powerful models to more directly compete against particularly the Japanese offerings.^[3]

Origin

The first documented use of the phrase "Malaise era" was by automotive journalist and photographer Murilee Martin early in his tenure at Jalopnik,^[4][5]

The term is in reference to the commonly-used name of a televised speech given in 1979 by then-President Jimmy Carter, also known as the "Crisis of Confidence" speech.^[5]

References