WHERE WERE YOU IN 1984?

02 October 2024

Lancaster Insurance will be celebrating its 40th birthday at the Classic Motor Show at the NEC this November. Here are 25 reminders of life in 1984.

White car

  1. Nineteen eighty-four was the year of the Austin Montego, as well as the Alfa Romeo 90, Alpine-Renault, Austin Metro Mk. II, Bentley Eight, Ferrari Testarossa, Lada Samara, Lancia Thema, Mercedes-Benz W124, Nissan 300C, Reliant Scimitar SS1, Renault Espace, Rover 200, Saab 9000, SEAT Ibiza, Skoda Rapid, Toyota MR2, TVR 390SE, Vauxhall Astra Mk. 2 and Volvo 740.
  2. The average weekly wage was £159.30.
  3. A sample of new car prices for 1984: Ford Fiesta Popular – £3,560, Mini City E – £3,107, Nissan Micra GL – £4,250, Vauxhall Nova 1.0L – £4,372, Austin Metro 1.0 HLE – £4,600, Morris Ital 1.7 SLX – £5,115, Volvo 240DL – £7,720, Vauxhall Carlton 2.0i CD – £9,422, Rover SD1 Vitesse – £15,249 and Daimler Double Six S3 – £24,991.
  4. The Flying Pickets’ version of Only You was the first No.1 record of 1984. The last was Do They Know Its Christmas by Band Aid.
  5. A gallon of Esso Four-Star petrol was £179.60.
  6. Beer cost 72p per pint, 500g of Stork SB was 42p, five Jaffa grapefruit were 59p, a large wholemeal loaf of bread was 43p, a pint of milk was 20p and one pound of cheddar was 92p.
  7. Classic car prices: a 1961 Aston Martin DB4 might set you back £7,995, a Ford Cortina Lotus Mk. II £1,450 or a Jaguar 3.8 Mk.2 £2,500.
  8. If you wanted to take your car and three other people on the Southampton-Le Havre P&O ferry, the cost was £206.
  9. Alternatively, a coach trip abroad with six nights’ accommodation and a “Continental coach with experienced driver with reclining seats and forced air ventilation for all of the Continental portion of your holiday” was £139.
  10. Sales slogans for 1984: Austin Montego – “The Car That Puts The Driver First”, Rover 213 – “Born To Be Driven – Bred To Be Rover” and Lada – “Now you don’t have to settle for second hand.”
  11. New words for 1984: “laptop” and “search engine”.
  12. Nineteen eighty-four saw the demise of two famous car marques, Morris and Triumph, with production ceasing of the Ital and the Acclaim.
  13. New television programmes for 1984: Alas Smith and Jones, The Bill, A Box of Delights, Crimewatch UK, Ever Decreasing Circles, The Jewel in the Crown, The Price is Right, Robin of Sherwood, Sherlock Holmes, Spitting Image, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and The Tripods.
  14. On the 29th of January, The Observer reported: “UK set to get Nissan plant”. The factory site would be either Humberside, South Wales or Sunderland.
  15. The output of the UK’s car factories was 750,000 cars.
  16. The Ford Escort was the country’s most popular new car, with the Vauxhall Cavalier in second place and the Ford Fiesta in third.
  17. The fleet car market was estimated to be between £7 billion and £8 billion per year.
  18. The UK was the second largest market in Europe for Japanese cars after the former West Germany.
  19. The BBC1 evening schedule for Saturday the 5th of May: The Dukes of Hazzard, followed by The News, Regional News and Sport, the very bad film Airport ’77 and the Eurovision Song Contest.
  20. ITV evening viewing for Saturday the 28th of January in the TVS region: Fraggle Rock, followed by Knight Rider, Child’s Play, hosted by Michael Aspel, 3-2-1, and J. Hooker, with William Shatner at his most Shatner-like.
  21. Colin Baker becomes the Sixth Doctor on the 16th of March.
  22. The Fiat Uno is Car of the Year 1984.
  23. The government announced the replacement of CSE and GCE O-level examinations with the GCSE – General Certificate of Secondary Education – with the first sittings in 1988.
  24. The most bizarre television commercial of the year: that British Pork advert, starring Anthony Dutton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0wDjWOnHcY
  25. And should you want to celebrate the weekend by dining at your local Berni Inn on Friday night, a prawn cocktail was £1.15, a “10oz Prime Rump Steak” (with chips) was £6.25, the “Berni Meringue Fountain” was 90p and the coffee was 34p per cup.

With thanks to Sean Greenwood for his time and permission to use the images in this blog.