How did American and other Western tanks of the Cold War, in, say, 1985, compare to their Soviet counterparts?

by Regnasam

Although I enjoy looking at statistics and characteristics on my own relating to this subject, I'm never quite sure who to believe. Some sources say that T-80BVs and such were on par with, if not superior to, say, the M1 Abrams, but others say that Soviet tanks were utter garbage. Which side of this is the truth? Is it somewhere in the middle?

StannisSAS

A similar question was answered by /u/grumpusfelinicus, /u/The_Chieftain_WG, /u/Bacarruda.