"The Hondas and Toyotas ("Toymotors") contemporary with Vegas, Pintos, Gremlins, and Escorts sucked as much as the US cars."
I can't agree with you there, Big Dave. The first American sub-compact cars were dreadful micro-clunkers while the Japanese brands (Toyotas, Subies and Datsuns, mostly) were comparitively well thought out and efficient. They were not the rock-solid machines they are today ... but they were better than the atrocious Vegas and Pintos.
And the Hondas and Toyotas that were contemporaries of Escorts, Tourismos Citations and Cavaliers WERE very good cars (we're talking 80s here).
That's how the Japanese brands got their start ... intelligently engineering small cars in the 60s and 70s. They weren't perfect, but they were not that bad ... and the companies learned a lot by making them and improving them over the years. And once they had that market segment covered they (slowly) went larger and more upscale with all the knowledge and experience they had gained.
The American companies went the other way. Large, V8-powered sedans (which were were rather clunky) worked well enough for the average motorist and certainly were durable if cared for ... but when you downsized everything to sub-compact size, it showed how rough and vague the engineering and craftsmanship really was.
American companies continued to make full scale barges in the 70s, lightened, tin-metal barges in the 80s and by the 90s they were just coming to the realization that the smaller cars were the future of the industry ... but all their profits were still in pick-ups and SUVs. That was fine when we had $1.25 per gallon gas ... but things are very different now.
I own GM stock and hope they turn it around ... but that's far from certain. They and their brothers are simply coming to the party VERY late.
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--- Bror Jace
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