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It would be nice if we didn't crap up this thread with the typical Moparts back & forth "My $70,000 luxury car is better/faster/more stylish than your $70,000 luxury car" and just answered the guy's question.

If you really want to attempt something interesting, consider a take that includes the change in American society occurring at the same time a new generation of Americans suddenly found not only foreign cars, but pretty much any consumer product from another nation to be superior.

It's no coincidence that the culture wars of the later 60s cast large American companies in the role of "the man", "the establishment", and therefore worthy of scorn and rebellion. In 1945, American companies spoke with pride about the number of tanks, planes, bombs, etc. produced in their factories to beat back Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan. By the later 60s, "war machines" were the last thing you wanted associated with your company.

But it wouldn't really matter. Your uncle drove a Chrysler (or an Oldsmobile) watched a big wooden Zenith TV, and probably dropped out of school during the depression. He was a little rough around the edges, told some racist jokes, and wore a short hair cut. Your college professor drove a Volkswagen (or a Toyota) watched a small plastic Panasonic TV, was highly educated, refined and (at least publicly) claimed to believe in equality.

The truth is, the first imported-to-US consumer products were junk. My '70 Dart-driving mother often said if she had a dime for each time she had to rescue her VW-driving friend, she could have paid for the car. I had an oddball-uncle who bought a '78 Honda and after a couple Michigan winters, it had rusted so badly the doors wouldn't open. Honda's with the early CVCC engine would smoke after a few thousand miles. Mazda's rotary engines were such a disaster only a 15% investment from Ford saved the company. Chrysler nearly purchased Mitsubishi when the parent company was almost ready to give up manufacturing cars. Toyota actually withdrew from the US market for 8-years. BMW was nearly bought out by Mercedes. Fiat gave up on the US. So did the French. British makes simply went out of business.

Yet a few found a market, and that market was based more on perceptions about the BUYERS of product than the actual product itself. I just watched an episode of the mid-70s American TV show "Maude", an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman living in suburban Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York The show was created by Norman Lear, a well-known politically liberal man. In this episode, the writers made an obvious effort to describe the well-educated, handsome character as the driver of a Toyota. This struck me as odd, since TV shows (especially in that era) would never mention a specific brand of car... To the point of being ridiculous and having a mechanic describe a getaway car to the police as a "white sedan". In another Norman Lear show, (All in the Family) the Gloria character (always smarter than her father) is mentioned several times as driving a Toyota. I don't believe these were coincidences, and these were HUGELY popular shows.

The automotive press of the day was much the same. Read a review of American luxury cars from the early 70s and you'll find more references to "bourgeoisie" and "establishment" than a communist rally. Consumers Union is the policy and action division of Consumer Reports.

From Wikipedia:

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Consumers Union's predecessor, Consumers' Research, was founded in 1926.[3] In 1936, Consumers Union was founded[4] by Arthur Kallet, Colston Warne, and others who felt that the established Consumers' Research organization was not aggressive enough. Kallet, an engineer and director of Consumers' Research, had a falling out with F.J. Schlink and started his own organization with Amherst College economics professor Colston Warne. In part due to actions of Consumers' Research, the House Un-American Activities Committee placed Consumers Union on a list of subversive organizations, only to remove it in 1954.

Prominent consumer advocate Ralph Nader was on the board of directors, but left in 1975 due to a "division of philosophy" with new Executive Director Rhoda Karpatkin.[5] Nader wanted Consumers Union to focus on policy and product advocacy, while Karpatkin focused on product testing

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Mother Jones magazine (hardly a magazine for squares) broke the story on "exploding Pintos" and those evil Detroit executives who would rather burn innocent Pinto owners than spend an extra $3 per car. Too bad the Rutger's Law Review showed Pintos to be statistically AVERAGE for fires after a rear-end collision, and the only time a dollar amount was put on a human life was in a study done by the US government to establish damages... Not beforehand by Ford execs who sent their own kids off to college in Pintos.

Believe it or not, there WERE people in the 1960s and 70s who wanted to see these huge symbols of American capitalism FAIL, and create opportunity in the middle of the economic chaos.

Against this backdrop of social change, came a wave of early 70s government regulation that ensured many Americans would have a negative experience, as opposed to a "love affair" with their automobile. Let's not forget the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 imposed by Arab nations as punishment for US support of Israel.

American companies never made much of an effort to penetrate foreign markets (therefore broadening their product line up, and making them better prepared for a run-up of gas prices) because they were met with protectionist measures... Sometimes these measures to halt imports were ironic legacies of the Marshall plan to rebuild European and Japanese industry!

In summary... Were there crappy American cars built in the 70s/80s? Undeniably. But for every Vega there was a Mazda with worn rotor seals burning oil. For every Toyota with 200,000 miles on the 22r, there is a Buick with 200k on the 3800 V6.

Chrysler's manufacturing in particular was barely functional by the late 70s, and luckily they didn't have the money to re-design their chassis/engine/transmission designs from the 60s. What engineering dollars were available (at all the American producers) went into designing anti-pollution equipment which didn't become mandatory in Europe until the early 90s (Euro I, 1993).

Any paper should include these points, or it risks becoming just another rehash of mainstream media pablum. I recommend this webpage in particular:

http://www.fairimage.org/historyofinnovation.htm

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Very good post