25th Aug 2017, 15:49
Its important to separate emotion versus facts here. GM, Ford and Chrysler all went through some rather nasty growing pains in the 70s and 80s. While the trucks were pretty solid, along with some of their older still-existent platforms of the time, all 3 of them had to more or less completely revamp their product lines. Yes, part of it had to do with emissions, which is good: untreated exhaust and lead gasoline aren't good for anybody, but the bigger challenge was that suddenly Japanese automakers started making some serious dents in their market dominance.
It takes a long time to turn such huge companies around, and often times it can get ugly. All of those companies had to develop vehicles they had little experience with. Mostly with FWD architecture and unibody frames. I distinctly recall that pretty much most people I knew back then with an American car were at the shop a LOT, my parents and grandparents included. This was all during the early 80s when many of the cars being introduced were totally new and untested.
But now? Sure. I'd have no issue buying any number of either American or overseas brands and feel fairly confident in it too. It's not like it matters that much anyway, since at this point all of the parts suppliers have been consolidated into just a few companies such as Bosch, Denso and Delphi. That and the cars themselves are comprised of a mix of parts from around the globe. Heck - my Volt is assembled in the US and is about 45% domestic content; the rest coming from Korea, Japan, a few European countries and probably Canada, Mexico and China. I don't care. The car does what it's supposed to do.
25th Aug 2017, 10:23
The 80s were a great decade with the economy. Some call it the excessive 80s. We went through some cars, likely a dozen during that period, as business was great. The most unusual vehicle looking back was a new 84 Dodge Caravan, 2 tone blue and silver, 3 seater. It was a new design with the 6. Shows how tastes change over time. Now we have Crossovers to choose from. This was a new idea vehicle at the time. Something different. We had it a few years and I don't recall it costing us maintenance wise on anything major. We had sports cars and sedans as well. Our best overall in the 80s reliability wise were our Legend and 280zx.