1978 was about the time the domestic auto industry really lost the plot. It was bad before, but only incrementally.
Up to this point, having a transmission fail was a relative rarity on a new car. This was the start of it becoming commonplace. Cars got seriously downsized, the sheet metal got markedly thinner. Rust started to be structural and not just body panels. I was a kid back then, and into cars. Watched it happen and heard my adult relatives complain as they noticed.
Not to mention that was about when my Dad started getting laid off every couple of years and moving from company to company. His former employer had one of the largest buildings in the world at the time and was an industrial powerhouse for almost 50 years. In 1978 they moved the HQ from Cleveland to LA and by 1982 they were gone as was most of the industry in Cleveland OH. There was a mall where the plant was that's since been torn down for an Amazon warehouse.
1978 was about the time the domestic auto industry really lost the plot. It was bad before, but only incrementally.
Up to this point, having a transmission fail was a relative rarity on a new car. This was the start of it becoming commonplace. Cars got seriously downsized, the sheet metal got markedly thinner. Rust started to be structural and not just body panels. I was a kid back then, and into cars. Watched it happen and heard my adult relatives complain as they noticed.
Not to mention that was about when my Dad started getting laid off every couple of years and moving from company to company. His former employer had one of the largest buildings in the world at the time and was an industrial powerhouse for almost 50 years. In 1978 they moved the HQ from Cleveland to LA and by 1982 they were gone as was most of the industry in Cleveland OH. There was a mall where the plant was that's since been torn down for an Amazon warehouse.