Why are late 70s American cars so fucking bad

They're comfy as fuck though

>>16480962
seems fine to me, what are you on about?

Emissions control.
Shiftless unions.
IDGAF QC.

>>16480962
Sorry, can't hear you over how fucking beautiful that thing is

File: DSC_0027.jpg (2MB, 3264x2448px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3264x2448px

>>16480962
Stay mad

File: WEWLADS.jpg (43KB, 605x324px) Image search: [Google]

43KB, 605x324px

>>16480962
HEY

hey goys

hey

have you ever noticed that cars are a reflection of their time?
>LBJ admin
the golden age of american auto
>Nixon, Ford and Carter admins
comfy ass cars that set the stage for fucking up
>Reagan/Bush admins
exploitative roger and me shitboxes; based JDM designs errywhere
>clinton admin
based NAFTA vehicles (cheap decent fords from mexico and canada) and golden years of the import shitbox
>bush admin
return of the hot hatch, diesel rises again
>obama admin
prii in force, muh pedestrian safety, tesla
>trump admin
>Coal liquefaction?

>>16480962
a number of reasons.
1: The EPA cucked everything in terms of performance with emissions controls. Manufacturers couldn't design around this until the late 80's
2: Unions with uncaring workers had the car companies by the balls. High wages and low quality resulted.
3: Too many old people in the corporate management side of things. This had to be the biggest problem. The people in charge didn't want to innovate. They didn't want to rock the boat. They thought emissions controls, high gas prices, and small fuel efficient cars were a fad that would die out in a year or two. So the corporate structure was heavily resistant to change and refused to see threats for what they were.
It wasn't until a decade later when small fuel efficient cars were still popular, and emissions regulations had held firm that they realized something had to be done.

>>16480962
New smog regulations combined with lazy engineering.
Instead of making a smaller, more efficient engine that would fit the new laws they just detuned the existing ones to hell.

take what were already shit cars and make laws that make them be even more shit while trying to be as cheap as possible meanwhile youre paying your workers like shit so they dont give a shit about their job

tldr American industry is shit

File: challenge_this.jpg (173KB, 1024x768px) Image search: [Google]

173KB, 1024x768px

>>16481870
This.

Manufacturers didn't see the fuel crisis or emissions laws coming so they hadn't invested in new technologies and the only way they could manage was to detune the massive engines they already had. It took many years of R&D to get to a reasonable point.

My favorite part was the late 70's when they sold "captive imports" such as pic related - actually a rebadged mitsubishi galant.

>>16481012
>other car makers adapt to emissions just fine
>blame emissions anyway
STOP EXPECTING US TO CHANGE, WE'RE DETROIT AND WE'RE LAZY

>>16481906
this

>tfw Honda took a Chevy and made it pass emissions without a catalytic converter