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European car mfrs could never really compete with America and later Japan, S. Korea, and Taiwan, except in small specialty markets for luxury and sport cars (the VW Beetle aside..it created its own market). It's still true today. The reasons are higher labor costs and boy scout marketing practices.
But wait, weren't Japan's major cities bombed back into the stone age in WWII? And as I recall, by the mid-70s they were outselling American mfrs in some markets. Meanwhile, Fiat, Alfa-Romeo, Renault, Peugot, and GM Europe pulled out of American markets and virtually every UK sports car mfr. had also pulled out or went into bankruptcy) and Citroen did after it's diesel cars bombed in the early-mid 80s (along with US diesels).
What was left? Deutchland Uber Alles: VW, Mercedes, BMW (at first by the skin of their teeth), Porsche and Audi. Their labor costs are now declining and their marketing model(s) are now precise, so much so that American mfrs hardly compete in their markets.
What market did Japan beat American in the 70's? Ford Pinto sold more the half a million in 1974 alone.
I don't know what is more strange. This weird fixation on World War II as it relates to auto manufacture or the idea that the Pinto was somehow equal to other small cars of the time. It wasn't even up to the standards of a Plymouth Horizon, let alone a Civic of that era.
The Plymouth Horizon and the Dodge Omni were made to look like the VW Rabit. Chrysler and VW have a long history working together. VW made some of the engine's. In fact VW had a plant in sterling hgts Michigan and Chrysler had a plant in New Stanton Pa. Then in the late 70's VW took over the New Stanton plant and Chrysler took over the sterling hgts plant. The Sterling hgts plant makes the Chrysler 200. Witch was originally the Chrysler sebring. Also the Mazda 6 is made on the same line as the Fusion. So you see all the auto companies work together. The Dodge Journey has a Marcedes chassis. Also the VW Routan van is a doge caravan made by Chrysler.
American cars were at their best from the 50's-60's, and to some extent well into the 70's depending on the model of vehicle.
If you look at most of the big 3 makes starting around the 67 model year, you see a lot more plastic and cost cutting being implemented during those years of cars which had a lot to do with the strict government safety regulations regarding dashboard components being made safer because too many people were getting killed because of all the hard metal and chromed out out interior trim. So a lot of the detail, almost beautiful crafted jewelry like interiors from cars of the 50's to about 65 were gone.
Exterior trim were cheapened up especially during the 70's. The Oil crisis which increased the cost of materials like raw steel, plastic and other goods forced the automakers to reduce content and lowered it's quality in the cars they built.
70's American full size cars were still good cars, but not great like they were a decade prior. But the big 3 truly lost it's styling flare and true classic designs towards the mid to late 60's.
This is why you hardly see 70's classics at car shows really, when some do warrant a space or 2, but they're simply looked down upon, especially the era where drugs, economic crisis, inflation, and pollution regulations were literally ruining the entire US fleet of cars that made them unreliable, and the social issues during that era sorta contributed to the way the cars were being made. Nobody gave a damn.
The Plymouth Horizon and the Dodge Omni were made to look like the VW Rabit.
I would say that the Omni/Horizon only looks much like a Rabbit because it was built to function very much like a Rabbit - which, you guessed it, was arguably a copy of the BMC Mini.
American cars were at their best from the 50's-60's, and to some extent well into the 70's depending on the model of vehicle.
If you look at most of the big 3 makes starting around the 67 model year, you see a lot more plastic and cost cutting being implemented during those years of cars which had a lot to do with the strict government safety regulations regarding dashboard components being made safer because too many people were getting killed because of all the hard metal and chromed out out interior trim. So a lot of the detail, almost beautiful crafted jewelry like interiors from cars of the 50's to about 65 were gone.
Exterior trim were cheapened up especially during the 70's. The Oil crisis which increased the cost of materials like raw steel, plastic and other goods forced the automakers to reduce content and lowered it's quality in the cars they built.
70's American full size cars were still good cars, but not great like they were a decade prior. But the big 3 truly lost it's styling flare and true classic designs towards the mid to late 60's.
This is why you hardly see 70's classics at car shows really, when some do warrant a space or 2, but they're simply looked down upon, especially the era where drugs, economic crisis, inflation, and pollution regulations were literally ruining the entire US fleet of cars that made them unreliable, and the social issues during that era sorta contributed to the way the cars were being made. Nobody gave a damn.
Also don't forget the federal govt. had a big impact on car design because of the EPA and the fule economy standards. The big 3 are heavily regulated to meet certain mpg standards, they had to start to use different materials to make vehicles lighter, but also strong enough to pass federal crash test. My father was a skilled trades for GM. In the middle 60's he worked on the padded dashboard project for GM. They called it the crash pad project. The first cars to have padded dash boards came out very hard. They GM could not come up with the right material at first to make them soft. Remember padded dash was orderd by the federal govt. for people involved in a front end crash, so there head would be some what protected if it hit the dash. So this is why cars and trucks are made with so much plastic and other materials. Thank our federal govt.
I would say that the Omni/Horizon only looks much like a Rabbit because it was built to function very much like a Rabbit - which, you guessed it, was arguably a copy of the BMC Mini.
The dodge omni/Horizon were designed by Simca Chrysler bought them in 1970. Simca was the French division for Chrysler. I had a Omnie with the 1.7 motor. I also worked for Chrysler in the late 70's at there warren truck assembly plant. I worked there when the little red truck and the Warlock were hot sellers. Also the Ramcharger and the Powerwagon.
Last edited by Vannort54; 07-09-2014 at 04:53 AM..
I would say that the Omni/Horizon only looks much like a Rabbit because it was built to function very much like a Rabbit - which, you guessed it, was arguably a copy of the BMC Mini.
The 2 door Omni/Horizon don't look anything like a Rabbit.
Also don't forget the federal govt. had a big impact on car design because of the EPA and the fule economy standards. The big 3 are heavily regulated to meet certain mpg standards, they had to start to use different materials to make vehicles lighter, but also strong enough to pass federal crash test. My father was a skilled trades for GM. In the middle 60's he worked on the padded dashboard project for GM. They called it the crash pad project. The first cars to have padded dash boards came out very hard. They GM could not come up with the right material at first to make them soft. Remember padded dash was orderd by the federal govt. for people involved in a front end crash, so there head would be some what protected if it hit the dash. So this is why cars and trucks are made with so much plastic and other materials. Thank our federal govt.
The Feds Effed everything up. I am all for crash safety, but it did spell the end for lavish well assembled interiors of cars from about 65 model year down. The quality is noticeable too in the materials. An early 60's Cadillac to about 64 or 65 had nice fitted trim, chrome everywhere, more metal inside, but flash forward to 68, and all that was slowly replaced with cheaper feeling vinyl and lighter-weight materials.
Similar situation over at Lincoln, the 61-65 interiors are awesome, very high quality, and beautifully done, but by 66 or 67, less flash and more plastic invaded those models, so I do believe our government had a huge impact on vehicle styling towards the end of the 60's which are much more subdued compared to the 50's- early 60's flashiness and fun that car designers had during a time when they could literally draw something up, and build the exact copy in an assembly plant without hardly modifying the original design because of government pressure and regulations affecting it.
This is why modern American cars will never ever become true classics like the ones from the 30's-60's are. The quality was better back then, more chrome, more steel, doors, hoods, interior trim felt more way substantial, more design freedom, less restriction on styling, big block V8 power and the list goes on.
Modern cars don't have the artistic expression, sculptured like appeal like the classics have, and they never will.
Prewar American classics are no doubt gorgeous cars, but personally the majority of them look stodgy. and I don't see a market for these cars in another 30 years when my generation starts to become old as people my age are mostly into sporty cars, mainly Beemers, Honda's, Nissan, so even 50's-60's classics are not on their radar and probably never will be in the future unfortunately .
It's going to have to take Hollywood to start featuring more classic cars into their movies as advertising them as being "Cool" and "Different" to truly get young people interested in them again.
But the 2 door did, and that's the original design when they first came out, I had one know.
No, the 4 door came out first for the '78 model year. The 2 door was introduced in the '79 model year.
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