Oh, yes, the cars from England, they still make me dream, although I was just a preteen in the Seventies 😀
Still, even then I read about their quality issues.
I became, hovever, a car nut at nine. This passion, as I can remember, was ignited by one of my first car magazines over here from 1977, which featured a title story on Rolls-Royce. And I immediately started dreaming of the then brand-new Silver Shadow II 😄, though I might have had a hard time reaching the floorboard then…
I also admired the 1979 Chevy Caprice Classic Estate which friends of my parents owned. Unencumbered by a catalyst, with no emission laws in Europe at the time, the engine pulled powerfully, too. So much room, and so very exciting and exotic over here!
I think my dad had one of those! Heh, he let me borrow it one time, and I drove it into work and the car started acting strange...especially when I slowed down the car at stop signs and would hear an odd rattling noise, and when I went around corners the car acted VERY strange.
I pulled the car over several times to examine the front end, but couldn’t see anything wrong.
When I pulled into the parking lot at work the odd handling was so pronounced with noise and the wheel jerking...when I got out, the front right tire was slanted at a 45 degree angle from the vertical, and there were two lug nuts holding it on, and both of those were ready to snap off.
Apparently, the rattling sound was due to the broken lug nuts that were motionless when the car was in motion due to the centrifugal force, but when you slowed, they all rattled as they fell to the bottom of the hub cap. And the weird handling going around corners was because the tire was ready to fall off!!!