Americans made really good cars back then too.
My first car bought in the late 70s cost more in repairs than the original price of the car new.
It was a Ford.
They made lots of money fixing it and the unions made out great too, till those evil Japanese showed up and sold us cars that worked.
Man I have those sneaky Japs. It was like Pearl Harbor II
ford got way better when they partnered with mazda in the early 90s. electrical systems got waaaaaaay better.
Yeah, every once in awhile you’d get a Fix Or Repair Daily,
But..mostly they were First On Race Day cars.
As you can guess, I come from a long line of Ford owners.
My Dad’s father was a Dodge and VW owner. 1967 Dart. It got up to about 165K on it, still looking new and running great, but he figured he’d get a new one and “save” on replacing a bunch of stuff like shocks, brakes, etc...
Enter the 1976 Dodge Aspen... The Enemy of Grandad. After 26 times in the shop in ~ the first 6 months he actually got the dealer to give him his money back.
Ended up buying 2 VW Rabbits, the “Champagne Edition” gasoline one, and a diesel one. That dealer actually offered to pay him more than he paid for them about a year later when the second gas crunch hit (he kept them).