Times we live in.

DFX 340 Duster said
Ahh yes, Made In America. It did mean something 'back in the day".

Post World War II, the US of A was the ONLY industrialized nation not to have its industry bombed into oblivion. We enjoyed economic dominance throughout the 1950s and things were built to last.

As the rest of the world rebuilt their economies in the 1960s, competition from other countries began to creep into the US markets. The age of plastics allowed cheaper parts to be made in the late 1960s.

In the 1970s, foreign products began to seriously challenge home-grown US products. VW Beetles were more reliable than the Ford Pinto. The Toyotoa mini-truck was all the rage for people who didn't want a full-sized US truck. The Mustang II was a piece of crap that began to fall apart mechanically at less than 50,000 miles. The Fisher bodies of GM still began to rattle and shake after only 20,000 miles. Plastics became more prevalent in autos because of the cost of metal. Insurance rates, safety laws, and smog laws killed high performance muscle engines.

Gotta get back to work.

Someone else can summarize the 1980s, and 1990s auto trends.

U.S. automakers in the 80's finally realized that the future was in economical cars. Unfortunately, they were not prepared to deal with it. The Japanese automakers were already about 10 years ahead in R&D with regards to small engines and small cars. U.S. automakers hit the panic button and made deals with those Japanese companies to sell rebadged products. The 80's Challenger was a rebadged Mitsubishi. The 80's Chevy Nova was a rebadged Toyota. Toyota and Honda took advantage and captured a chunk of the American market. The only way American's could compete was buy selling their cars cheaper (which caused them to use cheaper materials and short cutting quality control). There were some things that the U.S. companies did do well and that was builidng performance cars. The Corvette, Mustang, Grand National and even Chrysler turbo cars were still leading the market in performance. The U.S. did introduce the minivan and SUV (updated and rebranded station wagons).