Most American auto enthusiasts that were around in the late 1960s and early 1970s, even those that weren’t thrilled with big American land yachts, had little regard for Japanese cars. It wasn’t that they were small. VW Beetles were successfully advertised with the slogan “Think Small”. No, Japanese cars were just not very good. Reliable? Yes. Good? No. Underpowered, rust-prone, lacking decent automatic transmissions, and technologically not very advanced (well, with the exception of Honda), Japanese cars sold primarily on price. One would think that Japanese cars didn’t have a chance with American consumers. Over @ TTAC, commenter VanillaDude quite neatly summed up how the Japanese automakers managed to establish a beachhead in California:
California had been booming since WWII, and had gained a national prominence. It gave us many modern cultural phenomena via music and television, adding to it’s Hollywood sparkle and governor. With only three national television networks, California dominated what Americans saw in 1973. Many Americans went to bed with Johnny Carson whose move from East to West Coast never went unnoticed.
Pop music was important in 1973. Radio played Californians. To the US during this era, California was it’s future whether it was in government, aerospace, electronics, entertainment and sheer style. During the early 20th Century, Americans looked to New York City, by 1973, Americans were ready to cut up their Brooks Brothers men’s wear and relax California style. Groovy man!
So when the Japanese auto makers shoved their tin road traps onto diesel freighters and floated their wares to America, they ended up in California. At a time when Detroit was navel-diving for profits, the Japanese struck California gold.
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When he’s not busy doing custom machine embroidery at Autothreads Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth and contributes to The Truth About Cars and Left Lane News
“japanese cars” are made in the USA. The stock of the companies are hold by american workers trust funds. Who won what?
Back then, they actually were made in Japan. I lucked out. I had a ’72 Datsun 1200 coupe that got over 30 MPG, even the way I drove it, and was driven away by the new owner in 1986. Now I have a 1971 240-Z. Old Japanese metal can’t be beat.
I turned 16 and got my license in 1973, just in time for the price of gas to double overnight to 50-60 cents per gallon. The predictions of $1 per gallon gas were everywhere. Suddenly, people became very interested in cars that got good mileage. The American small cars were the Pinto (firebomb), the Vega (rust magnet) and the Gremlin. Winners all. A lot of people looked at the Japense Hondas, Datsuns and Toyotas and liked what they saw. The cars were inexpensive, pretty reliable and got good mileage.
My first car was a 74 Honda Civic. That was only the second year that Honda had imported the Civic to America. Their prior automotive entry was the two cylinder air-cooled Honda 600 (as in cubic centimeters) which sold from 1970-72. It was very similar to the original Austin Mini. Anyway, when I bought my Civic, I encountered many people who didn’t know that Honda made cars. They were still pretty rare.
The car was pretty basic. It had a 4 speed manual transmission, manual choke, a hatchback and an AM radio. The seats were vinyl and reclined but there was no air conditioning. The car had rack and pinion steering and 4 wheel independent suspension which gave it excellent handling – something that saved my life when I was able to narrowly avoid someone driving the wrong way on the interstate. I had that car for 4 years and put over 65,000 miles on it. It averaged 32 MPG but could do better if I lightened my foot a bit (rarely happened). Trading that car was one of the dumbest mistakes I ever made.
The car wasn’t perfect. The timing belt broke at about 40,000 miles. At the time, that was a simple fix that only cost a couple hundred dollars. The paint didn’t last very long either so I gave it a cheap paint job. But man, I loved that little car.
Aw, this was a very nice post. In idea I would like to put in writing like this additionally – taking time and actual effort to make a very good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and under no circumstances seem to get one thing done.