Say what? Mike, I was talking about GM, Chrysler, Volkswagen and (1) Vauxhall cars from my experience. I knew of nobody with Asian cars at that time.
CSA
Must be an alternative facts thing.
First you make this statement.
Then I made this TRUE statement.
It wasnât until 2 years later that the first small fwd vehicles were introduced to the US market with the Dodge Omni.
Then you make this statement saying you knew nothing about the market back in 76. [quote=âcommon_sense_answer, post:13, topic:100858â]
Mike, again I was going from my experience and recollection.
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To my point. There were no small fwd vehicles when the Chevette was introduced in 76. They didnât come out til later. Your first statement insisted that it was GM who introduced a RWD vehicle into a FWD market. That is FALSE.
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Early 2000s Focus was a decent car.
My sister in law taught at an American base in Germany in the early 1980s. Her father wanted a yellow Benz sedan with a diesel. She bought it for him and never mentioned that the only ones like that in Germany were taxis.
The Catera received excellent reviews from the automotive press. It suffered from following the Cimmaron, a Cavalier with squishy suspension.
I consider both the Aries and Spirit midsize cars.
They were fun to drive but set a record for recalls. A very flawed design and poor execution. My son did a lot of field work in his environmental review work. He often rented Ford Focus models and did not have a single good comment on them.
That was QUITE some time ago. Those were only sold here for a few years.
The color is officially called âsahara beigeâ 
And a few extra bells & whistles and a grossly inflated price. The Cimmaron was one of the biggest scams in automotive history, and Cadillacâs reputation paid dearly for it.
SoâŠit wasnât a good idea to pay twice the price for a poorly-disguised Chevy Cavalier?
I knew a woman who bought one of the early Lincoln Versailles modelsâwhich was a poorly-disguised Ford Granadaâselling for twice the price of the Granada. When she decided to trade it in a few years later, she bought a Cadillac Cimarron!
Like a moth to a flame, some people just seem to be attracted to the worst values in the automotive marketplace.
LOL, how very true, VDC!
Remember the early 80âs Mustang with the Pinto 2.3L engine? That wasnât a bright move by Ford. Muscle car and 2.3L pinto engine donât mix.
Not sure many people would refer to a Mustang of that vintage as a âmuscleâ car by any stretch of the imagination.
I agree, an 88hp engine was a joke but even the biggest engine available wasnât exactly a powerhouseâŠ
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Ford called it the Mustang II. My boss at that time bought it for his wife and although she liked to drive it, she found it rather gutless. I do believe that a more powerful engine was available, a German V6 possibly.
It was a sad day for such an iconic mark!
By the '80s they were back to the Fox-based Mustang. But the 2.3 was weak. The â5.0â saved the dayâŠ
The Mustang II was the one from the 1970s, the one that was mechanically very similar to the Pinto
I believe that was actually the Fox body Mustang, which would be the next generation, the one AFTER the Mustang II
However, AFAIK the Mustang II AND the succeeding Fox body Mustang used that same Pinto engine. That basic engine design was around for a very long time
Engines for the 1979-1982 models included the 88 hp (66 kW) 2.3 L Pinto inline-four, 109 hp (81 kW) 2.8 L Cologne V6 (made by Ford of Germany), and the 140 hp (104 kW) 302 cu in (4.9 L) Windsor V8; which was marketed as a 5.0 L engine and front fenders badged as such
a 5.0L engine producing a whopping 140hpâŠ
TrueâŠthat generation of Mustang wasnâtâŠbut the name Mustang has been synonymous with muscle cars since the 60âs.
I had that engine in a '81 F250 4X4 with the C6 automatic.
Going up to a 10,000 ft pass in Colorado, foot to the floor in 2nd gear, making 30 mph maxâŠfun timesâŠ
;-]
What new car available in the US during late 1970s and early 1980s would be called a muscle car by todayâs standards? They were all anemic.