guys we all have to realise when your car broke down,walk to the nearest auto parts store and get a set of points.you were up and running in no time and the cops wouldnt bother you with towing.this is a new age of vehicles that need a computer genius to find out whats wrong and they arent always right.a loose ground will tell you your fine.not to mention your towed in a heart beat.i miss the good old days but we have to deal with this new technoligy because we are breathing better.just deal with new upgrades as they come and learn it as best you can.guess what im typing this on a computer that most of you have learned.
Pollution controls didn't help though! The management at the big three FEARED fuel injection and computers as unproven and possibly unreliable technology (I think overlooking the fact that the layer after layer of vaccum hoses and solenoids was not reliable.) I think they also wanted to save costs compared to injection, overlooking that $50-100 of new hoses and solenoids added each year for 5-10 years straight probably was close to if not more than injection (at least throttle body injection.)
Not EVERYONE dragged on so long -- the Pontiac 2.5L "iron duke" got (throttle body) fuel injection in 1982, and Cadillac got an injection option starting in 1975 in the Seville. There were also some injected Corvettes etc. going back as far as the 1950s, but these were more a "one off". But for the most part, from what I've heard GM corporate, as well as Ford and Dodge, just didn't trust the technology. And I think they underestimated how bad all those smog controls were making the vehicles run.
Most other corners were to save weight, I think, to try to keep performance at least acceptable (a pretty low bar, there were plenty of cars in 1980 where 0-60 was over 20 seconds!) and keep MPG up.
Another oddball were the early 1980s turbo Volvos, my friend had a 1982 model.. it used a K-Jetronic, which was a purely mechanical fuel injection system. Fuel runs through a high-pressure fuel pump, through a "fuel distributor" which would control the fuel pressure (pressure control is VITAL to this setup...) and then fuel lines would run to each injector; the injectors are NOT electronic, the injectors are pushed open when fuel pressure rises above a certain level. As airflow increased, a flap in the airstream would be pushed more by the increased air flow (acting as a mechanical mass airflow sensor, in effect), and this flap would push down a plunger in the fuel distributor, increasing fuel pressure (and so flow) to the injectors. Simple as that! It had a computer, but it 1) tweak a mixture control solenoid based on O2 feedback. This was clearly bolted on to what was meant to be a manual mixture adjustment... and 2) control the idle speed (by using a idle air bypass). This computer could have dropped dead, and all I would have done is replace the idle air bypass with an idle speed screw.