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the late 60's early 70's (pre73) american cars were AWSOME...so long as you didn't mind hangin out at the gas station...their quality was fairly high...but i will agree with you their longevity was very limited...the jap cars weren't so much better as they were smaller...at least at that time...it wasn't untill the gas crysis that people were willing to buy an 80hp car when they were used to a 400hp big block chevy...it wasn't that the jap cars were sooo much better than american cars to begin with, it was that the cars after 1973 US became utter shit...so as the japs started to make a little better, we took a nose dive...but you were talking about 69-70....when gas was that cheap and plentiful...who cared? global warming was merely a twinkle in a flower child's eye and the clouds of smoke over LA were only a minor nuisance. much later the japs used computer control more efficiently...aka late 1980's and thats when the appliances like accord and camry came into their own...it is only in the last year or two that the americans have gotten back on the stick, and i think they are targeting the krauts this time, and with the plummeting german quality, who knows.... As the proud owner of a 1968 Firebird 400 that I recently restored, I can tell you that some of the engineering in those cars is phenominal...see the General Motors TH400 Hydramatic 3 speed auto....utterly bombproof...ask Rolls Royce...but safety was not even a consideration, that includes the lack of anything other than a lap belt and brakes on a 3600lb car that couldn't stop a vespa....so in retrospect, there were strong points and weak points....but in no way can the 69-70 cars flowing from detroit be called crap...they were just different from what we have today...personally i like the simplicity and visceral feel.
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