Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

My brother in law (10 yrs to the day younger than I) is really into these as well.  Has one and put his son in another, but they're not even convertibles.

My exposure to Fords of that era was when the term Fix Or Repair Daily was well earned. 

Yeah I've commented on this fable quite a few times.  From that era I've owned 2 Chrysler and one Ford.  My brother had 3 different Chevies.  None of them were any better or worse than the others.

I find automobile brand loyalty to be weird.  It's unnecessarily clannish.  I guess as an engineer I just sift through the emotions and look at the facts.

Each of the Big 3 spent the 80s trying to catch up to far superior maintenance records in Japanese cars. While Toyota is still the best of the bunch, in the last 20 years or so the differences haven't been so big, but in the 1970s and 1980s it was a big gap.

Yeah I'll agree with that.  But among Americans my age, talking about that era of cars, the "automobile wars" never include the Japanese cars.

It's always a Ford-GM-Chrysler conversation.

And from my observation there's just no difference between them.  The 80s Chrysler products probably have the worst reputation of all of them, but in my experience they're still pretty much the same.

in 1980 - we were only 35 years from the end of WWII and many still held feelings towards the Japanese

many would recognize superior reliability and longevity but wouldn't buy them or drive them

Yup.  My dad was born in 1940 and has little or no direct memory of WWII, but the resentment lingered on for decades.  He didn't buy anything other than American until about 2010.

I look down on folks that drive Honda and Toyota sedans while I drive my chevy impala
but, I never get in anyone's face about it 
(well, I might give my little brother some grief)

AI Overview
2021 Chevy Malibu vs. Honda Accord 
The 2025/2026 Chevy Malibu is generally more affordable, starting around $25,800–$26,000, while the 2025/2026 Honda Accord starts at a higher price point of roughly $28,000–$29,500. The Malibu offers better initial value for budget-conscious buyers, while the Accord provides superior resale value,

Didn't they market the Skyline under the Infiniti nameplate here?

G class??

AI Overview
2021 Chevy Malibu vs. Honda Accord
The 2025/2026 Chevy Malibu is generally more affordable, starting around $25,800–$26,000, while the 2025/2026 Honda Accord starts at a higher price point of roughly $28,000–$29,500. The Malibu offers better initial value for budget-conscious buyers, while the Accord provides superior resale value,

The guy I bought 5 Honda's and a Mazda from said they regularly got Accords traded in with in excess of 300K.  I'd never consider buying an American car with anything close to that.  

The old mechanic that replaced the clutch in that Del Sol I bought from our board member told me he thinks it's how clean the Japanese car's oil was--he could tell a big difference in what came out of the American car used vs. the import.  

I think that's part of why the resale is so high, the things just keep running.  Even if the Big 3 are ever able (or choose) to make stuff as good, they will have 50 years of history to overcome.

That said, my daughter's 2008 Toyota RAV4 was so Americanized, it was a rolling dream for my Import Repair Mechanic.