Should have kept reading Bobertz..........I agree about the Corvair. It had all the makings of exactly what was needed but Mr. Nader pinned his crusade to it and the rest is a sad history.
The Japanese cars of that same period were in fact trash by any comparison. Buzzy and underpowered, they accelerated like fog, broke down with a regularity usually only found in English marques, and rusted faster than a soup can at the dump. I worked on lots of them and English and French cars as well. Only the Germans had it going but the Big 3 had a lot of potential to do it right and they knew the market.
The Japanese as always were fast learners and by 1970 had most of their act wholly together. There were still some problems but it was obvious to anyone in the field that those guys were good! During the same time period we proved here that the Big 3 may have known too much as they gladly went off in the wrong direction because we'd buy it! I know I did! Vettes, a 442, a couple of Goats, a Shelby.....even my pick-ups had 454 engines in them. This stuff would pass anything but a gas station. Bobertz will love that I had a very plain blue and blah looking Dodge Coronet sedan with the complete police package underneath---Ran a 12.9 quarter on F78-14's..........oh yeah...They had me right where they wanted me.
AMC tried a few small cars but the manufacturing process was so bad and their designers were obviously smoking some bad shit. The Gremlin may have been bad but the Pacer took weird to a new level. Meanwhile no one was addressing the mileage market in this country and why should they? Gas was 40 cents a gallon for HI-Test even and regular a paltry 35!
Even in the past few years they haven't been concerned becasue they knew we'd buy the crap. Why the hell does anyone need a Hummer as a personal vehicle? Ferchrissakes there are product lines with over a half dozen SUV models with each available in various configurations.......For what?
So they merge or they don't......The chance is they fail either way....................................unless we still want what they sell.