"The Japanese cars of that same period were in fact trash by any comparison. . .
The Japanese as always were fast learners and by 1970 had most of their act wholly together."

Geez, how early are we talking about, when the Japanese cars were so crappy? I was not really aware of them at all before the very late-late 1960s, by which time we seem to agree that they were OK.

I got a '72 Datsun B210 station wagon, used, sometime in the mid-70s. That was a very successful model that was unchanged for a number of years. I read that it was their first car to sell successfully in the US; for they first few years, Datsun (Nissan) was only able to sell the small pickup trucks.

Here in the deep south, rust is much less of an issue than for northerners. We never dump salt on the roads, so susceptibility to rust damage is not much of a factor hereabouts, and those early Japanese auto bodies held up well enough.

Some folks have just never been able to accept a little car that didn't provide a nice hefty "ka-chunk" upon slamming the door, but that never bothered me. I was always glad to spend as litle as possible on gas, and get from point A to point B, with no concerns about how prestigious or sexy my vehicle may have been considered according to anyone else's "mainstream" standards.