Originally Posted by
Aoshi
Samething with engines, in the seventies, we've always had v8's, japanese cars mainly had like inline 4cyl, they probably wonder why we had heavy ass cars with inefficient motors.
No, we had heavy ass cars with powerful (not inefficient) motors. Because gas was like less than a quarter a gallon. We had plenty of highways to drive on, plenty of iron to make these big ass cars, and plenty of money to buy them.
In the 50's and 60's Japan was still recovering from WWII and had to use it's money and resources sparingly. They didnn't have big, long interstates (no need for big fast cars), they didn't have lots of iron and steel (cars were small and light) They didn't have lots of money (cars were cheaply built and inexpensive.)
Bottom line, gas crunch hits in the 70's...people look for cheap 4 bangers that are inexpenisve to buy, and good on gas and discover Hondas and Toyotas.
So, it wasn't a matter of preference for Japan (they loved American cars) they just built what they could, and cars evolved from there. Thanks in large part to OPEC.