A Brief History of the Rise and Fall of the American Car Culture

[The_Blur]

Performance car racing really took off with the American Prohibition Era. A conservative, religious political environment passed legislation prohibiting alcohol, but the level-headed masses found ways to get their hard-earned drink after work. Yankee ingenuity led to a flourishing underground economy of gentlemen's clubs and liquor.

Someone had to supply the liquor, and someone had to deliver it. In order to avoid the police at the time and to make the boss happy, deliveries had to be fast. That meant fast cars with powerful engines.

This was the birth of the sleeper. Companies would cater to this desire to build fast cars. They became a product of the market because the fun of driving fast did not have to end with the job of getting liquor from the moonshine producer to the underground gentleman's club. Drag strips started to appear, and performance tuning shops developed. Manufacturers would throw V8s in family sedans and call them sport models. We had a car culture of fun rather than necessity. Pony cars battled at the track, and all was good.

For many, it seemed sudden that the press turned on GM, the world's largest automaker by production, brands, and employment. At this time, cheap imports had entered the market from the Far East. Toyota and Honda became the darlings of the media, and GM became the evil company of Detroit. People were more likely to take pride in their ugly economy car with an aircraft-sized spoiler than their father's Corvette. The end of the muscle car era had come, and those epic beasts had gone out of production, leaving behind hollow shells of their former glory. The Impala became a FWD product. The Camaro went out of production. It was an ever-darkening time.

But what was it that spurred this change over the course of but one generation, and why did it go away? What was different about the 20 years between 1980 and 2000 that kept American companies in the hateful eyes of the press?

We can all present our theories on this, but I have a particular one that came across me today. It hit me while I watched a movie and had a discussion online with one of our Camaro5 members. It is my belief that the media played an important role in this transition from GM success to GM's eventual bankruptcy, brought on by over 2 decades of sustained attacks on GM products and praise for the competition. To a great extent, we still feel the ripple effect of this press today.

In the late 1960s, television truly changed. Just like video killed the radio star, animation killed the real thing. Children grew up watching Speed Racer rather than cleaning out the carburetor with their fathers. Many children would grow dependent on the television for information, and this information became fact to them, regardless of the obvious biases in its presentation.

These children would grow to fill jobs in 20 years. They would become lawyers, doctors, electricians, teachers, and journalists. There it is! They became the source of the problem. Suddenly, the press had turned on American brands. They were raised watching anime, and they became the enemy of America's car culture as a result. The ones interested in cars turned Japanese, posting in the press the supremacy of cheap plastics, weird exhaust noises, and smaller engines.

It is for this reason, that I blame Speed Racer on prematurely ending the muscle car era. It aired during the late 1960s and in reruns after that. It clearly fits the mold. Here is the culprit and his associates.



Obviously, there is hope. Speed Racer is no longer on the air, and the Camaro is back. As long as we keep our children away from Japanese garbage on television, we will have the Camaro for a long time to come.

Discuss why you think the media turned on GM or any other discussion you feel is appropriate.

Please try not to take this theory too seriously.

[a_Username]

lol even though I admit the speed racer was a little over the edge, the whole theory wasn't that much of a joke. Teenagers believe Skylines and Evos are the pinnacle of car manufacturing just because of movies and video games.

[AngryAmish]

Chim Chim: the 1st Generation Trunk Monkey.

[derklug]

So the kids around here turning their VW's and Audi's into rice, did their parents watch Speed Buggy?

[chevydude26]

I thought you were serious for a second there...i was ready to tear apart your premise lol

but actually government regulations and unions killed off the American car culture if you really want to know

[chevydude26]

But your onto something about the way the media has portrayed the american car companies...the drop in quality from the regulations and higher expenses it caused the american car companies to endure caused our cars to get bad reviews and get joked on...then the tuner crap in the 90's and fast and the furious making kids think imports were the way to go...it didn't help the camaro was kind of weak looking in the 90's

around the 70's you notice that the power in muscle cars was gone and in the 80's all cars got smaller and boxier and uglier for the most part...then the 90's started the bubbly looking cars

but to be honest gm has been looking good lately as far as quality goes...business wise they are still kinda struggling

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by chevydude26

I thought you were serious for a second there...i was ready to tear apart your premise lol

but actually government regulations and unions killed off the American car culture if you really want to know

Government regulations did do it, but in a democracy the problem is never the government. People supported those regulations. Sadly, the American people killed the American muscle car in the 1970s and 1980s. :( Not enough people stood up to certain regulations.

Unions were also tough on GM especially. The UAW got greedy over time, and that crippled the industry. When it comes to competition, companies should compete on all levels, and that includes employment. GM should be more lucrative to be successful, but the UAW demanded more than lucrative employment. I could agree with you for a long time on this, but I want to get back to blaming anime.

Let's not discount the role of car magazines, import car culture, and popular culture. GM was no longer cool. Something caused this.

[chevydude26]

Originally Posted by The_Blur

Government regulations did do it, but in a democracy the problem is never the government. People supported those regulations. Sadly, the American people killed the American muscle car in the 1970s and 1980s. :( Not enough people stood up to certain regulations.

Unions were also tough on GM especially. The UAW got greedy over time, and that crippled the industry. When it comes to competition, companies should compete on all levels, and that includes employment. GM should be more lucrative to be successful, but the UAW demanded more than lucrative employment. I could agree with you for a long time on this, but I want to get back to blaming anime.

Let's not discount the role of car magazines, import car culture, and popular culture. GM was no longer cool. Something caused this.

the media creates whatever narrative they want too...and for whatever reason gm became uncool... but I think with the quality of the cars going down the media ran with the crappy interiors M.O and poor quality throughout the late 70's and 80's

[Crowley]

Well hell ..... I loved the Mach 5 !!

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by chevydude26

the media creates whatever narrative they want too...and for whatever reason gm became uncool... but I think with the quality of the cars going down the media ran with the crappy interiors M.O and poor quality throughout the late 70's and 80's

Maybe that's what the media wants you to think. Do you really think this is the pinnacle of quality?



Here's a Chevrolet interior of the same year, 1985.



Neither product meets today's standards. That's obvious. At the same time, neither seems all that bad. The media constructed a dialogue that the Chevrolet was cheap, expecting it to fit a higher standard than the Honda. The Honda was cheap, but the press described it as economical, lowering expectations then praising the company for meeting them.

Now, I'll ask: was the Honda really higher quality than the Chevrolet or was the media being unfair?

Originally Posted by Crowley

Well hell ..... I loved the Mach 5 !!

The only cure for your brainwashing is extended time on Camaro5 and agreeing with everything said by The_Blur.

[MrIcky]

In the 70s, 80s and 90s? Absolutely the Honda was higher quality in the smaller car classes. Neither seemed all that bad? Go era by era- a 70's Pinto vs a VW Rabbit? An 80s K Car vs an 80s Accord? 95 Lumina vs Camry?

I have to say that it wasn't all a media conspiracy.

Also, in the late 60s America was building some of the most competitive cars in the world performance wise. American Cars were beating all comers at everything from LeMans to Trans Am. And I don't mean super specialty cars- I mean Mustangs and Camaros in the Trans Am series could compete against any homologated car in the world. But American car companies backed WAY off performance in the 70s and 80s. Porsches and Ferraris were always there, but America left them alone for a while to become the dream cars.

So if you were a car lover who graduated High School in the 1980s, the poster on your wall was a Countach or Porsche Turbo 930.

[Hopper]

The poster on my wall was a Corvette and I was an '85 grad...all the cool kids in my affluent NJ suburb were driving new Camaros and Trans Ams. My family of modest means couldn't afford that and I had my 77 Monte, which I loved because it had a usable back seat!

[FenwickHockey65]

There's no doubt that GM didn't perform up to standards in the 80s. My dad could tell you stories about the 3rd gen F-bodies that he built that would make you cringe.

The thing is, GM is no longer the company it was 30 years ago (literally). If you could get more consumers to just consider GM brands, you would see a spike in sales.

I would say the media is starting to turn against the company they've promoted for years: toyota. I've never seen more negative articles and reviews about toyota products than what we're seeing now. The common theme in this trend? Title of "World's Largest Automaker." The minute toyota hit that mark, everything started crashing down.

[MrIcky]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

I would say the media is starting to turn against the company they've promoted for years: toyota. I've never seen more negative articles and reviews about toyota products than what we're seeing now. The common theme in this trend? Title of "World's Largest Automaker." The minute toyota hit that mark, everything started crashing down.

100% agreed