In the early 70's I'd had a relationship w/ a waitress that had a Pinto....rear access was like a hatchback and made for some nice/exciting times. Her ex had a factory tricked out Mustang. Yes, our U.S. autos definitely were lacking in quality/dependability. The '70 Firebird I purchased after separtating from Uncle Sam blew a 'fibre' timing gear bending every valve as I was travelling in excess of the posted 70 miles per hour. The dealer told me that 'fibre' timing gears were used to lessen noise. Luckily my car was under a 5 year/50k mile warranty
Excellent post and thanks for bring up some good memories (Pinto related).