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Japanese cars

With increasing speed from the 1950s to the 1980s, Japanese brands came to the American market. The first cars were underpowered rustbuckets; they were replaced in the 1970s with underpowered, efficient, and reliable rustbuckets and, by the late 1970s, with efficient, reliable, rust-free cars ranging from entry level to luxury. Over the years, Japanese cars continued to get better quality and power, and got bigger and faster, taking over the American market for cars and, again starting small and ending up with a full range, SUVs and pickups.

Not all Japanese brands are equal or even better than American brands. Toyota dominates world markets and is America's #2 automaker. Subaru floundered until the Outback's clever ad campaign made its brand name and strengths visible to the American public, Mitsubishi never quite grabbed public acclaim despite some stunning performance cars, and Nissan has had problems ever since changing its name from Datsun, including recent quality snafus. Isuzu gave up on cars entirely, selling only trucks within US borders, and Suzuki has remained a niche player.

Back in the 1980s, it seemed that Japanese companies could do no wrong; but there are strong and weak leaders and cultures in both the US and Japan, and Mitsubishi ended up covered in sex and quality scandals, and finally being majority-purchased and abused by Daimler (before being rescued by friendly Mitsubishi partners). Less humiliating, perhaps, were the purchases of chunks of Nissan by Renault, Subaru, Suzuki, and Isuzu by General Motors, and Mazda by Ford; though GM did give up its stake in Isuzu to Toyota.

Note: Infiniti is a brand of Nissan, Lexus and Scion are brands of Toyota, and Acura is a brand of Honda. Toyota is one of the largest automakers in the world.

Cars, wagons, and minivans

SUVs

Gone but not forgotten

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