Big and Dumb

Lining up for gas, New York City, October 1973.

The North American auto industry had been asleep at the wheel for most of 20 years when the OPEC oil embargo jacked the price of fuel and made people think differently about the chrome-laden, badly-engineered, carelessly-built tanks parked in their driveway. There's not a single Japanese car in this photo--the only foreigners I see are three VWs---though the Datsun 510 had already been around a while, and the Toyota Corolla since 1968. 

We posted a 1980 Toyota Cressida wagon a while ago. And then there was Craig Manning's girl-in-a-red-dress story, featuring his Datsun pickup.