I tend to agree, the cars of the 70's were given a bad rap IMO. Dad had a Pinto he literally drove into the ground, Had in excess of 150,000 miles and he sold it for $25 to a guy that needed an engine. I recall that guys wagon on the road for a few years after. Same with the Granadas he had, drove the dog out of them and never really worked on them other than general maintenance. In the early 90's I had a 77 LTD II 2 door that I bought with 110,000 miles that cost me a whopping $100. My fiance drove it a lot and I recall one morning it was well below zero and blowing like a blizzard outside and her dads Mazda truck would not start, neither would her moms Bonneville (both fairly new) She said he could jump them off the Ford, and his stubborn self said "If my cars will not start, that old heap isn't going to" A few minutes later she went in the house and told him "The car is warming up if you want to jump yours" We never heard another bad word about the "heap" He even complimented the heater in the car that day. Even today, I'll take a 70's/early 80's Ford/Merc over a new car. My daily is an 82 Thunderbird. For precautionary reasons, I have a coil and ignition module in the trunk. That's about all that could strand me..... unless I am out of gas.