The demise of the muscle car...?

[indyjps]

didnt live it but i think the emissions and gas prices combined. when the factory went to low compression it killed the performance, then came all the landua kits, focus on handling instead of straight line perf. and luxury to make up the difference.

[ANDY M]

Thank Nationwide Insurance Co.
They decided, based upon statistics they kept, that they weren't on your side when it came to HiPo cars. Too many wrecks, too many tickets, too many lawsuits.
Life comes at you fast.
The other insurance companies all followed soon after.
High risk=low profits. The price of insurance was often as much or more than the monthly payment, and unless you were in the higher income brackets, the reality of economics took first position.
The baby boomers who bought these cars also got into the family mode, as attested to many times by members of this site who retired their rides.
The van craze of the 70's also contributed, because trucks had different emission rules that were much easier to skirt.
You could still tweek a truck with a small block, and there were other things you could do with a van...
I am sure there were other things, but I forget what they were, or was, or whatever.

[Canucklehead]

With the demise of the muscle car also brought the covertable to an end. I could understand that the insurance companies killed that for safety reasons, but why was it ok to bring them back?. Are they really any safer or was there another reason why they were axed?

[ANDY M]

They just weren't selling.

[firstgenaddict]

12% interest on Housing + High Oil Prices + Jimmy Carter = The late 70's. All of this led to a general Pessimism about the state of the World and led to less spending on the "fun" things.

[Kim_Howie]

Where did you get 12% int. I paid 19 during that time!!!!

[70-SS/RS-L78]

My 70 SS-L78 sat on the dealer’s lot for over a year, It was sold a few times but they either couldn’t get insurance or the
premiums were just out of site. The original owner of my car came up with the bright idea to put it in his wife’s name. As
a matter of fact it is still in her name. My guess would be the government and insurance companies put an end to the
muscle car of the 60’s and early 70’s… It seemed like every week you heard about another person or friend dying in one
of these cars back then, not unlike today with the inexperienced drivers behind the wheel of a Viper or Corvette. Back
then they were affordable and extremely popular and everybody had one, much like the Rice Cars of today, Hears a scary
thought, Picture these Rice Drivers in Big Block Camaro’s, Cuda’s, and Mustangs

[Kim_Howie]

The #1 demise was several sentors and congressmen. Tree huggers about polution. The big three had to lower compression and meet federal standards. Remember the late 70's cars had so much smog items that if you tuned it to factory specs. It wouldn't fr%#@*& start!!!!