Comments by "IIIRattleHeadIII" (@badass6300) on "US Auto Industry" channel.

Well, the other option would be for no one to be able to afford them. If they still had high build quality, while having modern tech while complying with modern safety and emission those 19-24$ cars now would cost at least double and same goes for pretty much all other cars, at least double the price.
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@brianfearn4246 it's most likely either rust, lack of parts availability or fuel economy and emission regulations, or a combo of all thrre.
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@trustyoldiron5416 I'd say the golden era was late 80s to mid 2000s. Though in the mid 2000s BMW and Mercedes had quality issues due to degrading materials. Then GM, Chrystler and Ford were full of recalls and law suits for their smaller cars in the mid 2000s and Renault wasn't doing very well in terms of quality either.
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