From 1970, a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with a 455 cubic inch V-8 engine which was very powerful. Later on, the Federal Government imposed pollution controls on cars and this 400-horsepower engine went down to just 210 by 1975 and the engines were nightmares to fix due to the pollution control hoses and valves. This was part of the reason that American cars declined in quality. Of course, we started to sell unleaded gas and engine compression went down due to the much lower octane of gasoline. Later on, Intel developed a microchip which allowed cars to get rid of carburetors and use fuel injection which improved performance, and the hose and valves nightmares were disposed of. But the damage to the quality of American cars has been around for years.