I still won't buy a german car but you have missed the point..
They didn't HAVE to step up quality.
My god, that speaks volumes... and I cannot add to that. That was the US automakers death knell..
oh, my dad was a wwii decorated war vet (my mom also served) ..he was a hard core GM buyer. He eventually moved to Japanese cars in the late '80s because he was tired of all the maintenance issues..
And for most of us, our classic mopar is a toy...and we have time to deal with the issues that pop up. The duster represents a pretty good time of my life and an era where cars looked like cars and were distinctive enough to tell the makers apart...