Eli5 Why did the mid 70’s to late 80’s America produce some of the least aerodynamic looking cars, despite being in the middle of the race to increased efficiency?

Question

As I understand it, the gas crisis of the mid 70’s saw everyone shifting from making/buying cars that were either as big or as powerful as possible and getting sometimes single digit gas mileage to much more fuel efficient vehicles. But while cars got smaller and lighter and engines got handicapped for the sake of efficiency, it seemed that cars of this period were some of the least aerodynamic vehicles since the dawn of automobiles, especially compared to the bubble cars of the 40s and 50s. This seems counter productive.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

One reason is the NHTSA refused to allow plastic headlights until the mid 1980’s, many years after they started using them in Europe