Why have cars moved to a timing chain

Question

The old Corollas in the 70s and 80s had timing chains. In the 90s, Honda, Toyota, and even Nissan started making belt-driven cranks instead of chains. Now they are back to timing chains. What happened?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

As for a more practical answer, I would have to say to hit government emissions regulations most manufacturers are using variable camshaft timing, in the form of an oil pressure driven gear on the end of the camshaft