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

The move to timing belts was a cost saving measure. But timing belts are more prone to catastrophic failure which in most engines will lead to irreparable damage.