there seems to be a clear slant towards the 1970s, which isn't all that fair, since the cars weren't necessarily perceived as ugly at the time....
I don't know about that. As someone old enough to remember the 70s pretty well it seemed to us kids that most of the cars were nondescript at best and ugly at worst.
Sure you had exceptions (primarily muscle cars) but overall, people just weren't excited by what Detroit was selling (in no small part because they hadn't planned for the Arab oil embargo and were caught trying to play "catch up" with small car designs).
