WI the U.S. auto industry hadn't squandered?

I've posted before that the front suspension on '59-71 Ford&Merc Compacts and Intermediates, with the coil onto of the upper control arm only makes sense if there were plans for putting driveshafts to the front wheels.
Otherwise they would have stuck with their coil on the lower arm as on the '50s-90s full size, and avoid those huge springtowers in the engine bay

Asked around on this subject and basically, while Ford did seriously consider FWD for the 3rd generation Ford Thunderbird along with McPherson strut front suspension both ideas were dropped on the grounds of cost. Additionally there was never any serious consideration to converting the Falcon/Comet and Fairlane/Meteor to FWD.

The rationale for using the high-mounted coils was down to ride quality, a solution to adopt an extra-long extra-soft coil spring which originated from Nash for the Rambler largely out of concern by American engineers at the time that compact cars could not provide the boulevard ride domestic buyers came to expect. As this was too long to fit between the lower arm and subframe rail in the conventional fashion, they instead opted to put the spring on the upper arm acting against the fender apron providing a softer ride in spite of it making for tipsy handling as a result of setting the roll center on a journey to the centre of the earth. The degree of tipsy handling is evidenced by the front suspension mods made to the original Shelby GT-350, altering the control arm mounting points to unearth the front roll center as well as adding an anti-roll bar as thick as a barrel.
 
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