Sure, there are loads of cars for which it was not a problem.
But not all cars are in this case.
Now you can still find 80s cars (or even 70s cars) in good state which would end due to that.
When I was following topics on forum-auto about cars found abandoned or in junkyards there were lots of stories and even pictures about that.
Hard to find them back, but few that I found by searching:
http://i36.tinypic.com/oi9nc3.jpg
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/310200/000_0459.jpg
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/339323/HPIM0553.JPG (DS, 204, R16, ... not typical 90s old cars )
http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/339323/HPIM0534.JPG