** as Sam Stone ** and others have said it was mainly a rust issue. My poor Mazda 626 which had no rust on the body panels. The unibody/understructure simply corroded to the point where the struts and other underpinnings had no place to attach. I brought the car into my mechanic asking why the car was leaning to one side, so he puts it up on the rack and the look of horror said it all.
He didn’t even want for me to drive it to a dealership as a scrap trade-in. It was a shame to because the engine was still strong. oh well.