Nope, I'm one with no particular love lost for these Boeing "historic" beasts. I would have bought Duwags, like San Diego, too.

So-called "Buy America" FTA rules back then, as is the case with all such "protectionist" nonsense, at anytime, primarily protected obsolete designs and poor performance then commonly offered by the dominant US makers, for years, on everything from buses, and rail cars, to fare systems.....

Buy America did force a lot of odd and often costly attempts at international partnering, which allowed international competitors to participate in the US market. It also caused a lot of LRT operators to eschew the use of Federal funds for equipment, so they could buy superior international products, at competitive prices, from a larger "world wide" vendor pool.