Dated yesteday?

["Mahoney, John" <jmahoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My error list. I like to goose the flock with words and love it if any geese
honk back, but Automobile spelled Kammback korrectly, a Gremlin was shown
with Solomon (but a Pacer was shown with Puras), Hemmings' '67 Ambassador
was shown with both amber rectangular infill bumper lights and round
grille-mounted ones (nobody knows?), Avanti doesn't show up in Black Cherry
Pearl, Scion tC does (and '95-'96 Impala SS shows very well in BC Metallic),
you won't be shown to the pit bulls in that convertible corral (your only
"woe" will be wanting to take a half-dozen cars home) and I showed restraint
by not writing that "Nash made Buddism into a religion" (which would have
been funnier) because thin skins in AMC circles might not have seen the
joke.

Buddism, not Buddhism, as invented in the 1920s, refers to the Budd
Company's pressed-steel [sometimes called, not altogether correctly,
monocoque] body manufacturing processes, by which automotive shells could
only be made by big, expensive tools that demanded huge production runs to
pay their investment.  While GM turned Turret Tops into
The-Way-It-Was-And-Will-Be, Nash made "parts-into-a-whole industry."  Until
recently, with the rise of so-called "alternative" manufacturing methods
(see Fiat, Audi or Mercedes if you want to be smart --- no capital, but a
big presence already: don't blame me if you click to see what's coming...), 

http://usa.smart.com/

the economies of scale under the Nash method -began- at around 250,000 units
per year.  Space-frame construction with riveted-on panels (can you see
Henry Ford?) will be profitable at 100,000 units, obviating a need for vast
plants, giant presses or expensive floor pans.  Not to mention dealer
floorplans.  (Someone in sales should explain that.)  Space-frame technology
can also make cars longer, wider or taller in a snap, morphing Pacer into
Matador into Packard Patrician in no time flat.  Pre-prepared modules, JIT
(not a racial slur), Project Yellowstone (but a racial slur to the UAW) and
more clever approaches would let a company like AMC prosper at the levels of
production it saw during most of its lifetime; unfortunately, such an option
is coming just about three decades too late.  How interesting that the AMC
Pacer was designed to become both Matador/Classic and Ambassador.

With such technology; however, will also come even more risk to the status
quo.  As changes in manufacturing meet changes in motivation and materials,
as drive-by-wire replaces heavy cast steering or brake modules and as gas or
diesel hybrids and fuel cells replace heavy old ICEs, there'll be less need
for large capital-intensive factories and barriers to competition will fall.
Start-ups and low-cost producers will sweep into the market and today's
global "Big-Six" (half of which earn no real return on their capital now!)
will become the railroads and the airlines of tomorrow; often teetering on
the edge of bankruptcy but still building autos.  How interesting that AMC
did just that from birth to death.  How interesting that the "last
independent" was the first car company to spend most of its career in, as
they say in Detroit, "the tank."  For those readers whose heads are swimming
now, the tank is what Chrysler has left, Ford is leaving and General Motors
is entering: it's where one of the Big-Three always will be.  A good analogy
was TV [insert suitable ABC, NBC or CBS jokes here] since "was" points to
where the automobile industry is headed.  Cable, dish, etc. changed
everything.  So too, will new car manufacturing. 

Old firms must reinvent themselves as fast as they develop new products or
newcomers will turn techonolgy into the an AMC that ate GM, Ford, Chrysler
and Toyota.  Wow.  If China doesn't do in Detroit, then Kalamazoo or
Kamloops or Kenosha kould.  It'll be a different world fifty years from now.

So let's note how the present can remember the past.

On October 5, 2004, at the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, a part of AMC history
was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. A son named Sergio accepted.
Read the official quote:
"The Italian automobile design genius, Battista "Pinin" Farina founded
"Carrozzeria Pinin Farina" in 1930 with the intention to build special car
bodies.  His work influenced countless Alfa Romeos, Fiats, Ferraris,
Lancias, Peugeots and even some classic Nash Healeys.  The name of
Pininfarina is synonymous with many of the world's most significant
automobiles."

Can you remember that AMC?

On September 23, 1940, the first "Bantam Recon Car" was delilvered to Camp
Holabird, MD --- one-half hour from deadline.  After giving it a 30-day,
3,725-mile shakedown test, the USA ordered 1500 copies.

Bantam built those 1500 and 1500 more, but couldn't meed the growing demand.
On November 11, 1940, W-O delivered the prototype "Quad" as did Ford.
Willys' design was faster and was chosen for production.

Can you see AMC without it? 

Study this view of the "oldest surviving American automobile factory" and
decide which part(s) of it remain(s) on November 4, 2004.  
 
http://www.film.queensu.ca/CJ3B/Photos/Toledo/WillysFactoryAerial.JPG

Can you say history is never lost?