Re: SUVs/trucks/etcetera: SWs and HBs make sense, but most have vanished from our roads. Grow up, America. SUVs are big wagons, on car or truck platforms, two or four wheels driven, and wagons are squared-off hatchbacks. The most sensible of those in America once had names like Saab, Scorpio, Sterling, Sportabout, and Rover (and with a V-8, it was UK PDs' Caprice, Crown Vic, or Matador of choice); America had a Mopar 5d HB* that was so good looking, it almost didn't look like a HB. But since most 'Mericans thought (still do) that any roomy HB --- no matter how big and luxurious and powerful --- must be a [yuck, yuck!] economy [Rambler?] car, that H-body HB did not succeed. The P-body did not see enormous success either (despite lower price points); so it was outsold by A- and L-bodies, and its superstar successor, gen one Neon, offered with bad rear visibility instead of good rear liftback. Even trusty Toyota stopped making sense: remember when a Camry was offered to America as both 5d wagon and 5d HB? Had AMC proffered it to us, Lerma would have been another LeBaron GTS: just another smart car that N. Americans were too dumb to want to own. *And if you know -all- your AMC history, you know why it was cancelled. How 'bout you tell us? >> I don't think many will buy anything bigger than a Navigator! << Or bought and then sold. Hubby of Demi supposedly sold his semi-semi http://tinyurl.com/y88stm so, like some Golden State Green do-gooders, might drive a Prius now. (Punk'd, Pimp'd, or ?: who cares what cars celebrities/athletes own?) http://www.barris.com/gallery_cars/Kustoms_HotRods/gallery_prius.html (OK, there might be exceptions...) http://www.barris.com/gallery_cars/Kustoms_HotRods/gallery_amx400.html >> I'd like one of those Cadillac Pick Up Trucks - with those 22" 'Bling" spinner rims - to haul my Trailer Queen White Packard Hawk & Eagle Kammback between Summer Homes......... << Closed carrier, of course, to keep the exterior leather armrests dry. http://starterkithaven.com/picture1.htm >> what was great about America...we can CHOOSE what we WANT to do??? << We can; we do, and, we hope, we will --- at a cost: http://tinyurl.com/ymrw4a http://tinyurl.com/yjl6mr http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p01s04-usfp.html http://broadcast.forio.com/pro/oil/index.htm?FD_rand=1036 http://www.worldnewsstand.net/history/your_debt.htm http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/ Do you take responsibility for your choices? Don't complain when you have to pay a price. Do you take responsibility for your postings? Don't complain when you turn myth into fact. >> I saw one of those Navistar monster pickup trucks on TV. I believe it belonged to Jay Leno. << No, it did not. He only test-drove one; he did not BUY one. http://www.internationaldelivers.com/mycxt/?mtcCampaign=3016 His Warner lot/Burbank FD '41 American LaFrance 600 is a big enough truck; moreover, its 754ci V-12 is bigger than a CXT 466ci diesel, is bigger than the 456ci V-12 in his '32 Packard (similar to this '34), http://www.earthflix.com/stories/packard.php bigger than the '31 Pierce 462ci V-12 (which had seven bearings, not four, as did both Packard and Cadillac --- whose 1930 V-12 was 368ci when Franklin's was 398ci; and Lincoln's V-12 ci 414 http://www.motorcarportfolio.com/site/product.cfm?id=2274 Buffalo body; Zephyr's V-12 was only a plus-four Ford V-8 flathead... --- and nearly as big as the 2003 Cadillac Sixteen Concept Car's 829ci (which, for Navistar-nots, Mercedes-mavens [if '06 CLS is a coupe, '80 Spirit was a sedan], and Mopar-maniacs [if 300C is the "most awarded", its judges are blind] was, of course, as name clearly states, a V-16] http://k41.pbase.com/u39/xl1ken/upload/25286246.DSCN7502.jpg I'd like to take that thread further: why didn't Nash, Hudson, Chrysler, Studebaker, Cord --- not to mention Duesenberg --- build V-12s or V-16s? It's very interesting and it relates to what AMC did and didn't do. But for now, them's just the truckin' facts. "Enough!" said Sarge. Yessir. If 265/40s on 24s aren't enough big bling, drive an EMD: AT&SF F7. http://www.sdrm.org/roster/diesel/emd/history/sf-347.jpg And BTW, whenever you see the "coves" on '69-up Ambassador "Power Dome" hood stampings, consider how close American Motors came to continuing a significant strand of automotive history. A '16 Twin Six is considered the world's first production V-12 (424ci). A little green plastic copy of this exact car -model- was, oddly enough, my first -model- car. Age three or four, I wanted a Chevrolet Bel Air hardtop model: I had no idea what that funny looking old car might be. Something only old men liked, something I found wholly uninspiring. Who cared about dumb old things? http://tinyurl.com/yfxau8 Dumb kid. Since no one will bother --- again --- to answer, I'll do your work. *In order to obtain Jeep, Chrysler had to guarantee to sell a certain quantity of AMC-Renault cars, to buy a certain amount of AMC-Renault parts, and to abstain from direct model competition in certain areas. Its mid/large "euro-sedan" market would be filled by the Renault-AMC Eagle Premier (a later Dodge Monaco was badge-engineered in hopes of raising volume and lowering per-unit production costs) and its mass-sales mid-sedan market would be filled by solely by Chrysler models. The H-car was killed for America's R25; the LH-car followed; K-cars entered the last stretch of their lives: the AA-body met the masses. When it had no more Spirit and garnered no more Acclaim, it, like a proud Packard had about 50 years before it, it was sent to the Reds. Not to Boston, Cincinnati, or to Rochester [whose Red Wings are AAA], but Beijing, where it was to be built by Jeep. But, unlike the 180, http://mkmagazin.almanacwhf.ru/venicle/zis_110.htm http://www.automir.biz/articles/?art=170 (Don't click, lazy mice; scroll 'em around!) http://www.ladaparts.ru/hotrods/ZIS-110.jpg unlike Saratoga (no, not this Saragota, http://nybclub.org/factoryliterature/1952/Brochure/images/page02.jpg http://www.plan59.com/images/JPGs/chr59dash.jpg but the "forgotten" Mopar of over there: http://tinyurl.com/yxmwjm http://tinyurl.com/y98lg9 (so much for not competing with Renault... http://tinyurl.com/vd2jv and so much for competing with Mercedes... http://tinyurl.com/y3tpy5 http://members.aol.com/phw1auto/sarat_18.jpg [at 200km/h on the A7, if you're asleep...]), or even unlike certain AMCs, http://photos.imageevent.com/mmm_mag/ikaamctorino/icons/_DSC4206_ae.jpg (ask Richard for password, if you want to see this and more fine photos) that lived on after we "lost" them, the tooling from NJ and Mexico that was sent to China was scrapped. No modern "Rambler" re-issue was built. Maybe that steel stamped your refrigerator or TV chassis. Or maybe it's in the same place the senior Packard dies are. Or maybe you simply don't care. That's that. _______________________________________________ AMC-List mailing list AMC-List@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list or go to http://www.amc-list.com