and pictures

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

Sometimes pictures can be PhotoShopped.

Sometimes words are both right and wrong.

Why didn't anyone correct my right-and-wrong comment about AMC rebate?  Not
enough words? 

AMC did NOT invent the cash sales rebate; Chrysler did, in 1979, when
Iacocca's "Buy a car, get a check!" (his check was for $50; look at us
now...) created one of the most successful auto sales programs of all time.
He sold K-cars, saved Chrysler, and then bought AMC/Jeep.  Or is it too far
away to recall? 

Tangent:
Exactly 34 years ago yesterday, Lee Iacocca became President of Ford; 26
years ago on the Ides of October, Henry Ford II fired him.  Before 1978
ended, Iacocca was President of Chrysler.  In 1985 and 1986, he tried to
acquire AMC; he had a tough time convincing the board to eventually do so.
Three weeks from yesterday, it will be 12 years since he retired as Chrysler
CEO.
He was one of the best car -salesmen- of all time.  He virtually outlawed
airbag research while at Ford, but when he needed to sell higher-content,
higher-profit K-cars, he promoted airbags and made Chrysler the first
domestic with standard SRS.
He now says that he'd "rather be remembered for helping create the Mustang
or the minivan" instead of the "guy who invented rebates."  He also says
that he will always be "one of the most hated guys ever" within the
industry, since car companies pay for rebates, no matter how many more cars
they help to sell. 
His rebates worked so well that GM, Ford and American Motors rebated too.
The Big-three American automakers (and AMC) soon were selling more cars, but
at lower prices and lower profits.  What once was Chrysler's brief advantage
has become a permanent disadvantage to the American auto industry --- while
Honda, Toyota and [name import here] continued to build better, bigger,
higher priced and more profitable vehicles.  Look how far we've come.
Text:
But there are two parts of that chapter of American car history we may have
forgotten.
1 - Lee Iacocca derived his cash rebate concept from the factory-sponsored
1971 "free TV" and 1978 "free a/c" premium offers and from the ~1977 factory
"silent" promotion (a $250 Pacer rebate) premiered by the car company he
later acquired.  Lee copied American Motors.
2 - Lee Iacocca also said, "Rebates don't sell cars, cars sell cars."  The
concept once again "saving" DaimlerChryslerJeep (Mercedes certainly isn't)
when 300Cs can be sold without rebates.  Full price; high profits.  Just
like [Toyota] Prius, [Toyota] Scion and [Toyota's Lexus] RX today.

AMC rarely --- even when it had two-seat AMXs, four-cylinder Gremlins and
opera-windowed Concords (Lee Iacocca thought they were "winners" in dark
maroon and   navy) to sell --- could sell cars at full price for high
profits.  The most profitable car AMC ever sold was an 20-year-old truck
designed by an outside consultant.  Jeep Grand Wagoneer.  Lee Iacocca liked
it also: enough to buy it and its [AMC-designed] little brothers.  Jeep
profits went on to save Chrysler so it could become Mercedes.  Look how far
they've come.

When Toyota becomes the new General Motors, will DaimlerChrysler be
AMC/Jeep?    

BTW, it was a 12" B&W [American-made?] GE TV.  So far away...  

BTW2, not far from Milburn, Defiance, Dana (and, of course, Jeep) is:

http://www.bright.net/~oberhausenterprises/id21.htm

Happy motoring through middle-American auto history.