Too...

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

After almost two weeks away, sleeping at home and returning to normal is
good.  What "normal" is tomorrow might be better or "worse, for if 30 good
years in the Empire State's third city become 5-10 in its biggest Apple, it
may end an "My-Life-With-AMC-As-I've-Known-It."  Decades in storage works
for hick in the sticks, but in a spot where cracker box apartments at ~$2M
are bargain-priced (where the only green things are trees across the street
in Central Park and a ficus benjamina by your dining room window; where
messy [and protected] birds nest on a ledge for "nature-lovers" to observe)
and where a second garage space seems to be "highly unlikely" (despite its
~$200k cost), nostalgia may meet reality and AMC memories may go to new
homes.

A $6500 Ambassador wagon (sure) is the same size as a $65,000 Roadmaster
Estate.  A $5000 (dream) Spirit liftback is only a litte shorter than a
$150,000 Pierce convertible.  A Packard and an Auburn, too?  An acquaintance
(announces old car shows, avocationally) who could afford many, owns only
three autos: "One to store, one to restore and one to drive."

Wise man, good example, need new plan.  As one afflicted with both
"ex-professor" and "Rambler" mentality, I hate to waste anything: substance
or mind.  There's possibility, there's history, there's all that AMC
information to be shared.  Got dilemma.  Got to fish or cut bait before too
long.         

So this'll be my last [w]rite for things I read or saw.  When (if) there's
time for writing over the next year, I'll do nothing more than pull paper
from AMC boxes and fling facts onto the list.  Nothing will relate to
currents under discussion; the words won't be well wrought.  I'll only post
things that seem to be "unknown" to AMC experts, on the chance such words
may somehow prove useful someday.

If you don't want to read 'em, skip.  If you do, hope you enjoy.  

Start last Ramble now:

I left LA just before the mayoral re-run ran, after the auto auction I
didn't plan to attend also ran.  A friend who was attending said, "Hey, come
along!" so I went.  We saw one Hornet (a -Green- Hornet) sell and an
AMC/AMX-style magazine Riv on the block.  AMC-content-by-a-stretch.  

http://www.petersen.org/pdf/bonham.pdf

For a no-reserve sale, a lot of money ran wild.  Check lots 811 and 872.

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/wspd_cgi.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=US
A&screen=catalogue&iSaleNo=13278

Quite a few of the cars were paid for in euros.  By Europeans, that is.


Speaking of Europeans, now that Toyota is displacing GM as an American brand
and Chrysler is setting '00s style like GM did in the '30s-'60s, that
Maybach is showing off like Harley Earl and William Mitchell had, isn't
surprising.  If you can't sell steak, sell steak sizzle instead.
 
http://www.prova.de/archiv/2005/00-artikel/0062-maybach-exelero/index.shtml


Speaking of Toyota,

>>How a Toyota engineer bakes a potato:

I heard this in Detroit:

Q - What must Toyota do to ensure success of the next Camry?
A - Keep selling the old one but with redesigned taillights. 

Q - What must GM do to ensure survival into the next century?
A - Keep hoping the 1980s return and bring back Olds Cutlass.

And this from Germany:

Q - As you know, production of Dexron III ends next year and Dexron VI can
be used for fluid replacement.  (No Dexron IV or V: don't ask why.)  GM
claims its product is the world's finest.  Therefore, since BMW must use
Dexron in transmissions it buys from GM to qualify for warranty, why doesn't
GM use Dexron in transmissions that it buys from other suppliers around the
world?

A - "It would cost more than using a blend."  (Ah, America...)


If Japan and Korea aren't enough for GM to face, they soon face more.

http://www.ridercn.com/photo/bikeshow/2004_bei_auto/newmodel/23_hafei/2_b.jp
g

http://cimg.163.com/auto/2004/tuku/hafei/saibao/010.jpg
http://cimg.163.com/auto/2004/tuku/hafei/saibao/004.jpg

(Including more X-cars which are more new AMX than new Citation...)

http://www.studio-x-gene.com/

http://www.autonet.com.tw/cgi-bin/news/news_view4mail.cgi?qry=a5040427

The new world is -not- the old New World of GM, Ford, Chrysler and AMC.

And it will not be the old Old World for Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce.

Yesterday:

http://www.faw.com/product/product.jsp?FileName=Redqj_wg&left=jc

Tomorrow: 

http://www.infomotori.com/a_741_IT_15107_1.html

(You can buy 'em in any color you choose, as long as you choose black.)