Iffy?

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

>>
Having a bad day?
<<

No, just a rude awakening --- after nine (plus thirty) AMC years of
learning.

>>
We know how to say thanks.
<<

Some do, many don't --- as I was recently reminded.  Embarrassment over
failure to find one particular piece of Chapin (Jr.) paper (for his son) led
to assessment of my "archive" and action to reduce its bulk.  Too many hours
later, fifty [!] pounds of information I thought -should- be available in
print or on the net was bagged and shredded (so no names or addresses were
compromised.)  As I caught a few Lapine-Porsche-Pacer pages in the nick of
time, Packard/Detroit in 1956 and Pierce/Buffalo in 1938 came to mind.  Four
boxes (six feet of AM stuff: from written notes to typescripts to original
documents or copies) and thousands of pages remain.  That's in addition to
the eye candy (sketches, detail drawings, renderings, photos) and gloss
(sales tools, ad images) that could fill a taste for several $24.99 AMC
"history" books if served with lightweight captions.  The cross-reference
materials so sorely needed to tell how Nash-Hudson-Rambler-American
Motors-Jeep fit into the bigger scheme of American auto manufacturing are
another category yet.

The "marketable" items would interest many; the "rare" material would be of
value only to the most motivated of AM fanatics; the "reams" of paper
recycled could make the most fanatic of them wonder where AMC has gone.
Nine years ago, this list was something: it was full of facts, figures,
learning and enthusiasm from young and old.  Over nine years, I flung facts
and figures with public abandon and sent private info.  I tried many ways to
share information and seek connection; I actually boxed up gifts and mailed
them.  I spent $25, $35, $50 on postage more than once.  Of those
recipients, only three reciprocated.  Two never even e-mailed a simple
"thanks."  Maybe books, toys and trivia weren't what the doctors and the
dudes ordered.  Or maybe AMC people don't know how they come across.

Too many of the posts I shredded were filled with bluster, name-calling and
pointed fingers.  Too many of the most promising --- nearly ALL the most
promising, to be blunt --- posters appear to be long gone.  List standbys
are to be appreciated and their devotion --- despite what names they've been
called [Jock, meet Frank: you're both after the betterment of AMC, aren't
you?] are to be lauded, but the negatives of "being AMC" or "being Rambler"
demand more than just letting things go.  Thanking some freelance scribe for
a few inches in the Times wasn't what I was suggesting; making a hobby more
appealing was.          

In the sports section of yesterday's Rochester newspaper, an article on
playing surfaces contained these words: "Comparing the new artificial turf
to grass] 'is like night and day. You're talking about a Cadillac and a
Nash.'"  (I doubt the speaker had any idea who was president of General
Motors once.)

Starting from disadvantages and blowing opportunities to rise higher,
whether in 1955 or 2005, is what I was writing about.  If Japan built cars
like American Motors fans build their future, I wouldn't see the brand new
Acura RL that has pulled up outside my window.  Its paint looks like molten
silver.  Some might still say, "It's just a Honda." Someday, they might also
be the ones who can't even afford to own a 1983 AMC Concord.   


>>
When folks call your AMC 'ugly', you send them here...
<http://tanetane92.web.infoseek.co.jp/20050116tas2.html>
<<

The Fairlady and Skyline are counted as "future classics" by some of the
world's top car designers; the faux four-door hardtop (w/M-B taillights) is
as good as Detroit's best "golden age" examples ever got, and, if you park a
Concord or Spirit fast hatchback beside the Cosmo, similarity to AMC's best
will be evident.  "Ugly" is in the eye of beholders --- and in the hand of
those who customize.

http://www.3dfinlay.net/gallery/album85/nissan300zx

http://www.3dfinlay.net/gallery/album85/skyline_blueprint_16colors    

http://www.tocmp.com/brochures/Chev/1966/Corvair/1966CorvairBrochure/Corvair
66_07.html

http://www.tocmp.com/brochures/Chev/1965/Caprice/pages/1965Ccapricebrochurep
age1_JPG.htm

http://www.fedrelandsvennen.no/amcar/brochures/mopar/56imperial/4.html

And some think being "square" is a compliment...

http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1964/Ads/LeBaronQuiet.jpg

Too bad American Motors never -earned- any second chances to update.

http://www.fedrelandsvennen.no/amcar/brochures/misc/59ram.html

[Forum folk take note of the nomenclature.  George Romney knew (he said, and
took action) that although Nash and Hudson became "Rambler" for '58,
American Motors' success and survival required that it not be a
Rambler-priced nameplate.  He never planned to run an "economy car-only"
company and AM never --- even when it had virtually no lines left after 1980
--- wanted to have nothing but compacts.  As the Hyundai president said, no
car company can ever hope to exist selling just "lower-priced" vehicles.

And even before he died, Henry was forced to admit that truism as well.

Today, what is still the world's largest car company came to admit something
else that Henry --- James, Walter and Charlie --- all knew:
 
"Our own studies show that consumers place a tangible value on the General
Motors name"

-Mark LaNeve, April 13, 2005

Starting in 2006, every GM vehicle will wear a GM badge.  (GM was the only
major US automaker that did not market under its corporate name...)  A good
corporate name, like GM, AMC or even Rambler, when used for more than a few
years and on a line of readily related products (who'd expect to see Pacer
beside Gremlin in the same catalog and showroom?) tells the consumer that
that automaker is strong.  Strong companies back up their products.  And
rarely change their names.

To specific Forum folks, there's more Rambler in AMX, Javelin, Gremlin and
Hornet than you may want to admit, but then there's more Golf in a new
Passat than its Phaeton style is supposed to show.  There was more bad about
the drawn-out struggle to update retail outlets of AMC than there was good
in Nash Rambler nostalgia (frugality?, mentality?) that lasted into the
early '70s.  Finally, Fallbrook (what a fine place to "be into" AMC --- that
turnaround on the hill once filled with AMC and Packard and Mopar and Full
Classic machines should be hallowed ground) is correct that AMX will be the
leading "musclecar" representative of AMC (as both a commodity and as a
dream), but the two genuine Muscle Cars (tm) from AMC may become equally
important outside of AMC circles.  Both in sense and cents.

And FWIW, while the Nash Met did point toward a future of Capris (not
Caprice), Colts and such "captive imports" --- just as did the Nash-Healey
point toward Iso and Monteverdi banquets, the American Austin (not the
Austin America) laid a Bantam egg that hatch a trend way back in 1929.
Styling was changed and things were <duh> necessarily moved around, but
royalties are never paid for being similar.  That's one of the few things
that Henry Ford and Charlie Nash readily agreed upon.  

Selden (the patent) Street is a few blocks away from my window, too.

>>
talk my 14 year old into wanting it!  He currently thinks BMW's and Mercedes
are the only cars worth having
<<

CR rated M-B's 2004 E-Class the most unreliable car sold in the United
States and BMW isn't exactly up to Toyota today.

http://www.bmwtrack.com/bmw_reliability_data.htm

If he won't read it in German (have you read what Lutz just said about the
capability of American automotive engineers?  When he speaks the truth in
Deutsch and English, is he "having a bad day" under the Motown "ciel"  

{O, curses, seeing a Buick Cadillac Nash Rambler Land aut in the sky!}

http://retractable.free.fr/pics/bkcielo03.jpg

http://www.fedrelandsvennen.no/amcar/inside/buick/bilder/cielo1.jpg

http://www.fedrelandsvennen.no/amcar/inside/buick/bilder/cielo2.jpg

or isn't anyone at RenCen really raring to disagree with his view?)

Anyway, back on the Beam, er, or if Deutsch Triple-A is Bush league,

{Should America be very proud it -finally- has a modern-era President who
can speak a second language or be embarrassed by Spanglish sounds?
Why haven't our education tax dollars and union membership done more?}

http://www.adac.de/default.asp

maybe he'll read the 2005 list

Image Ranking
1 Mercedes-Benz
2 BMW
3 Audi
4 VW
5 Porsche
6 Volvo
7 Opel
8 Jaguar
9 Renault
10 Toyota
11 Ford
12 Alfa Romeo
13 Peugeot
14 Mazda
15 Skoda
16 Smart
17 Saab
18 Citroen
19 Honda
20 Chrysler
21 Nissan
22 Mitsubishi
23 Fiat
24 Seat
25 Land Rover
26 Hyundai
27 Kia
28 Daewoo
29 Lancia
30 Rover
31 Subaru
32 Daihatsu
33 Suzuki

Reliability Ranking
1 Toyota
2 Subaru
3 Honda
4 Mazda
5 Nissan
6 Mitsubishi
7 Suzuki
8 Porsche
9 Saab
10 Hyundai
11 BMW
12 Daihatsu
13 Volvo
14 Jaguar
15 Citroen
16 Kia
17 Skoda
18 Lancia
19 Daewoo
20 Peugeot
21 Ford
22 Seat
23 Renault
24 Alfa Romeo
25 Rover
26 Audi
27 Opel
28 Chrysler
29 Smart
30 Fiat
31 VW
32 Mercedes-Benz
33 Land Rover

and wonder what DaimlerChrysler's been doing?  It's not a new problem.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1044433,00.html


>>
The church of the '70 AMX 12 slat grille....

and

Hmmm, would that be the '84 Ford Mustang SVO with turbo 2.3?
<<

Steve's looking and thinking (which is the best point of departure), but my
"slant" was toward the first AM job by Teague ('61 Ambassador front end I
linked to) and the last AMC car he designed.  The one-off for PPG.
Some of which feeling would have found its way to production as a Spirit AMX
Turbo.  If AMC hadn't dug its own grave by then.  I could have added a link
to the "Breedlove nose" as well, but if fingers would be pointed and names
called, I won't.  It's in all the AMC books.  Good luck.

(A brand new BMW 5-sedan has now parked in front of the Acura TL.  It's
every bit as attractive; its white paint looks like it was chiseled out of
Carrara (not Carrera) marble, and its giant cross-laced alloys gleam like
platinum.  There's a reason American motors, like American Motors, are in
decline.  It starts with a product; the product becomes a brand.
No matter how hyper AMX prices become, if AMC never matures into more than
"just" Nash or a Rambler, Rodney Dangerfield will stay its patron saint.)

Time to go before a Lexus parks for the restaurant.


Have a good (or bad) day.