Hello

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

Delphi bankrupting, Goodyear skidding, GM and Ford crying for help from unions, governments, and from up above.  What can be done?  Can America weather many more storms?  Can it regain its erstwhile place in the sun?

Can it innovate its way out of the latest surge of trouble?  Can it pull itself up by its own bootstraps?  Can it end a "too-much/too-soon" sense of entitlement and toss out a "too-little/too-late" approach to problem- solving with the hurricane debris?  Can it succeed on less torque, fewer cubes, smaller cars, houses, and appetites, or will it super-size itself to death --- happily?

Or, since it lives on borrowed everything today, will it have a choice? When petroleum, natural gas, electricity, food, and credit aren't there to beg, borrow, and squander, will America be happy to have any old car that will roll down its roads?  (And will it be glad to have any rolls it can butter --- with American-made soybean spread?)

America won't recover by introducing more big trucks --- when Asia [and Europe] build more fuel-efficient cars (in all segments) that are bigger inside, not out.  Vice Versa (Tilda, you can call it) may Fit (the Honda Scion) America to a Model T.  History never repeats itself precisely: it only revolves around certain themes repeatedly.

Those who remember history --- specifically American Motors history --- will recall when that dying company went under after doing great things.  
In 1974, Pacer predicted the age of Taurus; in 1980, Eagle tried to soar where Audi and Subaru --- and everyone else --- now want to be.  AMC was not the last gasp grasping for greatness or the last make trying to stay alive on the American car scene.  There's no Kenosha Cadillac: how 'bout a new Mitsubishi Mercedes, instead?

http://tinyurl.com/9wk6b

Check back around 2030; you'll see.

Until then, let's make the most of what has survived AMC: of the ~133 AL Javelins, of the ~174 Ambassador hardtop wagons, of the very few Hornet 360 hatchbacks, and of the old-timers who recall interesting car things.

(Let's also not write like we drank a cup of sour grape tea.  I'm surely not the only one who doesn't want to wonder, "What the ----?  Why did XX need to say that in -that- tone here?")

>>
http://www.nbc.com/My_Name_Is_Earl/
drives what looks to be a 64 Rambler, Classic or Typhoon that is gold.
<<

And, Eddie, "LeCar" was in the dialogue of that show's second episode.

Useless factoids: skateboarder-turned-actor Jason Lee's father spent time as an auto-industry-related executive (due to which, Jason spent time in Europe and Asia), Jason's son is named "Pilot Inspektor" (since he's only two years old, presumably not because he works for Honda on truck QC), and, to be AMC about it, Jason was introduced 24 days after Gremlin was.  Oh, the '70s.  

Also on TV: a '64 Rambler American appears in Part II of "No Direction Home" by Martin Scorsese; keeping company with Cadillacs and a Bentley.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/dylan/

>>Looking for a 1958 or 59 cross country wagon

Looking like a Lexus --- or better, like a leaf on the AMC family tree!

http://www.cgoodwin.com/Willys/photos/GG-Panorama2a.jpg

Hope you find and restore one; history needs to be reminded that AM once was nearly as much America's "Wagonmaster" as was the much better-known Ford.

>>Any info on these subtle details or rarity of the no post wagons?

I'm a wagon lover (but if I live another 52 years, never an 'expert'...), and have owned three Buicks, two Packards, and two AMC 'burbans --- with or without real or fake wood (my four "dreamboats" would be: '56 Chevy Bel Air Nomad, '42 Chrysler Town & Country, '42 Hudson Super-Six [Cantrell], and '41 Cadillac 62 [Coachcraft: the two-door fastback from Hollywood, a one-off for the Durango Kid.  The Dartmouth footballer, the film cowboy,
the scion of a company still in business.  Charles Starret had style---

http://www.theastrocowboy.com/Mlist/skitch.htm

http://www.starrett.com/pages/999_starrett_celebrates_125th_anniversary.cfm 

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/PTGPOD/456373.jpg

[or, to keep things OT, keeping company with two Rambler Americans...]

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/1941-Cadillac-Series-62-Coachcraft-Estate-car_i1002862_.htm

Did any AMC experts ever tell you where the Nash woody sedan began?

http://www.oldwoodies.com/img/usa/46nash_lr.jpg

If not, then remember yet another Kenosha Cadillac

http://www.rmauctions.com/events/auctionresults.cfm?sCode=az05

[Click on Lot 132...]

Unless you like parts-bin BT beauty [and don't notice wheels or tires]

http://www.1motormart.com/gallery/47chvy01.jpg

--- and he knew some about automobiles.  He also inspired the two-time AMC-family (Terraplane and Nash) buyer who later played President.  He was a founder of the union that provided RR's first political platform.  

http://www.sag.org/history/

The Durango Kid's white horse was "Raider."  Dodge the bullet, indeed!

Go drive a Mitsubishi Raider by Dodge.

http://tinyurl.com/7decx  

Or drive a Dodge Raider by Mitsubishi.

http://tinyurl.com/atan6

Remember what I wrote about history??)

Back to the point from which I wandered.  American Motors hardtop wagons weren't common to begin with (Standard Catalogs will provide specifics) and they're the sort of make, model, and body style that could, when history doesn't repeat in the way it hasn't repeated since cars replaced horses, become of "special interest" to anyone interested in cars or in history.  The 117" (if I remember correctly) wagons could, eventually, count among the most valuable of "non-muscle" cars that American Motors ever assembled.  Whether one does or doesn't like them, they are AMC history at its peak.

Time to go; hardly said anything useful.  So I'll leave you with a job.

Pick one name from those below that you think had the greatest influence on the American auto industry.  Henry Ford is purposely not included.  I will tell you what you could win --- hopefully, tomorrow.

John Anderson, Ford Motor Co.
Clarence Avery, Ford Motor Co.
Carl Breer, Chrylser Corp.
Edward G. Budd, Edward Budd Manufacturing/Budd Wheel
David G. Buick, Buick MotorCo.
Hugh Chalmers, Chalmers Detroit MotorCar Co.
Albert C. Champion, AC Sparkplug Co.
Roy D. Chapin, Hudson Motor Car Co.
Louis Chevrolet,  Cheverolet Motor Co.
Walter P. Chrysler, Chrysler Corp.
James Couzens, Ford Motor Co.
Horace E. Dodge, Dodge Brothers
John F. Dodge, Dodge Brothers
Dallas J. Dort, Durant Dort Carriage Co.
William C. Durant, Durant Dort Carriage Co/ General Motors
Harley J. Earl, General Motors Corp.
Byron F. Everitt, Everitt-Metzger-Flanders (EMF)
Alfred J. Fisher, Fisher Body Co.
Charles T. Fisher, Fisher Body Co.
Edward  F. Fisher, Fisher Body Co.
Fred J. Fisher, Fisher Body Co.
Howard A. Fisher, Fisher Body Co.
Lawrence P. Fisher, Fisher Body Co.
William A Fisher, Fisher Body Co.
Walter E. Flanders, Everitt-Metzger-Flanders (EMF)
Edsel B. Ford, Ford Motor Co.
Frederick J. Haynes, Dodge Brothers, Durant Motors
George M. Holley, Holley Carburetor Co.
Henry B. Joy, Packard Motor Car Co.
K. T. Keller, Chrylser Corp.
Charles F. Kettering, General Motors Corp.
Charles B. King, King Motor Car Co.
William S, Knudsen, General Motors Corp.
Henry M. Leland, Cadillac Automobile Co./ Lincoln Motor Car Co.
Alvin Macauley, Packard Motor Car Co.
Jonathan Maxwell, Maxwell Motor Co.
William E. Metzger, Everitt-Metzger-Flanders (EMF)
Charles Stewart Mott,  General Motors Corp.
Charles W. Nash, General Motors Corp./ Nash Motors
B. E. (Barney) Oldfield, Race car driver
Ransom E. Olds, Olds Motor Vehicle Co./REO Car Co.
Walter P. Reuther, United Auto Workers (UAW)
Edward V. Rickenbacker, Rickenbacker Motor Car Co.
Owen R. Skelton, Chrysler Corp.
Alfred P. Sloan, General Motors Corp.
Charles E. Sorensen, Ford Motor Co.
William B. Stout,  Stout Metal Airplane Co.
Jessie G. Vincent, Packard Motor Car. Co.
Harlod C. Wills, Ford Motor Car Co.

Fred M. Zeder, Chrysler Corp.