Da VIN "P" Code - Cinque

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

11-12/05 Antique Automobile has a nice '40 "Placar" [sic] photo.  Oops.  If you're thinking of Playboy, the other P-car from Buffalo, think of Nash and remember the Sakhnoffsky design built by Union Body of Chicago [then fast- forward to the 1960s Ambassador stretch] the Nash hoped would "do a Darrin" at autos shows --- over 65 years ago.

The -Playcar- did, of course, "dip" into Packard styling --- done on a Model 4081 Ambassador Eight Cabriolet (the most costly 1940 Nash), but, priced at an astounding $5500 (when Packard Darrins cost from $3500 to $4500 and the top Ambassador Eight ragtop was just $1295), it seems even more astounding that 47 orders were received: 9 of them from Argentina (Eva Peron drove one) and 23 from North America.  7 survivors are now known.  When deciding upon rarity, however, remember that Nash sold only about 53,000 cars in 1940.  But, (and it's a big but), between 1916 and 1940, Nash Motors had never borrowed a cent.  Over decades when even Pierce- Arrow people were beginning to "purchase out of income" (genteel way of saying "buy on time"), Nash paid for everything it did with -cash-.  A fact, that, even in historical perspective, remains astounding and may remind us just how far American motors --- and America --- have fallen.  Should we be ashamed of ourselves?  Or are we just "spoiled rotten children" still?  

But I digress.  That mag covers the 1937 Nash "Sleeping Car" package" (leveling irons, brackets to hold the rear seat up as a storage shelf, and a pad that covered the bed area, all of which, if not in use, was stored in the trunk) that cost only $5.00.  When Nash was flush, bucks was bucks and Packard was earning big bucks both high and low.  But 20 years thereafter, Packard was over, and "Packardbaker" was a new joke (who here wouldn't want one today --- a Clipper, say, with its Teague-style head- and taillights?) about funny new/old cars then being told.
Gremlin jokes, Pacer jokes, Matador jokes, Edsel jokes, Yugo jokes and Packardbaker jokes.  We've heard 'em all.

http://tinyurl.com/7jg5k

Also available on '37 Nash (at $12.95 standard, $15.95 deluxe, $19.95 custom) was hot water heating to which (for $3.00 extra), deluxe and custom buyers could heat up their [factoy-installed] defroster vents.  Kelvinator was ready to "do the Nash."  Next year, a "Conditioned Air System" (revised and re-named "Weather Eye" in 1939) was new; one year after that, Nash engines had "Hurricane Power" (Willys remembered that in 1939) and new "Bonderized" bodies wore new "Permalux" [enamel; just what orange Hornet restorers need now] paint.  More P power to 'em all!

To keep track of sleep in that warm comfortable Nash Motel, an electric clock on the glove box door and a light inside it were $10.00 more.  So during our 1937 "false recovery" from Depression, Nash sold 70,571 cars and when reality returned in 1938, only 31,814 more.  But through 1948, big beds unfolded into Nash trunks and that bit of history came to mind when the recent Escalade piece was posted.

However, that's not all to note in AA.  In the 9-10 issue, (page 44), a [Barcelona II-style two-tone tan] '78 Concord 2-door "specially ordered with Audi 4-cylinder" will be found and in the 7-8/05 issue, one forth-owner, never-left-Baltimore, 34,000-mile '59 Rambler Super (it was sold at a store that still stands and now sells Hondas)(p. 21) and a "never-restored" "Rambler Hurst drag car" owned by Matt Wilson is colorfully found (p. 42).  Good.

So do those, and the many other AMC citations that you do --- or don't (I have hundreds of pages of scribbles in useless boxes of 1996-2006 AMC) archive mean that AMC is "good to go" to tomorrow.  That AMC is as good as other makes?  That AMC is as good as it needs to be?  Do all those AMC articles in all those new magazines mean AMC is finally happenin'?  Or does it mean that more magazines need more content to sell more ads and there isn't much more that can be written (or rewritten) about the Big-3?

You tell us.    

Tell us also how so many other-make fans (for example, Studebaker) can do so much more --- as a group --- than AMC people can do individually. In case you don't know it, Studebaker people opened their own new (not Studebaker-Packard or South Bend Country or Gambling & Rambling) museum in the fall of 2005.  It's not just a hall to display old cars and sell trinkets to tourists: it's a library and archive of Studebaker history.  A $9.6 million example of what Nash-Rambler-AMC-Jeep has not.  Whether AMC means Detroit or Kenosha or oddball models among a few muscle cars that the magazines hype until they're silly, why isn't there a similar place for AMC?  What's with AMC people?  Can't they get it together to accomplish something?  What are AMC clubs, leaders, experts, or lovers still waiting for?  Death before action?  Or just more muddlin' along?   

When will AMC's RWB appear on something like this?

http://www.galen-frysinger.ws/us/studebaker01.jpg

And when will the biggest Nash-AMC museum be in America

http://www.kenoshahistorycenter.org/content/rambler.html

not on the other side of the #$%@^% Atlantic ocean?

http://www.rambler-amc-museum.nl/

Think about it --- and DO something other than just sit.

Note 7:

There was something else I was thinking of and more 360 P-code info in mind, but I've clicked and clacked enough for a month of holidays (and forget what I might have said.)  I'll wrap up 2005 by remembering some earlier auto decades, head to CA, OR (and the Detroit auto show) with two fewer pieces of paper to stuff into my "AMC-is-dead-so?" boxes of woe.  Limited AMC content maybe, just a long look back if you want to think about where we've been or where we're going.  If we're not dead from avian flu, coronary artery disease, or simple stupidity before.   

1885 - Daimler, Maybach, and Benz put IC engines on two or three wheels.

1895 - The first American automobile race was run (in Chicago, IL); following the world's first car race (in France!) one year before.

1905 - The first American drive-in gas station opened (in St. Louis); the US just eclipsed France as the world's top manufacturer of cars.

1915 - William Morris began building Britain's first mass-produced car, in emulation of the Model T Ford.  Remember his Cowley?  Ever seen one?

1925 - Our first car inn (The Motel Inn) opened (in San Luis Obispo, CA): sales of closed cars exceeded those of open ones.  Thank Hudson.

1935 - Opel, not Cord, Ford, or Nash, built mass-produced unit bodies.  Lessons taught on Olympia take years to be learned at/by American GM.

1945 - War ends, car-building starts, Henry Ford [forced to] retire[s].

1955 - The first -franchised- McDonalds opened (in Des Plaines, IL) and Germany passed Britain as the world's #1 -exporter- of automobiles.

1965 - Ralph Nader published "Unsafe at Any Speed": odd and important.

1975 - After two years of energy crisis, Congress finally mandated CAFE.  30 years later, where are they now?

1985 - Toyota started US production in partnership with GM.  NUMMI began to assemble Corollas and Novas in a plant characterized by what was then seen in many unionized American manufacturing facilities: absenteeism, [on-the-job] drug/alcohol use, low worker morale, high labor-management tension.  The Japanese path was followed.  Absenteeism dropped from 20% to 2%, quality soared, and productivity nearly doubled.  Obviously what worked in Japan worked in the US --- but did/would GM (and America) look and learn?

1995 - More autos and light trucks were registered in America than drivers were licensed.  And that's not counting all those AMCs in your back yards.

Closing note:

In 1968, the first year of AMC Javelin, Japan was fourth in world car production; in the year AMC Javelin swept Trans-Am, Japan was second; in the year AMC Javelin was discontinued, Japan passed Germany as the largest exporter of vehicles; and in 2006, Toyota will pass GM as the largest automaker on this globe.  From 1975 to 1985, the British auto industry nearly melted into oblivion; from 2005 to 2015, the American auto industry will become increasingly non-American; from 2015 to who- knows-when, American Motors fans will or won't build a big website, a big museum, a big archive, and a big success story.  You are AMC now: do more, do it better, and do as much good as you can.  Like AMC did.

Happy Motoring and Happy New Year.

"Every day look at a beautiful picture, read a beautiful poem, listen to beautiful music and, if possible, say something reasonable."

- Goethe

"Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution."

- Gibran

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

- Emerson

"Life well spent is long."

- Da Vinci

An' remember da AM "P" code!