Remember Nash-AMC

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

>>http://home.earthlink.net/~rtneyhart

Nice 'combs, so who made the honey?  (Meaning: please ID the wheels...)

>>
Speaking of Cherokee/Comanche... One problem with the XJ Cherokee is that they just didn't give enough rear seat leg room. Even the Chinese stretched it a couple inches in the back! Well, there's no easy way around that issue now. I wouldn't want to stretch a door -- though it's possible, it's a lot of work!
<<

Frank, I remember, "We'd offer to stretch a Concord [Limited wagon] for you if we could, but we can't build you a new Ambassador."  That "sense of humor" is one of the best things I shall recall of "old" AMC history.

AFA "new" [AMC] Jeep, read if interested:  

http://www.jeep.com.cn/jeep2500/home.html

http://www.jeep.com.cn/museum/history/h_index.asp

And don't say you can't "'Cuz it's all Chinese!"

Americans need Chinese AND good English.  ("Yo, ya know what ah mean?")

Ad on a February 2006 [print] page of AN recruiting automotive workers:

"Talent, experienced, and degreed (Bs, MS, PhD) experts..." only, please.  

The employer was Hyundai/KIA.  All three job locations were in -Korea-. 

Re: good English, I wrote "MazdaSport" here.  Wrong: it's -Mazdaspeed-.

Re: wrong writing, I quoted "LED TV screen."  Right: it's not an -LCD-.

Maybe he only plays a dumb President and he's smarter than some think.

Today GM discovered that it had lost $2 billion more than it previously thought.  Now it's just like the rest of America: over-spent and under-thought.  But be happy, don't worry: good times will continue to roll.

Due diligence, precision, and education?  No way, Jose, we're America.

We're mainly here to make loud noises and have lots of fun.  Drink up!        

But first, raise the MSRPs, give 0% financing, and pile on more spiffs: for every ten Toyotas, we just might be able to sell a couple of Jeeps.  Should "300C" Ralph redesign the iconic old Willys-Kaiser-AMC logo too?   

Michelle Krebs looked at "A World Without General Motors" in March and Carol Loomis saw "The Tragedy of General Motors" in February, and many believe America building big dumb old RWD V-8 "nostalgiamobiles" (they still drive Olds 98s and AMC Ambassadors?) will be an answer to things.   

http://tinyurl.com/hdceg

Maybe we'll see a new "Rambler American 220 Station Wagon" niche open; maybe we'll hear the trumpet call for a Matador Barcelona III reissue;
or maybe we'll awake someday to realize that what happened to American motors for 30 years was nothing but a bad dream.  Don't worry; drive a new old Hemicuda.  Burn gasoline.  Burn rubber.  Make noise.  Have fun.   

50 years ago, GM's share of the nearly 99% American maker American car market was nearly 50%: with Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac the most coveted cars in America.

Today, "GM (and Ford and etc.) cars don't break like they used to.  But nobody will buy them."  So believes one American brand new car dealer.

"Turning GM around is a harder logistical and managerial task than the invasion of Iraq."  So believes one American Wall Street stock analyst.

"Saving AMC turned out to be more than even the French government could manage."  So said another American Wall Street stock analyst.  In 1986.

Truth is, GM (and Ford and AMC and etc.), as indentured servants to the UAW, are believed powerless --- because of the union's power to strike.

GM pension funds and dedicated retiree health benefit own $119 billion of GM market value.  GM stockholders own only $13 billion --- in total.  GM workers are, in effect, their own emperors but they have no clothes.  As the Japanese (and Koreans and Chinese and etc.) keep coming.  Do we see Studebaker or AMC?

In 2005, Kenosha built 97,500 200-hp 2.7 V-6s for Stratus and Sebring, 65,000 190-hp 2.7s for Magnum and 300, 202,500 250-hp 3.5Ls for Magnum, 300, and Pacifica, and 93,000 190-hp 4.0L I-6s for Wrangler.  Nash-AMC now.

In February of 1932, Nash introduced its five-series lineup in Chicago: 27 new models, lower prices ($777 to $2055), "Slip-Stream" bodies, "X-Dual" double-drop frames, and "Beavertails" --- the most beautiful cars Kenosha had yet built.  Longer, lower, wider.  Suitable to advertise in the fanciest of magazines: Harper's and Country Life, to name just two.  The engineering was as find as the quality was exceptional.  They were the finest cars --- simply picture the 133" Advanced Eight rumble-seat coupe --- that would ever bud out on the entire Nash-AMC family tree.

They sold well, too: 17,699 total units and Nash made a million dollars in '32.  Only one other US car company was also able to report a profit that year.  General Motors.  GM's '32 cars were at their most beautiful too.

In 1932, the year George Eastman put a bullet in his head a few blocks from where I type, Charles Nash gave up his company presidency (but he continued active interest and involvement) and in 1933, Nash would join the many other American automakers to celebrate "A Century of Progress" at the Chicago World's Fair.

In 2005, Korea sold 730,863 Hyundai and KIA vehicles in America.  (Saab sold only 38,343.)  GM sold almost 1,500,000 full-size trucks and SUVs in America.  If Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Korea sells half as many to America, GM dies.  It's not Nash's or AMC's (or Kodak's) America today.

In 1956, Oxford University Press published "The Power Elite" and in it (in Chapter 5 that is titled, "The Very Rich"), these words can still be read:

"At one point or another the 'bureaucratic' men have usually been as much 'entrepreneurs' as were classic founders of fortunes.  Many of them, in fact --- like Charles W. Nash --- broke out on their own to found their own companies.  Many, especially the 1925 set, took on the gambling spirit and even some of the magnificence associated with the robber barons of the nineteenth century."

When Nash died nine years before that book was written, his net worth was over 100 million dollars.  Clearly, he would be on a "Billionaire
List" today.  (George Eastman -gave away- over 100 million dollars IN HIS LIFETIME! --- clearly, he would be a "Bill Gates" today.)  But by 1986, the company Nash had founded, that made him so "Very Rich" was almost gone.  Can the same thing ever happen to GM?

In February 2006, the president of a US carmaker said, "In our company, there are two planning processes: short-term and long-term.  Short-term means in our lifetime."

In February 2006, the market capitalization of that company became twice that of GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler --- combined.  That company is now worth more than Wal-Mart.  That company is, of course, named Toyota USA.

Last year, Honda ranked first in US car patents, GM at forty-fourth, and Ford didn't make the top fifty.

In February 2006, [retired Chrysler VP] Tom Gale said, "To be really successful, design has got to be a part of the fabric of the company."

Maybe he remembered the year 1932 and Charles Nash.

Or maybe that GM's Saturn -never- turned a profit...