Re: [AMC-List] Fact (VAM Lerma)

["Swygert, Francis G MSgt 436 CES/CECM" <Francis.Swygert3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Had AMC proffered it to us, Lerma would have been another LeBaron GTS:
just
another smart car that N. Americans were too dumb to want to own.

*And if you know -all- your AMC history, you know why it was cancelled.

How 'bout you tell us?"

----------------------------------

The Lerma was a "cut-n-paste" car made up in Mexico by VAM. They took a
Concord body, cut it off at the back, and welded a cut off Spirit rear
end to it. The execs there proud of their creation, and took one to
Kenosha. Kenosha wasn't impressed. It would be to costly to do it the
way the Mexicans did due to labor, and waste a lot of material. If done
at the body plant, a new rear floor and quarters would have to be made
since the Spirit components wouldn't fit unaltered. This would have
required new dies. 

I'm certain VAM was altering the parts then assembling bodies, not
cutting whole or partially assembled bodies. That would be to
wasteful/costly for anyone, with the exception of a prototype or two.
The Lerma was introduced in 1981, so had to be shown to AMC officials in
early 1980 at best. I doubt AMC was interested in another variant of
their 10 year old body -- they were pushing for something more up to
date by dealing with Renault. 

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