[Amc-list] "Johnny Appleseed is selling automotive dreams"

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

(...and doesn't care if you do --- or don't --- read or agree with him...)

"He's making a speech --- so what else is new?"

That's what -they- said way back in AMC history.  Here are -his- words:

"This fellow here is called a triceratops.  He had the biggest radiator ornament in prehistoric history [and] had a wheelbase of nearly 30 feet.  The dinosaur perished because he got too big."

[The American dinosaur ... is the long, low, chrome-laden U.S. auto, i.e., any car made by Detroit's Big Three]: "Who wants to have a gas-guzzling dinosaur in his garage?"

"Why do you drive such big cars?  You don't need a monster to go to the drugstore for a package of hairpins."

"If we all drove small cars, we'd have a lot less trouble like this."

"We don't have research and development facilities in magnitude equal to the Big Three, but we have greater freedom and flexibility of operation.  We're leaner.  We're harder.  We're faster.  I've seen halfbacks, out in the clear, trip and fall flat with a sure touchdown in sight.  That sort of thing could happen to anybody.  But I don't intend to let that happen to us."

- G. Romney, April 6, 1959


"We put our trust in the American people and the free enterprises [that] American people create; if government is too big, it slows down innovation and entrepreneurs."

"What does this mean for Detroit?  Well, it means that the automotive fleet will have to become more fuel-efficient.  CAFE improved mileage initially, but the consumer has gotten around it over the last couple of decades.  CAFE has some real problems."

"Let's not forget that a far more fuel efficient fleet must be part of our energy future.  The issue is, which is the least distorting way to achieve it."

- M. Romney, February 7, 2007


Detroit dreams will never die.  Toyota will never fulfill them.

American motorists don't ever, EVER! intend to let that happen.

In 1959, Studebaker sold 4,300 Larks each week and AMC market share had risen from 1.6% to 6.2%; scarcely more than 500,000 import cars were sold in all of North America.  So George Romney saw a bright future for American Rambler:

"In five years the compact car will have at least half the auto market."

American Motors had needed to increase production 20 times in 18 months.

AMC expected to build as many Ramblers as imported-make sales -totaled-.

AMC almost reached its lofty goal.  Then the goalposts were moved.  Far!  

In 1987, as AMC rattled to death, GM had fallen to a 39.6% market share.

AMC-Jeep-Renault had fallen to an amazingly small .7% domestic presence.

AMC sold $3.5 billion worth of cars: it lost almost $1 billion to do so.

AMC couldn't survive building cars it couldn't profit from.  New or old.

It didn't matter how many AMC cars you and your kind of buyers bought.

It won't matter if you buy the 2007 Five Hundred or the 2008 Taurus.

Not when everybody else is buying the Camry, Altima, and Accord.

Same with musclecars: Buy Mustang, Camaro, 'Cuda, or Javelin?

AMC cars still can become more --- or less --- collectible.

Which sorts of things do **YOU** intend to let happen?

Do you intend to learn something from old George?

Or will you bleat around the bushes, saying:

That sort of thing could happen to anybody.

It once happened to Studebaker-Packard.

It had happened to American Motors.

It almost happened to Chrysler.

It can happen to GM or Ford.

Do you care what happens?

Very likely you should.  


In 2007, the import makes could claim over half of the American market.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/06/news/companies/import_nation/index.htm

In 1997, Jeep realized ~$13,000-$15,000 profit on every Grand Cherokee.

Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler for the reason Chrysler bought AMC.  Jeep.


In 2007, Caddy redacts ~$18,000-23,000 off MSRP to sell every Escalade.

GM probably makes money on every Cadillac/GMC truck built by Americans.

Cadillac's Luxo-Trucko sales have increased by 40, 44, and 116 percent.

http://tinyurl.com/2p9gso

But GM probably loses money on each [non-'Vette] Chevy car it can sell.

Would a Toyota/BMW/Renault/Hyundai buy GM for Cadillac -or- Chevrolet?

In five years, where will GM be?

Is there a lesson from history?

We don't know.  You tell us. 


In 2007, Toyota offers $229/month Prius leases to increase sales ~75%.

Toyota probably loses money on every hybrid lease signed by Americans.

Toyota is the next GM.  Is Toyota the next automotive triceratops too?

In five years, where will Toyota be?

A 1962 Rambler or a 2002 Oldsmobile?

Ask the Aurora for a glimmer or two.

So is the next dinosaur American motors?  Can America perish with it?  

Does anyone in America still care? 

What does America intend to do?

Talk about it?

Change it?

Nothing?

Hmmm.


>>
I've got 1956 and 1957 brochures that show the larger Rambler Super Cross Country with a woodgrain pattern around the pillar area, but nothing like this...

http://rides.webshots.com/album/557506063qxgrLU

The same car is on Epage right now for 13 grand:

http://epage.com/js/mi/c46295/r649969/2008145.html
<<

A fine job of graining and a fun car to show, but the "wood" on that Rambler wagon would be after-the-fact.  Better than some new wood wagons, though

http://www.ptwoody.com/dc004.html

<gag> 'though some aren't too bad

http://www.ptwoody.com/jc001.html 

and prove the value of AMC style.

[DaimlerChrysler's new found AMC:

http://www.patriotadventure.com/ ]


Remember AMC's Wagoneer Limited?

"DECALS, EXTERIOR WOODGRAIN XJ WAGONEER LIMITED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fig. 23-5700"

http://www.xjjeeps.com/com_xjjeeps/tech_reference.asp?section=2&ID=29

Maybe someday AMC -cars- will see that extent of documentation online.

Because the next [2010 Jeep Grand] Cherokee will be a [W164] Mercedes.

So goes American Motors history.  So too will go Dodge's Durango, Chrysler's Aspen, and yet another "all-new" "All-American" icon sold as a Jeep.

They're not your father's "dinosaur-fighter" Romney Ramblers any more.

But that's all "TMI" if you don't care to read pre-muscle AMC history.

Then so it goes.

So you know AMC?

Post a "where/when" on "Rambler is the Modern Yardstick of Car Value"

Put your words where any "Romneys" can read them.  You owe it to AMC.

Let the lead balloons float.

Oh well.  

PS --- Nash built a "Suburban" for 1946, 1947, and 1948: ~1000 sold.

If you don't enjoy my words, enjoy a genuinely collectible AMC view.   

http://www.woodiesusa.com/vehicles4sale/47Nash/47Nash.asp

PPS --- Frank, see the real resto rod, slammed-n-bammed, silver-n-black, skull-n-chains sedan that attended our Centennial: I'll send two photos. It was beautifully done, yet it scared some and its owner --- a young [for P-A, that's 40-something] blue-collar-ish guy --- got the cold shoulder.  AKA ignored.     

The Phil Hills may have been aquiver [an Arrow joke, get it?], but in my humble opinion "his car, his cash (and, I discovered, mostly his own work) were operatives" so, like anything that's well done, were worth a look, learn and listen.  I did just that --- as I do with all the Phils --- why not?   

http://www.classics.com/images01/rod01-ph.jpg

http://www.classics.com/images01/rod01-15.jpg

(and for those who aren't totally turned off now, that very car was first PB  "Classic" BOS winner; one year after American Motors began.  If you care to see -that- photo, click on "56 years..." at:

http://www.pebblebeachconcours.net/Archive.htm#

If you don't, that's sad, but what can be said?

Ignore Ambassador owners on the 18th green too.

For that sort of thing could happen to anybody.

And has.
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