[Amc-list] Change

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

The world of American motors is always changing.  Nash and Chrysler once built General Motors and Daimler-Benz once built Jeeps.  But there won't be another Encore of the Alliance that saw Renault building Premier Eagles in Canada.  Nissan-Renault will not dress its "hamburger" with a pentastar.

"As Mr. Ghosn has said, the company right now is as it is today because it has its own problems inside and we're not going outside to look for the solutions...we're not in a rush for a partner."

So GM will be big again; bigger than Toyota.  For a while, at least.

So Jeeps will be baby Hummers; Chryslers will be baby Buicks (or cheaper Cadillacs?), and Dodges will race against Pontiacs --- like the good old days of NASCAR.

So more stores will be shuttered (and then reopened selling Hyundais) and more American jobs will be shifted around.  More money will be "made" by bunco artists, er, ah, by -market analysts-, and more "investments" will make even more McMansions "affordable" for all who need 10-foot ceilings to flatter their Fernando Botero, leather Barcalounger, or 100-inch LCD TV.    

http://www.designsodistinction.com/images/Giant_Chair.jpg

http://www.lgphilips-lcd.com/homeContain/jsp/eng/common/cmn000_j_e.jsp

http://img2.pcpop.com/ArticleImages/0x0/0/248/000248943.jpg

Who is that masked man?  The horseman who rode onto American living room screens the very year Nash rose to its new Airflyte?  The hero who saved little Noreen Nash from evil the very year AM revived its "all-new" Rambler American?

The radio serials that set scenes for Americans who didn't realize they were hearing Rossini -opera- overtures and Liszt's "Les Preludes" --- but they found they really enjoyed listening to real music rather than to claptrap rap?

Or the pulp fiction comics called Big Little Books that turned Americans of a certain generation --- the generation that created the Detroit that was the envy of the -entire- automotive world --- into readers who thought that words really had a -value-?  To reveal, to reaffirm, to rejuvenate?    

When American cars were the best, most beautiful, and the most advanced "horses" anyone had ever dreamt of?  When silver and gold were American

http://tinyurl.com/3c2yyl

http://tinyurl.com/2jl58h

http://mclellansautomotive.com/photos/B3669.jpg

http://www.plan59.com/images/JPGs/nas52.jpg

and a "Solid Gold Cadillac" was an American icon to be heard AND seen? 

So, Leave it to Beaver?  No, to George!  After Sahara, before Banacek.

http://tinyurl.com/2o57w2

http://tinyurl.com/32o9mc

No Mercedes Maybach or VW Bentley needed.  An American car for a king.

"The body glowed with forty coats of hand-rubbed pearlized finish made of crushed diamonds and fish scales from the Orient. The bumpers and the hand-spun hubcaps were plated in 14-karat gold, as were the swank interior accessories: the shoe buffer, electric clippers, record changer, bar, swivel-mounted TV set, and dual phones. The back seat had gold lamé drapes. The roof was studded with real gold records. It was a theme car, honoring gold records and hits. And it was also, as experience soon proved, undrivable. Traffic stopped whenever it appeared. Mobs surrounded the car. It couldn't be left unattended for a minute. Every time a fan got close enough to touch a bumper, Barris presented a bill for several thousand dollars worth of repairs. Disgusted, Elvis shut the Cadillac up in the garage at Graceland."

Auto history from a [1996] book published by Harvard University Press?

http://www.car-nection.com/yann/Dbas_txt/Starprsl.htm

Yes, where even kings must return to reality.  Or to less wild fantasy. 

"A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty 'Hi-Yo, Silver!'"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041038/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051876/

http://tinyurl.com/3daw68

when American kids were 'sposed to drink <gasp!> milk, not do the Dew)

http://tommcmahon.typepad.com/tm/images/loneranger1.jpg

But times do change.  Cars come and go.  Even the longest-lasting die.

Remember Cadillac's Fleetwood?  Buick's Roadmaster?  AMC's AMBASSADOR?

Do they ever return?

No one really knows.

But bless the bounty, blast the bass, and party hearty American style.

http://www.kunsterbunt.de/kurse/monalisa/bilder/fernando_botero.jpg

http://tinyurl.com/yth6f4

http://tinyurl.com/yrdtke

If GM cannot kill off a Nash-Hudson-AMC-Jeep-Mopar, no one ever might.

After all, even Daimler-Benz cannot build a better Dodge pickup truck.

>>
Can't blame DC on this one, the truck's a 1996.
<<

When read carefully, that fact was taken into account.  I implied that 'stupid design' was the old Detroit way of doing that the Daimler route was supposed to have straightened.  But since Matt mentioned that that Ram was built before the buyout, I'll mention Rams built more recently. 

Make : DODGE Model : RAM Year : 2006 Manufacturer : DAIMLERCHRYSLER CORPORATION   NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number : 07V038000 Recall Date : FEB 06, 2007 Component: SUSPENSION:FRONT:WHEEL BEARING Potential Number Of Units Affected : 86333

"The defect could result in bearing degradation.  If resultant noise or vibration were ignored, the hub assembly could separate leading to loss of vehicle control and a crash without warning."

That Ram was built by DCX between November 7, 2005 and April 27, 2006...

Some things never change.

As Toyota will learn.

>>
btw saab's car operation was so small back then they only bought one paint color a year, and while they'd have a little left over from previous years you could date a saab quite reliably by its color.  '66s were mostly yellow like ours; '67s were mostly pea green...
<<

During my childhood, I never saw a Saab 96 that wasn't beige or grey!

But take heart, we can buy a hundred hues today, including some that change color with the heat.  There's something every car lover needs! 

http://jpowell.tripod.com/saab-models-toys/

AMC content: the kid whose father drove the first "96" I had ever known intimately was the excuse they used to ship me off to boarding school.  Three years older, a gear head, and such a "bad influence" that I had asked to enroll in what were then called "vocational" courses in school:  wood, metal, electronics --- and ultimately, AUTOMOTIVE.  "No way!" said they. "You must take classes where you learn via reading and writing!"

Yet they failed to break (or to brake) my '65 Saab-driven car interest:

"You can take a kid out of cars, but you can't take cars out of a kid."

And that's the way it always should be.  (But I never learned welding...)


PS - In my comment on Packard's "muscle" car, I neglected to mention another similarity to, say, the SC/360 by AMC.  Not only was the 734 Speedster built on a "downsized" 733 chassis, it was also built in a rather small quantity.  Of the 113 [118?] cars produced, if ~25 have survived, that's an achievement.  Of those bodies built during 1929-1930, there are even more variations: some may have started life as sedans, phaetons, runabouts, victorias, roadsters, and even specials.  That's what makes old cars interesting.  (And, I'll admit, it's also a good reason for gear heads to learn via reading and writing...)        

I also forgot to mention something else that is interesting: Brembo built -drum- brakes for its first three years of existence.  Before 1964, the only disk brakes used by Italy were -English- ones.  So if any Alfisti proudly points out fine Italian shoes, gently remind him/her that the Avanti that went into production in 1962 had standard front disk stoppers, a sleek continental body, and was built by Americans.

(And be sure he/she doesn't kick your AMC/Stude with his/her heels...)
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