[Amc-list] Re; Trademarks or identifiables indicaters of lack of sucess.

["John Elle" <johnelle@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is a group of opinionated people, which for one reason is probably
why it works so well. I too am opinionated and I like, have and drive my
AMC cars. Note that is plural. Actually multiple. 
I am not crazy about trunion front end AMC products, and yes I have my
reasons. I prefer the ball joint years but for the most part I will have
to agree with some of you that say that they are not particularly well
built. At least the ones that I own and have taken apart for parts. As
far as four wheel drive, not interested! Period. 
The 70's American automobiles were very poorly designed and manufactured
in comparison to off shore competition. In addition, documentation for
those cars were poor to non-existent. I have no idea why, but as I owned
American cars at that time with the exception of an Austin, and did most
of my own work and still own cars from the 70's (a 70, 74, 76 and two
80's) all AMC cars some I-6's and 2 V8's along with a Saturn and a
Chrysler Town and Country and still do most of my own work I feel
qualified to express my opinion based on personal experiences. Cars from
the land of the rising sun had complete and thorough service manuals. I
worked on quite a few. You were never left guessing as to how something
worked, went together, came apart, was adjusted or when it was needed to
be tuned and how to tune it. 
Not only that but they ran better, more reliably and with better fuel
economy. 
My middle 70's AMC TSMs are pretty much of a joke. Good on theory of
operation, major disassembly and repairs but almost completely lacking
on smog equipment explanation and hook ups. Unless AMC I-6 engines are
hooked up correctly, they run terrible and people lived with it, 'cause
at the time no one new how to make them run worth a darn and that
attitude prevailed until they went out of business long after the Feds
forced the smog hook ups to be printed in the service manuals. 
Once I got into trying to make an 80 AMX run correctly with out being
problem prone it took me two years to figure it out as every one I
looked at was different and they all ran like garbage. Part of the
problem in getting it to run correctly was that there were 7 different
unique smog configurations the I-6 engine could be set up with not
including those that were in both cars and trucks that were sold smogged
as trucks that I have no data on at the present time. Go back to the
middle 70's and the configurations were simpler but still were multiple,
but no "schematic" diagrams were printed in the manuals showing the
connections for multiple configurations that were at least available by
1980.
While that may be a bit wordy, the one 1975 or so Honda I worked on with
the service manual was completely explained in clear language leaving
nothing to be interpreted. And it used a progressive 3bbl carburetor and
it looked like a plate of spaghetti under the hood. 
Detroit spent so long convincing the public that a crappy running car
was not only normal but to be expected that when they finally figured
out how to manufacture quality automobiles, Toyota had been doing it for
years and the buying public had figured it out. 
O.k., I am venting and could go on for quite a while. 
But on GM, My Camero,  my Olds and my Saturn that I own currently were
and are fast reliable trouble free cars that I enjoyed owning and
driving. 
My Town and Country is many things at this point in time, but with the
fact that I have put 3 transmissions in it, and I can confirm of at
least 2 others before I owned it I find the dealers explanation that
they built lousy transmissions up through 2001 but now they have it
solved, a bit lame. What owning this car has confirmed is my next car
will be a GM car of some sort or a Toyota. It seems to me that producing
a lousy transmission for over 10 years is a bit long to attempt to
convince me that they even care about problems much less the solution of
them. 
I recently spent time with an old high school buddy. We grow up together
in an AMC town. (One of two dealers in town). He has owned nothing but
Toyotas since he graduated from collage. 
I wonder why? 
GM is marketing a Chevy Cobalt at this time. I have rented one twice. I
needed cheap transportation. At $21.00 per day it was the cheapest. I
came away from both Cobalts impressed by the level car they both were. I
looked at one in a show room. Nicely done for $14,000 new. I wonder if
GM even had a clue what a nice car they are or are they still a moored
with closing plants and laying off workers in order to make money rather
than sell cars which I thunk was their function. 
Oh! As far as the Austin goes, it ran better than my Plymouth that owned
simultaneously. LUCAS 'lectrics included. 
RANT Done. 
On to AMC projects. 
John
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.amc-list.com/pipermail/amc-list/attachments/20070321/00aaac89/attachment.htm 
_______________________________________________
Amc-list mailing list
Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list