Re: 4bangers & more (was: Will this be better?)

["Eddie Stakes" <eddiestakes@xxxx>]

The reason the decision was made to go with the four bangers was relatively
simple. One, AMC was damned near bankrupt, and negotiations had already
begun with Renault in 1977. Two, AMC did not have the money to sink into a
small four cylinder or two, as they were taking serious financial hits on
Pacer and Matador which never saw projected sales goals, so they had no
money to invest on this end. There was a huge crippling strike that shut
down production for over a month for America's smallest automaker in 1977.
There were some serious quality control problems with 1976 thru 1978 AMCs
and this was always in the news and of course, even more damaging, word of
mouth from customers.

If AMC would have used the $40 million that was wasted on Pacer development
in 72-74, and put off the big Matador coupe intro in 74, things may, just
may, have been different. The country was hit by a gas crisis and big cars
were suddenly 'taboo' and 'gas misers' were "IN". Imagine if AMC had a
production (even borrowed GM or Audi) 4 banger in 1973/74, their smaller
cars, while they were selling well, the Gremlin and Hornet would have been
the biggest sellers in company history and they would have had a year long
wait for those miser models. People were scared, and tired of waiting in
long, hours long, sometimes days long, gas lines. You would have had to been
there.

I'm not knocking Pacer, nor Matador coupe. But neither were the saviors AMC
expected them to be, and this was a reflection of bad management. AMC simply
didn't learn the lesson of the Marlin, it was 'damn the torpedos/full steam
ahead' I believe the saying goes. And it cost them.

Don't believe me. I can give you the financial stockholders reports for just
about every year from late 60's up. You don't lie to your stockholders with
the figures. And you don't put 'spin' on a gloomy economy, forecast, or
calender year production either. These are your investors, and they will be
up your ass.

It's all Monday Morning Quarterbacking now sadly. And almost 20 years since
the demise of our favorite automaker. Speaking of "spin". If you ever have a
chance to buy the biggest piece of crap soviet propaganda book ever
produced, no, not anything by Mitchell, see if you can ever find "Teaming Up
To Be The Best!!" The History Behind The Chrysler/American Motors Merger" 42
pages of toliet paper making it look like this is the best thing that would
ever happen to American Motors, their workers, their factories, their
shareholders.

Instead we ended up with closed factories and a rash of suicides from
Kenoshans (some have referred to this as the Kenosha Syndrome) as workers
suddenly lost everything; and of course many NOS inventories were bulldozed
away to name a few crimes against aMC humanity. And so it goes. I guess
Gospel of Bilwin will one day revision this too.
Eddie Stakes'
Planet Houston AMX
www.planethoustonamx.com