How to save GM and the Corvette

How to Save GM

New product. The Forever Car. Advertised as the last car you will ever need to buy. It will not have model years. All the models will be identical and they will never change. So the parts from a Forever car made today will be interchangeable with one made ten years from now. Little by little the owner can replace all the used/worn parts with new parts and actually have a totally new car. Parts can be replaced individually or in component packages, whichever the owner decides is better or easier to do at the time. It will be designed to be worked on by the owners. There will be room to get at the parts. It will come with a tool box that has tools to fit every part on the car and a DVD with instructions on how to repair everything. It will have a USB cable to plug into your home computer for diagnostic testing. Of course, you can always take it to a mechanic. Yes, parts do get obsolete and improvements are made. The parts can be upgraded just as long as the component package still matches. There will be three models - the sports car, the sedan, and the SUV. Of course the sports car would have to be the Corvette. What about the fact that your car looks like every other car out there? No it wouldn't. Aftermarket manufacturers would come up with thousands of modifications or add-ons just like they did for the old VW Beetle.

Reply to
Tikbalang
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Before I even got to the end of your post I thought of the VW. Incremental slow change is OK as earlier models can be "upgraded" by owners.

I've often suggested that the overall Volkswagon program was one of the few things done by Nazi Germany that could use a 2nd look for future applicability.

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-W

Reply to
Clams Canino

I don't care if they save the Corvette or not. The last great Corvette that GM made was in 1974. All the others have been overpriced also-rans.

I think GM should put the Corvette out of its misery or concentrate on building the best car in the world. Not a cheap, "me-too" to BMW or Porsche.

Vito

Reply to
Uncle_vito

Interesting comment. If you consider the 71 454 roadster I bought in 1971 for around $6,000 that cost in today's dollar is about $35k or so. I guess you paying for improvements and technology.

Reply to
tww1491

You need to remember that back in '71 part of that 6k was also "paying for "improvements and new technology" circa 197. The Vette has usually been at (or near) the front of GM's RnD platform thusly the hefty price tag.

I think Corvette should break free of GM and Chevrolet, if need be to stay alive.

Perhaps two models to be made: The latest "gee-wiz" Vette du-jour for the "big bucks". And for lower budgets - a re-run of the 63-67 C2 Stingray body, only with updated drivetrains, weight, and electronics. (ya, you can rework the seats too). But still "retro" enough that only minimal RnD costs need to be passed through to the consumer. (I'm thinking like VW and HD did for years and years here.)

-W (I always felt that while I *personally* prefer the '68 body - that the C2 was the best styling design to ever roll off an assembly line - anywhere)

Reply to
Clams Canino

I agree with you. I own a C2. A 1964 roadster with 327. Best looking car ever. Then GM basically crapped out. About 1975 onward they started making ???? I am not talking about technical innovation here. Of course, the newest Vette has the latest technology. But back in 1963, GM made the best car(s) ever. The Vette was better proportioned than the Jag XKE that was similar. Performance of the fuelly was on a par with the Ferrari. Looks also.

I cannot relate to what they have now. Key fobs having problems. Nav systems, dual area HVAC, etc. Crappy run flats with no spare and pressure sensors that are a nightmare to get working right.

GM needs to make the ZR-1 the standard Vette and price it at $45,000.

Also get out the 4 valve per cylinder OHC, variable valve timing, direct injection, 7000 rpm red line engine. What they have now was a joint devopment with the engine for SUV's . Sheesh. Has economical development all over it.

Vito

Reply to
Uncle_vito

We had a 1959 Kingswood wagon. With the big horizontal fins. Excellent styling!

Vito

Reply to
Uncle_vito

Ford already makes one of those...It's called a Crown Vic. You can buy a new crown Vic that looks 10 yrs old. And then you wonder why they don't sell cars.

My father worked as an engineer at Harvester and he used to say the greatest single expense of building a car is the sheet metal. (dies & tooling) Then you think back about the last time the golden years were at the big 3...in the 60ies. How wealthy was GM to change the sheet metal of their cars every year!!!!! Ford and Chrysler too. The 1969 Full size Chevy. Caprice, Impala, Belair, Biscayne and Kingswood estate total sales about 970,000 units.

In the 1990s a sucessful selling car at GM, the Grand Am 250,000?

It's all a matter of time until we have the wake and funeral. Prepare yourselfs

They said Harvester would never go out of business too. And the legacy airlines. Zenith and RCA and Magnet Box would never go out of business. Western Electric, Lucent. Break up of AT&T. Montgomery Wards, Marshall Field, McDonnell Douglas.

Reply to
Speaker of the Truth

Snip>

Oh get a life, I had a new '63 Corvette and it was junk, so was the '64 that I traded for just to get rid of it. Design sucked and the front end started to float anything over 100. Looks has nothing to do with quality. That junk only got bigger when they went to the '68 design. It didn't get any better until the C5 came out.

Reply to
Dad

Is this you replying????

Dad

05 C6 Silver/Red 6spd Z51 72 Shark Black/Black/4spd 64 Red/red/white top/4spd

You sure have a lot of pre 75 vettes.

V

Reply to
Uncle_vito

Well you both at least agree (with many people) that the C4 was no prize. And I didn't say that you couldn't tweak suspension on the re-issue C2, you just had to use the exaxct same outer body panels (which made with todays materials would be thinner and lighter). My only other constraint is that no new RnD funds go into the car, but you may re-use existing Vette technology to improve the performance, handling, and mileage of the C2. The idea is to make it cost about 1/2 the price of the Vette DuJour - and make it "forever".

-W

Reply to
Clams Canino

Actually I have no pre '75 Corvettes. Very little is not new, rebuilt and/or hand fitted and is the only reason most of them have survived. I'll say it again, looks has nothing to do with quality and that is the only reason I own the C2 and the C3, looks. So I'll still disagree with your statement that GM made the best cars ever in '63. They were sucking hind tit until the C5 came out, prior to that Buick made better cars than the Corvette. Why did it's assembly move out of St Lousy?

Just one of the problems with my '63 was a cracked rear journal in the crank. As the engine heated up the fly wheel would c*ck whipping out the pilot bearing, transmission impute shaft, and bearing guide. GM's fix, put in a new transmission and scold me for driving it to hard. Second transmission, same thing, miles driven 1,500, now it's my fault completely. No more warranty and I paid for the third transmission which lasted about 2,000 miles. When I tore it down this time I let the engine run until warm and put a dial indicator on the fly wheel face. Dialed in dead nuts until it warmed up and then showed .09 something runout, jerked the engine and replaced it with a '58 283. Problem solved and it ran like a kitten all the way to a dealer and was traded in. Less than a year and 11,000 miles, then the '64 was worse and was gone in 3 months. The Corvair that replaced it was a better car by far and the next Corvette didn't come into my life until I got the '92 and it was gone as soon as the C5 came out although it was a '98 because of GMs great planning and a short production year. During that 20 some odd years without one I rejected a '77 that I ordered because it had mat showing through the finish surface 11 places and had already had the left front fender repainted.

Reply to
Dad

Hey, you would marry a flaming bitch because she looks good? Yeah I know, I shouldn't go there. No question the mid year style will always be a head turner, more so than the oversized shark.

Reply to
Dad

Make an exception for the '78 pace car and to some degree the '82.

-W

Reply to
Clams Canino

If the crank had been the only problem I'd agree but it wasn't, how about the back axle being .75 of an inch out of location on one side! There's more.

I run with a '65 fulie and he is well versed on all the problems they had and will not drive it on long tours because of it's special needs. Well over $6,000 in the injection upgrade to keep it stock and running, but it does run nice. Trailers it everywhere except close by shows. You should see the '40 Willies he is building.

I was going to send you a picture and noticed the bot killer email, neat......

Reply to
Dad

Remember, as a rule of thumb, there are few if any collectible Corvettes made after 1972. The really nice looking Corvettes were 1967 and earlier.

Reply to
Speaker of the Truth

I can't condemn the '63 Corvette because of that alone. Sounds like a major "lemon" issue with that cracked journal that went undetected. That crank "could" have turned up in any production V8, but it wound up in yours. That makes you *very* unlucky. But I still think the '65 with 4 wheel disks and FI was one of the "keepers" of the species. :)

-W

Reply to
Clams Canino

What you couldn't figgure out how to get around the bot killer?

-W (has no picture yet :)

Reply to
Clams Canino

I will grant you that. Quality control sucked. Big gaps in the door jams. My 64 in the garage still shows the uneven gaps. I bought it in 91. I love to run it through the gears. Sounds like tearing silk cloth.

Newer vettes do not even have a lope and with a Flowmaster exhaust, sound like someone is giving a raspberry when they accelerate

Vito

Reply to
Uncle_vito

I had a 69 that I bought in 94. 427 with the tripower, convertible. Sold it a few years later. Drivability sucked. Big block weighed an ungodly amount and looks were good from some angles, gaudy from other angles. Disk brake calipers leaked. Doubled my money on that sale.

My 64 is a keeper for life, unless I trade for another midyear.

Vito

Reply to
Uncle_vito

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