I disagree with regard to the 6 cyl Chev II I had vs the Falcon. I had two friends with the Falcon, a much less solid car with a weak engine. IMO the Falcon was a typical tin can from Ford. The Chev II gave good fuel mileage, equal to the Falcon. I pulled a 1,500 lb camping trailer coast to coast and in the western mountains. About 15,000 miles of towing, in the 95,000 miles I had it. Standard shift of course, had to double clutch to shift down to the non syncro low gear on the very steep (logging road class) hills when towing.
I forgot one ugly design build problem I had. Rubber bushings in the front suspension which wanted to remember where I was. I replaced them with Teflon ones. Also had to add a front sway bar as GM didn't install it in my6 cyl model. What a huge difference these two simple changes made to steering. So after I modified GM's partly completed car, it proved a good solid performer.
I agree. Have you noticed how much weight Chrysler cars have put on since Daimler took over.
Well Daimler will have to get rid of Chrysler, but the lower costs from Chrysler's volume will hold them back. DC seems to think all Chrysler cars should have a truck front grill. With the 300 Chrysler did return to the 60s. OK for a few years, but they lost their steady customers and can't keep the emotional new ones that bought the 300.
The 170 was as big as they offered in the "Falcoon" in '62. Still, it was better than the 144 of 1960, especially with the 2 speed FoMo. The spring tower front ends of Falcons were notoriously weak, a problem that carried through on the derivative Mustang and even the Maverick.
Standard transmission was the saving grace on your car. '62 Chevy IIs with Powerglide were notoriously slow and fuel hungry. I believe you could also order a Chevy II with overdrive, as you could the Falcon after '61.
Sometimes I think Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler Corp. as a German tax write-off.
Well, not really...the "crossed bars" grille is a salute to Chrysler's glory days with the letter series 300s of the '50s, but only old timers seem to remember that.
The 300M was just another gussied up LH, wasn't it, a la Iacocca's EEK cars. The current 300 is a whole different concept and even has some performance in its hemi form, but as I said, that car has been spoiled by being a "ghetto ride," which scares off buyers looking for a long term car investment. Cadillac's now feeling the problems associated with having that image.
A few years ago I would receive regularly the monthly mag of the ADAC, Germany's largest motoring organization (equivalent to the AAA in US, I guess).
Annualy they published break-down and repair stats for all cars with more than 10 000 annual sales. In all classes where the Japanese manufacturers (Toyota, Mazda and, I think Honda) were represented they clustered at the top of the reliability tree.
There were anomalies and distortions in the figures. E.g. they were not normalised for mileage, so that cars like the Merc S Class came out worse than they should because their average mileage was much higher than those of other cars, but as a rough-and-ready measure the tables were not bad.
Don't know how it is now. Sadly I don't get the mag anymore.
DAS
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
In NA Kenworth builds some large highway and logging haulers:
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TRUCKS!
This BIG TRUCK used in the Alberta tar sands trumps most:
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-trucks that can carry up to 320 tons of tar sands per load, and can do a quick job on that Chrysler(?) pickup.
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The Titan max. sized truck is now retired from coal logging in SE, BC, Canada. From GM's glory days!
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It is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's largest tandem > axle, rear dumping hauler ever manufactured.> Its maximum load is 350 tons and the box is capable of holding 2 Greyhound > buses and 2 pick-up trucks. Each tire is 11 Feet (3.4 Metres) and weighs 4 > tons.
Terex was back when GM was still an engineering/manufacturing company. Now, they couldn't build a Terex to save their asses, because they no longer have the manufacturing capability or talent to do so. Hell, they haven't even built a locomotive in the US in about 15 years, mismanaging Electro-Motive Division into a distant second behind juggernaut GE. EMD's attempts to build a 4 stroke, 6000 HP diesel prime mover have failed for years now, and many so-called "convertible" locomotives sold to US railroads still carry their "temporary" 2 stroke 710-series V-20s. Any GM rail motive power sold in the us (principally to transit systems, not even Amtrak buys their stuff anymore) is all built in London, ON, Canada. EMD's La Grange plant is mostly shuttered now, only producing parts, and then only when they feel like it.
Note another fallen good company in that article...Kaiser. Now, down south, Henry Kaiser is remembered almost exclusively for his non-profit health care system, one of the best in the country, and a continual target of for-profit health care providers and Republicans. People don't seem to remember that Henry Kaiser paved Cuba's first roads, was the primary manager of the "Six Companies" which built Hoover Dam, was the prime mover of WW II's Liberty Ships, for which he built a steel mill and shipyards on the West Coast to produce in record time, had the largest aluminum processing operation in the country for years, and who dared challenge GM at their own game, building cars. GM's Sloan found out in short order that Kaiser wouldn't be swatted down as easily as was Tucker in '48.
Sadly, the Kaiser Aluminum operation has been taken over by megalomanic corporate hustler and S&L thief Charles Hurwitz, who has to be the polar opposite of everything Henry J. Kaiser was.
GM did not need to swat down Kaiser/Frazer, their cars simply could not compete in economies of scale. Kaisers and Frazers were merely assembled cars. Kaiser never really made cars, only bodies. The complete drive train and accessories were purchased from other manufactures, GM, Bendix, Continental, Frigidaire etal.
True, but sales of the Henry J and Caribbean gave GM fits, as did Nash's early Metropolitan. At the time, GM had nothing in their line to compete with small economy cars, and the GM (and Ford) dictum of "mini cars, mini profits" was under attack. After K-F started marketing the Henry J under the Allstate name through Sears, K-F started having lots of trouble getting bearing assemblies from New Departure, transmissions from Saginaw Gear or any ignition parts from Delco Remy, as well as Hydra-Matics from Detroit Transmission for the Caribbeans.
Also true, but Kaiser-Fraser was developing their own OHV V8 engine by
1951, and that DID get GM's attention. After Henry Kaiser got the Willys line away from GM, who'd originally wanted it, he knew that competing against GM and a resurgent Ford with cars was futile, and concentrated instead on Jeeps all the way until the line was sold to AMC. For "economy" cars at a low price, the Continental 4s and 6s were more than adequate at the time K-F was still producing cars, but the writing was on the wall that if they wanted to compete, they'd need a lot more than Oldsmobile-equipped Caribbeans and flathead Henry Js to keep afloat.
The Kaiser V8? It was also sold to AMC after K-F got out of the car business and became their 327 by the late '50s, a move that later put Kaiser at a disadvantage when customers started wanting V8 power in their Kaiser produced Jeep products. Prior to that, the only V8s the new AMC had were leftover Packard V8s that wound up in their big '56 and '57 Nash and Hudson models, which disappeared the next year. Meanwhile, Studebaker had taken over the Packard name, and the '57 Packard was just a rebadged Studie President with their 289 V8 and Borg-Warner transmission. Studie wanted no part of the Packard drive train at all, although once the bugs were worked out of it, it was indeed a fairly good engine....just HUGE by 1956 standards. The '56 Packard V8s were larger than even Cadillac's, which upsized in '56 to a 365 that was riddled with cooling and vapor lock problems, mostly caused by heat generated from the new water cooled Dual Coupling Hydra-Matic.
The Darren was intriguing and made a big publicity spash, especially with the wild (for then) paint and interior colors. Most Darrens were seen running around LA, as they were a hit with the movie crowd.
Now, if you want to talk about rare...how about that Muntz Jet?
The Kaiser industrial empire was mostly scuttled by the kids after Henry J. died in '74, preferring to concentrate on the Kaiser-Permanente health care system, the largest HMO in the US, and one of the few non-profit ones. The Kaiser Jeep operation went to AMC, the Fontana steel mill was sold to the Japanese and its Eagle Mountain pit mine closed. It's quite a crime by them that they allowed Kaiser Aluminum to fall into the hands of a greedy asshole like Charlie Hurwitz, an asshole Texan who seems to delight in screwing working people more than anything else...except for his love of violating Federal laws. When Henry J. was still running things, any Kaiser entity was known to be a great place to work with excellent labor relations with their unionized employees. That still lives on at Kaiser-Permanente, but died when Henry did at the other, cast-off operations.
The Fontana mill is still operating, but no longer processes iron ore into steel. After the SCAQMD mandated that Kaiser spend millions retrofitting their coke ovens to cut emissions around 1971, which Henry gladly spent, the family sold off the mill in '76 and shut the mine, citing profitability problems. The real reason was the Nixon Recession of '74, which had priced US steel much higher due to outrageous interest rate increases, while the Japanese, due to Nixon's "laissez-faire" trade ideology, were dumping cheap steel on our markets daily. You'll also remember the shenanigans of LTV, Colt Steel and US Steel about this time, when the old "blasters" of the Monongahela Valley were finally shut down.
Later analysis showed that the Kaiser Fontana mill was still a profitable operation when shut down as a mill and sold to the Japanese, and it was obvious that the family members involved wanted to get away from industrial operations and concentrate on non-profit health care. However, in Pennsylvania, years of management neglect and greed caused the old open hearth mills to continue on using 19th century technology all the way into the '70s...they were set up to fail, and greedy management ripped off the steelworkers' pension funds. That's what caused the ERISA legislation of 1976, which Bush Bird and his handlers have been trying to kill for six years, but now have no chance..
Kaiser had converted to electric furnaces back in the early '60s, one of the first US steel makers to make the transition. After the shutdown/sell off, the former vertically integrated mill is now simply a fabrication shop and rolling mill. After selling the mill, the Japanese cut wages 50%, but were mandated to provide the same health care through the Kaiser-Permanente system. After 20 years, the USWA finally reorganized the workforce there, and wages are on their way back up...a rare scenario these days.
The Kaiser mill was originally built in 1941 to provide steel for Kaiser's shipyards on the West Coast. After the end of WW II, the mill provided sheet steel for the GM Chevrolet plant in Van Nuys, as well as the Ford Terminal Island and Pico Rivera plants. Once the Japanese took over the mill circa 1976, they engaged in predatory pricing of Fontana-rolled sheet steel, thus forcing Ford out of the area, and forcing GM to cut back production at Van Nuys. GM did stick it out until 1992 at Van Nuys producing slow selling Camaro/Firebirds. The "new" Camaro of '93 was produced in Ohio at Lordstown, much closer to domestic steel producers. This also was of dubious wisdom, as the biggest market GM had for Camaros and Firebirds was...California! It costs more to ship finished cars on auto racks 2500 miles than it costs to ship sheet and coil steel from the Midwest to the West Coast. Sure enough, the "new" Camaro/Firebird twins weren't profitable, and GM axed the line rather than admit they'd screwed up...again....still? The economic disaster that followed the closing of Van Nuys is still being felt, as middle class workers were uprooted to make way for hoards of illegal aliens.
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