<VV> RE: Brit Hume, Ralph Nader and The Corvair

[Vukas, Robert]

I stand corrected. Please see below.

Introducing Ralph Tuesday evening Brit said," Your career started when
you
proved the Chevrolet Corvair was unsafe to drive." This statement is
inaccurate in many ways. First,Ralph's book came out in 1966 during the
same year that GM had planned to stop producing the Corvair due to
market
pressure from the Ford Mustang.


Well...   the Mustang had no connection with whether or not the Corvair
was
ever unsafe to drive.    That Corvair safety issue was a bunch of hype
that
snowballed because of Naders book, which incidentally was *Highly*
inaccurate on many points and poorly researched in  general.   However,
the
Mustang AND the Camaro both contributed to the demise of the Corvair;
the
Mustang because it offered the "Pony-Car" performance image to the
younger
generation, and the Camaro because it was competing within GMs own Chevy
division against the Corvair and was in fact a derivative of the Corvair
developed specifically to confront the success of the Ford Mustang and
Plymouth Barracuda and Dodge Dart-GT, all of which were outselling the
post-'65 model Corvair.


By the way:

More people have been killed in first generation Mustangs due to a
design
fault than were ever killed in all Corvair rollover incidents combined,
regardless of cause.     I wonder why Nader didn't go off on THAT one.
In fact, there is actually a petition being circulated today to have the
government look into holding Ford responsible for  unusually high
numbers
of deaths of Mustang passengers due to fires caused by a poor gas tank
design as installed in first-generation Mustangs.


>Second,his book contained one chapter about the Corvair entitled,
"Unsafe
at Any Speed.

Actually, the chapter was titled "The Sporty Corvair" and it gained
novelty
because it happened to be the FIRST chapter in Naders book "Unsafe At
Any
Speed: The Designed In Dangers Of The American Automobile".


>Third, so as not to be viewed as being pressured by Mr. Nader the
Corvair
was produced three more years till 1969.  Fourth,and finally,the Corvair
was vindicated by the NHTSA in 1972,from Mr. Nader's and many other's
claims. Retractions never loom as large as initial shock headlines.
>
>Please check all of your facts before making inaccurate statements. Any
subject deserves no less.
>
>Bob Vukas


________________________________

From: Vukas, Robert
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 11:49 AM
To: 'comments@foxnews.com'
Cc: 'virtualvairs@corvair.org'
Subject: Brit Hume, Ralph Nader and The Corvair


Brit Hume Interviewing Ralph Nader

Introducing Ralph Tuesday evening Brit said," Your career started when
you proved the Chevrolet Corvair was unsafe to drive." This statement is
inaccurate in many ways. First,Ralph's book came out in 1966 during the
same year that GM had planned to stop producing the Corvair due to
market pressure from the Ford Mustang. Second,his book contained one
chapter about the Corvair entitled, "Unsafe at Any Speed. Third, so as
not to be viewed as being pressured by Mr.. Nader the Corvair was
produced three more years till 1969. Fourth,and finally,the Corvair was
vindicated by the NHTSA in 1972,from Mr.. Nader's and many other's
claims. Retractions never loom as large as initial shock headlines.

Please check all of your facts before making inaccurate statements. Any
subject deserves no less.

Thanks,



Bob Vukas
Jostens
4000 SE Adams St.,Topeka,KS 66609
phone:1-800-262-9725,ext.5260
fax: 785-266-9267,attention: Bob
technical support: 1-800-328-2435
email: robert.vukas@jostens.com
www.yearbookave.com <http://www.yearbookave.com/>