<VV> "3 More Years of Corvair"

[Jeff Clark]

My $.02:

>From what I've read, the order came down from the GM
brass in the spring of '65 "to stop future
development" on the Corvair.  That was at least 6
months before Nader's book came out, before anyone had
even HEARD of Ralph, so there's absolutely no way GM
could have known the possible impact of "Unsafe At Any
Speed."  Therefore, the "end of the Corvair" had
absolutlely nothing to do with Ralph Nader.  If we
need to pick a person to blame, lay it at the feet of
Lee Iacocca and his Mustang.    

Such a  "stop-order" from GM Product Development
meant, "build the car till we get our tooling costs
out of the new body style, then lay it to rest." 
Based on '65 sales-to-date, this probably would have
lead to them pulling the plug at the end of the '67
model year, or maybe early '68.  BUT- this was just
about the time when a number of Corvair lawsuits were
filed against Chevrolet and GM, thanks mostly to
you-know-who's book.  To drop the car at this point
would have meant that Nader was right, and publically
admitting that the car was unsafe.  

The cost of losing those lawsuits (and the resultant
bad publicity) would have been far more than the money
GM was losing by continuing Corvair production,
so...........  The only logical conclusion as to why
GM continued to build it well past any "point of least
return" is to withold that
"see-we-TOLD-you-it-was-unsafe!" claim from the
plaintiffs.  I just can't come up with any better
reason than that- can you?

Jeff Clark

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