<VV> Re Why 6000?

[C. Cloutier]

Having been in production planning (now in finance) the reasons are 
complex and probably had nothing to do with the cars themselves.

Production planning reason:  Somebody around 1966-67 looked at the parts 
on hand and did the arithmetic on how fast parts were being produced vs. 
how fast cars were selling.  Since sales were plumetting at that point  
it was a moving target but they knew the days were numbered by then.  
The final "6000" decision was probably made in early to mid '68 and 
announced a few months later based on parts counts.  By announcing 6000, 
they "limited" the supply to spur demand and also made sure they 
actually had the parts to build those cars.

Financial reason:  Chevrolet spent millions and millions on tooling for 
the LM cars.  If they spent say, $20 million and they produced LM cars 
for two years, they have to take a charge of $10 million per year.  By 
stretching it out one more year to 1969, it was five model years and a 
tooling charge amortization of only $2 million per year.

Legal Reason:  A bunch of new safety regs kicked in in 1970 
(steering/ignition interlock, new door regs, new glass regs, etc) There 
was no cost / benefit for going into the 1970 model year.  (not to 
mention no sales)

Or something else, too.  ;-)

Caroline - Keene, NH
> Date: Fri,  9 May 2008 10:07:39 -0400
> From: Borrrris <borrrris at aol.com>
> Subject: <VV> Why 6000?
>  WHY there were exactly 6000 Corvairs produced in '69. That was clearly a planned number; decided upon in advance by somebody at GM for some reason. But who and why?Does anyone here know?
> Thanks,   Matt from L.I. ('66 Monza Coupe 110/PG)
>