<VV> Iacocca & Nader...

[Secular]

  Lee Iacocca is not always right! In his recent­ly published autobiography 
  there are a few references to the Corvair. At one point he is talking 
  about poor quality at Ford for certain specific years (1957 and 1960). 
  He then adds:

  "The '75 Volare (sic) was in that same cat­egory. Of course, GM has had 
  its fiascos, too, like the Corvair. Here I find myself in rare agreement 
  with Ralph Nader: the Cor­vair really was unsafe. The Vega, with its 
  pancake (sic) aluminum engine, was another disaster. The Vega 
  and the Corvair were both terrible cars, but GM is so big and 
  pow­erful that it can withstand a disaster or two without 
  suffering any major damage."

  ...On a more positive note, Iacocca also confirms a theory that I've had for 
  a long time, but that I've never seen in print: that the Corvair Monza inspired 
  the original Mustang. The Monza showed Detroit that a lot of people weren't 
  buying small cars just because they couldn't afford big cars. They actually 
  preferred small cars over big cars, and they didn't want the stripped 
  cheapies that Detroit originally tried to sell in 1960. 
  Again quoting from the book:

  "The Fairlane Committee, as we called ourselves, had a lot on the ball. We 
  were dimly aware that the car market would be stood on its ear in the next 
  few years, al­though there was no way of knowing exactly how that would 
  happen. We also knew that General Motors had taken the Corvair, an economy 
  car, and transformed it into the hot-selling Corvair Monza simply by adding a 
  few sporty accessories such as bucket seats, stick shift, and fancy interior trim. 
  We at Ford had nothing to offer to the people who were considering a Monza, 
  but it was clear to us that they represented a growing market."..

  Source:

  CORSA Communiqué - March 1985 - page 10
  By Art Linden, Wilton, CT

  ---

  Tony Irani