<VV> Corvair v. Falcon

[corvairs]

Crawford - Hows things in Loosiana? Considering the amount of money lost 
on each car 67-69 do the numbers add up? Second, what exactly were they 
amortizing? We all know that, at least with 68 and 69 only a small 
section of the original Corvair plant was used to produce these last 
Corvairs. The vast majority of the physical plant and overhead was used 
to manufacture other GM products (which, I would assume, carried thier 
own reward of amortization).

Further, it has been restated by numerous authorities from Chev that the 
1966 was the last Corvair they intended to build. That would have been 7 
years, not 5.

As someone who has perpetuated the story about thanking Nader for the 
last 3 years, I will agree that no one from GM has officially stated 
that - and probably never will. Considering that Naders book came out in 
(late 65?) 66 and production numbers drastically dropped in 67,68,69 to 
the point of the ridiculous, what else are we to think? We know that, 
from a corporate point of view (you know, the guys who make all the 
decisions) the Corvair had no GM friends after 1966. So why go on such a 
seemingly irrational loss of profit - for three years?

PS - The Edsel was only built for 3 years. I could probably also come up 
with a large number of other cars built for less than 5 years or between 
6-9 years.

Lon


Crawford Rose wrote:
> Cost accounting guys. GM has a five year accounting convention for plant and equipment. Corvair was made until 1969 to amortize the plant and equipment. 1959-1963 and 1964-1968.  See, Uncle Sam's tax policy, not Ralph Nader, kept the Corvair alive. Has anyone ever noticed that domestic vehicles have a five year life cycle?
>  
> Crawford Rose> Subject: Re: <VV> Corvair vs Falcon> To: VirtualVairs at corvair.org> Message-ID: <216696.89175.qm at web53606.mail.re2.yahoo.com>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-7> > Found this analysis of interest:> > "Car Wars> ...> > After giving Ralph his due, Corvair fans list the Mustang, horsepower, manufacturing costs, and cheap gas as the main reasons for the Corvair?s end. In a strange twist, some Corvair fans believe that Ralph Nader actually prolonged the life of the Corvair because General Motors didn?t want to give the impression that Nader had won. Let's look at the production numbers of the competing cars to see how these theories play out."? ...> >
>  _______________________________________________
> This message was sent by the VirtualVairs mailing list, all copyrights are the property
> of the writer, please attribute properly. For help, mailto:vv-help at corvair.org
> This list sponsored by the Corvair Society of America, http://www.corvair.org/
> Post messages to: VirtualVairs at corvair.org
> Change your options: http://www.vv.corvair.org/mailman/options/virtualvairs 
>  _______________________________________________
>
>
>
>