<VV> Nader

Seth Emerson sethracer at aol.com
Tue Mar 3 15:39:43 EST 2020


It supposedly was a law firm, that had GM had hired,that made this decision - to trail and maybe trap Nader. It was not a GM decision. But, you know, they hired the law firm, so they had to apologize. -Seth

The other thing was that GM had the bad judgment to send Private Eyes
> after Nader to try to discredit him by catching him in some
> embarassing behavior. In this respect Nader was clean as a whistle,
> and GM was caught in the act and ulltimately suffered the indignity 
> of
> having their CEO publicly apologize to Nader in public congressional
> testimony as I recall.



-----Original Message-----
From: Hugo Miller via VirtualVairs <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
To: Doug Mackintosh <dougmackintosh at yahoo.com>
Cc: Virtual Vairs <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Tue, Mar 3, 2020 10:38 am
Subject: Re: <VV> Nader

Haha I never knew that story about GM and the gum-shoes! Of course a 
man like Nader would be squeaky clean, wouldn't he! But I'm still 
surprised GM didn't hit him with a law-suit and challenge him to prove 
his claims. If I had been his attorney I'd have been very worried!
American cars in general are renowned in Europe for their poor 
handling. That is for the simple reason that American roads tend to be 
straight, unlike the twisty former cattle tracks that are the basis for 
so many roads in England. Having said that, VW's are of course European, 
and they manage to stay on the road quite well. Unles you drive like an 
idiot, that is, which is the same case with the Corvair.


On 2020-03-03 13:18, Doug Mackintosh wrote:
> The short answer is that it sounded plausible and ultimately the
> government (precurser to the NHTSA) had tests run which did not
> conclude until a final report issued in 1972, which exonerated the
> Corvair, but of course that was too late to have any effect since
> production stopped in 1969. The actual cause of the Corvair's demise
> was the Mustang and the fact that it was cheaper to compete with the
> Camaro than to make the Corvair competitive as a cheap street drag
> rubber-burner.
>
> The other thing was that GM had the bad judgment to send Private Eyes
> after Nader to try to discredit him by catching him in some
> embarassing behavior. In this respect Nader was clean as a whistle,
> and GM was caught in the act and ulltimately suffered the indignity 
> of
> having their CEO publicly apologize to Nader in public congressional
> testimony as I recall.
>
> << Hugo Miller said:
>
> Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 04:33:50 -0500
>
> From: Hugo Miller <hugo at aruncoaches.co.uk [1]>
>
> To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org [2]>
>
> Subject: <VV> Nader
>
> Message-ID: <ac0550e3bbf9b40f9d876241de224948 at aruncoaches.co.uk [3]>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
> I watched a tv marathon the other night on the history of the motor
> car
>
> and in particular the 'Big Three' car makers. The Corvair got a
> mention,
>
> and they showed a clip of Ralph Nader making some specific and
>
> detrimental remarks about the Corvair's handling on camera. He said,
>
> inter alia, that the car could break away 'suddenly and
> unpredictably'
>
> in corners.
>
> That statement, along with others in similar vein, demonstrably cost
> GM
>
> a great deal of money in lost sales. What I would like to know is why
>
> Nader wasn't sued. If I went on national tv and made specific claims
>
> which disparaged the products of a major corporation, I would expect
> to
>
> find myself walking out of court bankrupt in a very short space of
> time.
>
> Or was Nader actually able to substantiate his claims to the extent
> that
>
> would survive a libel suit?
>
> My personal view is that there is a grain of truth in what he said,
> but
>
> that his claims were wildly over-stated, and demonstrably so. How did
> he
>
> get away with it?>>
>
> -- Doug Mackintosh Corsa member since 1996 Corsa/NC member since
> 1996, Virtual Vairs member Corvair owner 1969-1971 and 1996-on
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1] mailto:hugo at aruncoaches.co.uk
> [2] mailto:virtualvairs at corvair.org
> [3] mailto:ac0550e3bbf9b40f9d876241de224948 at aruncoaches.co.uk

 _______________________________________________
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
Archives: http://www.vv.corvair.org/archive.htm
 _______________________________________________


More information about the VirtualVairs mailing list