<VV> Nader and demise of the Corvair VVD,V182,I5

[Hugo Miller]

Interesting. That explains GM's actions, but it doesn't explain why 
Nader thought he could get away with it in the first place. Anybody who 
goes on to the mainstream media and denigrates a product made by a major 
manufacturer, in the full knowledge that his statement is going to cost 
that corporation millions of dollars, is either very brave or very 
reckless.
GM may have had their reasons not to sue, but Nader didn't know that. 
Or did he? I would have bet money on him being sued and losing 
everything he owned. But then again, who would have bet on George 
Washington defeating the British Empire?

On 2020-03-04 21:59, James P. Rice via VirtualVairs wrote:
> Hugo:  Some history is in needed here.   GM did not sue Nader because 
> they
> had decided some months before Unsafe at Any Speed came out to 
> terminate
> Corvair production at the end of the 66 model year, ie:  No Corvair 
> after
> the fall of 1966. They simply did not care to defend what they knew 
> to be a
> lost cause.
>
> GM had the Camaro coming as the Mustang fighter in the fall of '66 as 
> a '67
> and needed the production line space for the 2nd generation Chevy II. 
> The
> 2nd generation Chevy II came out in the fall of '67 as a '68.  IIRC, 
> it was
> then Chevrolet president Pete Estes who got the BOD or maybe somebody 
> to let
> the car die a slow death, just so Nader could not say he forced GM to 
> cancel
> the car.  As Chevy President, he may have had the authority to make 
> the
> decision w/o consulting anybody else.
>
> The story about the incompetent detectives is true.  No one knows who 
> made
> the decision to hire them.  I may have been an Executive Secretary 
> who know
> what her boss wanted done, but was unwilling to give the order on the
> record.  Our who paid them...!
>
> Historically Yours,
>
> 		James Rice
>  
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 13:38:25 -0500
> From: Hugo Miller <hugo at aruncoaches.co.uk>
> To: Doug Mackintosh <dougmackintosh at yahoo.com>
> Cc: Virtual Vairs <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
> 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.
> *******
>
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