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vintage Ford musclecars-kicking ricer butt into the 21st century- and beyond



 
 
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  #11  
Old September 21st 07, 10:27 PM posted to alt.collecting.8-track-tapes
William W Western
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Posts: 438
Default vintage Ford musclecars-kicking ricer butt into the 21st century- and beyond

Good accounts there dBob.
Sales were laggardly due to a screw-up that caused a rash of fuel line
failures on early 4 banger versions, which caused a huge recall and
much adverse publicity.

Sales were initially huge (around here anyway) in 1984. Dealers
couldn't get enough for the demand. Women were especially captivated. That
is until the realities of no power steering reared it's head. That, and the
quality control and engineering glitches coming to light. After all, no one
relishes the thought of their cars bursting into flames.
Still, the car, especially in its 2M6 form,
had a lot of fans, but sales still weren't what Smith was looking
for...another Iacocca/Mustang type of breakout smash hit. He ordered
the car killed just when sales were starting to pick up!

The last year of production was 1988 and it was barely a third of
the year. That year's model benefitted from all new braking system and
suspension. Also some new colours as i recall. Pontaic was also purportedly
working on a power steering scheme. The odd thing is that though a better
handling car, as a collectible, parts shortages make it a trickier year to
own. The other years use parts off the bin still easily found among various
GM models.
Next failure to go to the shredder: The unwanted G6, a huge sales
fiasco.

This is what I rented to drive down to Minneapolis last weekend.
It got us there and back but with absolutely no character at all. A
forgettable ride and not very easy at the pumps for it's size.


Ads
  #12  
Old September 22nd 07, 01:29 AM posted to alt.collecting.8-track-tapes
[email protected]
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Posts: 10
Default vintage Ford musclecars-kicking ricer butt into the 21st century- and beyond

DeserTBoB wrote:
To reward to Pontiac managers for their trouble, Smith unofficially
disbanded Pontiac Motor Division entirely and threw the remains into
The GM Canada Group.


Is this why a GM assembly plant that I drove by a few times in the late
'80s to mid '90s timeframe had

Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac
Canada Group

on the big blue-and-white sign out front? I wondered about the "Canada"
thing, but locals assured me that the cars they made there were mostly
shipped to the US. At the time I think they mostly assembled Pontiacs,
with a few Chevies later on.

Matt Roberds

  #13  
Old September 22nd 07, 04:32 PM posted to alt.collecting.8-track-tapes
trippin-2-8-trak
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Posts: 121
Default vintage Ford musclecars-kicking ricer butt into the 21st century- and beyond

all of which, were better cars than anything from Japan


wrote in message
...
DeserTBoB wrote:
To reward to Pontiac managers for their trouble, Smith unofficially
disbanded Pontiac Motor Division entirely and threw the remains into
The GM Canada Group.


Is this why a GM assembly plant that I drove by a few times in the late
'80s to mid '90s timeframe had

Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac
Canada Group

on the big blue-and-white sign out front? I wondered about the "Canada"
thing, but locals assured me that the cars they made there were mostly
shipped to the US. At the time I think they mostly assembled Pontiacs,
with a few Chevies later on.

Matt Roberds



  #14  
Old September 22nd 07, 06:05 PM posted to alt.collecting.8-track-tapes
DeserTBoB
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Posts: 3,541
Default vintage Ford musclecars-kicking ricer butt into the 21st century- and beyond

On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 00:29:02 GMT, wrote:

Is this why a GM assembly plant that I drove by a few times in the late
'80s to mid '90s timeframe had

Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac
Canada Group

on the big blue-and-white sign out front? I wondered about the "Canada"
thing, but locals assured me that the cars they made there were mostly
shipped to the US. At the time I think they mostly assembled Pontiacs,
with a few Chevies later on. snip


Exactly. "GM Canada Group" was a tax dodge engineered by Smith and
his toadies to avoid paying US taxes and take advantage of Canadian
labour (spelled for WWW) which was, at the exchange rates then
existing, making half as much as their US co-workers at La Grange.
Under tax law at the time (and enjoying the exchange rate disparity
that then existed,) Smith's GM ripped off the US Treasury for billions
in tax revenue by making ALL GM cars (contrary to Charlie Nudo's silly
delusions) "imported" cars. They also eliminated many US jobs in
favor of labour in Canada and Mexico. They did the same with
Electro-Motive Division, as well, going to so far as to shut down all
US domestic manufacture of locomotives and ship all work to GM Diesel
Canada's London, ON works.

Since the early '90s, all EMD locomotives have been Canadian imports.
Only parts have been made at the La Grange, IL factory since then, at
least until GM, desperate for cash, sold EMD to a group of foreign
investors last year. Now, EMD, freed from the mismanagement and
crushing debt of GM headquarters, is poised to make a run at #1
builder GE...finally. GE, under "Neutron Jack" Welch, destroyed GM's
position as North America's #1 locomotive builder by offering
equivalent drawbar pull at a lower price and with more favorable
financing through its GE Financial (now Genworth)
subsidiary...something GM did to screw up competitors Alco, Baldwin,
Lima and others in the 1940s and 1950s, through their GMAC financial
subsidiary. Evidently, turnabout is fair play! The difference is
that GEs are "throwaway" units...run them a million miles, don't
bother with long-term maintenance or rebuilds, and then just either
scrap them or sell them to Mexico.

GM **** all over itself in the '80s with its badly engineered, low
quality products, mostly the 50-series, which caused North American
railroads to run pell-mell to GE looking for workable power at a less
inflated price. The only US domestic EMD buyers since then have been
commuter railroads. Even Amtrak finally threw in the towel after
EMD's disastrous AC traction demonstration and went to GE. Since
then, GE has bested EMD at the high horsepower game by fielding a
successful 6000 HP V-16 four stroke prime mover, while EMD's flawed
and cantankerous "H-engine" can't stay out on the road more than a few
weeks at a time. Problems were so bad with the H-engine that EMD quit
installing them, instead reviving the old 20 cylinder format, this
time in the 710-series (710 cu. in. per cylinder) yielding 4400 HP as
a "stop gap" measure, promising to replace the V-20 with an H-engine
as soon as they worked to bugs out. To date, the few EMDs that have
been sold to the Big 4 are still running their V-20s, and will
probably do so until they're scrapped.

Another GM disaster...courtesy of management hubris and incompetence.

GM...the worst there is. History proves it over and over again.
 




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