Production of the Tiger stopped first, as Chrysler pulled the plug on
selling a car with a Ford engine. Especially when Chrysler was warrantying
it for 7 years/70,000 miles, and Ford only gave 24,000 miles! If I remember
correctly, all Mark II Tigers are 1967s, and no 1968s.
The halt of Alpine production was mainly due to US legislation. In
January of 1968, the National Highway Traffic Safety Act went into effect.
This caused many minor changes in all cars sold here, but one major feature
of the Alpine was outlawed - fender mounted gas tanks. ( or petrol tanks in
the wings) Since changing that would have cost many dollars for a 10 year
old design, the Alpine was quietly killed, and all 1968 Alpines were built
before the end of 1967. The NHTSA chnages were incorporated into the next
generation designs..... not that it helped any.
Jon Arzt
Omaha, NE USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barbara Blue" <the_blues@worldnet.att.net>
To: <alpines@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2001 8:24 PM
Subject: Production Halt
> Speaking of Alpines and "doner" production cars, why did Rootes stop
> production of the Alpine? Was it because it was always tied to another
> vehicles production? Years ago I heard it was because of pending safety
and
> emissions regulations coming on line in the U.S., but surely Chrysler
could
> have played that hand quite easily. It seems the Alpine was one of the
few
> things that had any signs of showing future potentional at Rootes. Sure,
it
> needed a dealer network, and QC improvement, but these are basics, needed
by
> any car they would ever hope to produce.
> Bill
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