I just finished watching NOVA on PBS one segment of this auto crash/safety
segment of the series talked about Nader and the Corvair scam. I remembered
once reading that the reason he got away with his BS story about that
remarkable car was GM and the whole auto industry wanted the Corvair killed
because they had so much invested in old technology (frame+body+FWD) that they
wanted to keep using, but if Corvair was a success the cost of retooling was
astronomical. The US auto makers thought they controlled not only American
pocketbooks, but American minds. They miscalculated on the impact the imports
would have. In the end the Aremicans had to retool to keep pace with the
imports. What was the name of that flick... the conspiracy theory?
Well kids, some of us old farts have lived through the Kennedy murders, the
Warren Commission BS, the Viet Nam BS, and even the Nader/Corvair BS. We thought
we had seen enough, then along came the Clinton/Monica BS. And some folks think
we got rid of the monarchy! We are still pawns with our little MG's and they are
still the royalty. The only difference is they don't wear crowns any more.
Damn it! I thought we agreed to get rid of this silly soap box. Well it's cold
in here, I'm putting it in the fireplace. Oh, Shi*. The soapbox is made of
plastic... figures.
(In the inimitable words of our hero Rozanne Rozannadana...) "Never mind."
Jim
danray wrote:
> I've always wondered about Consumer Reports' Objectivity. It's useful as one
> source for making purchase decisions, but I take it with a grain of salt, as
> any intelligent person should when reading or watching the media. They
> happily give high marks to anything Toyota or Nissan, but talk to owners and
> do your own survey of the Camry, and a different picture is formed. Same
> with my '96 Chevy Tahoe (usually lots of black dots)-- it's been a lot more
> reliable than my BMW, or my parents' Camry ever were!
>
> Dan
> 73B
>
> > But don't under-estimate the power this type of thing has, though.
> > Consumer Reports single handedly destroyed the Suzuki Samurai a few
> > years ago with the famous "tip over" picture. What's not widely known,
> > however, is that they were testing several small SUVs that day, most of
> > which had about 10 passes through the "tip-over" course. It took 44
> > tries, 3 drivers and changing the course from what the other vehicles
> > went through to successfully tip it. There is even a video, made by the
> > testers, with shouts of "Yahoo!" when they finally tipped it.
> >
> > Then they printed the pic on their cover, it was their number one
> > selling mag of all time, and the following year sales of this capable
> > little vehicle were cut to 1/3 of what they had been.
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