Darrell Floyd wrote:
Why did any fool buy a new Triumph w/o OD? They were
like an $85.00 option. What a shame they were not all built with OD.
Two
points, Darrell.
1. Of the 20% odd sports cars that were produced but went
to other markets
outside North America, the vast majority were fitted with
overdrive as an
optional extra because it was seen as a logical and highly
practical option.
This particularly applies to Standard-Triumph's 10+
overseas manufacturing
plants where O/D was often standard equipment and a
non-chargeable option.
2. Why did so few US & Canada cars not have it?
Looking back to my days in the
company's only showroom in the UK where we
sold about 3000 cars a year to all
markets, the issue of 'overdrive' on US
shipments was a matter of education.
Firstly, many US dealers never bothered
to spec a car with O/D on their own
showroom sales. They never knew when the
next one was arriving, so would often
sell the car on a full ticket price.
Equally, info filtered back to us in the UK
that many US dealers had painful
knowledge of a Detroit manufactured overdrive
that was (I believe) mechanical
and claimed to be unreliable. So those that did
know of the name 'overdrive'
needed a lot of persuasion on its benefits. The
selling was a hard job to a
non-technical aspiring new owner until (trumpet
fanfare) we modified the
terminologies and appealed to vanity "you see Sir, what
you get with an
overdrive on the TR model is effectively a seven speed close
ratio gearbox."
That was the clincher! A car with a seven speed on the floor
with close
ratios for under $3000? Gotta have it!
And that's why every sportscar for
the US and Canada and sold through
Standard-Triumph's London showroom was
delivered with every production fitted
extra - always overdrive, (almost)
always a tonneau, always wire wheels, always
leather seats. Reason? We needed
the commission to eat and fund our rather
extravagant lifestyles :)
Jonmac
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