GOTCHA: When GM Sold 25,000 Busted Cars to Saddam Hussein
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- Опубликовано: 25 май 2024
- Years before the first Gulf War, GM accidentally found a great way to mess with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein: selling him a bunch of defective 1981 Chevy Malibus.
[READ THE STORY HERE: www.thedrive.com/news/35121/w...]
In the early 1980s, Iraq needed cars to serve as taxis and government vehicles. GM needed money, and figured out it could get around US sanctions by selling Saddam a fleet of G-Body Malibus through GM Canada with the backing of the Canadian government.
GM custom built 25,000 Malibus with upgraded cooling, heavy duty suspension, and an anemic carbureted V6. It proudly shipped the first batch to Iraq… only for Saddam’s regime to cancel the rest of the order because the cars immediately broke down. Also because it was about to go to war with Iran and maybe couldn’t afford to pay for the rest. It’s kinda murky.
Anyway, stuck with over 12,000 desert-spec cars, GM eventually decided to sell them to Canadians at rock bottom prices. And thus a cult automotive icon was born: the Chevy Iraqibu.
0:00 GM vs Saddam
0:58 Let's Make a Deal
2:29 Iraqi Taxi Specs
3:28 Reliability Problems
4:32 Canada Gets Creative
5:45 Icon Status
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Its funny , Sadam is dictator and usa is country of Hitler descendents, basicly dictatorial regime of uniparty which bmis brainwashing it citizents
@The Drive, Why do you show AUSTRALIAN Chrysler Valiants and Ford (XC) Falcons when talking about selling GM cars to Iraq for use as Taxis ??? 🤔 Is there really no other footage of a GM period- correct vehicle being used as a Taxi out on the internet??
Now a 3.8 v6bwould be atleast 275hp
Only General Motors could screw up a manual transmission
Subaru has entered the chat
Opel Monza fwd. 30 minutes or less to change the complete clutch assembly.
🤣
@@andrewallen9993it's still kak
My 85 bronco had a piece of junk Mazda trans, a 5 speed
GM sold lemons to almost everyone who has bought a vehicle from them. Not just Saddam
and still does to this very day
@@lambo8961 More now today than ever before.
The Ford Pinto was so much better.
Gm, ford and dodge all had crap and still sell crap
lol true
I am Iraqi and we previously owned two of thes cars.. and even some says that Saddam executed some of the people responsible for this deal.
So
@@carltonkeys6205
The “so” is that you’re an unworldly, ignorant person.
80s gm cars were shit. As a American I don't blame him. I'm non biased on the topic. Don't stand behind shit made cars
Reagan made the army buy tens or hundreds of thousands of Chrysler K cars. They were all over the place, and they were pieces of junk. They even had a warning sticker on the rear bumper to not park over leaves or other combustible materials due to risk of fire. They were too cheap to bolt a heat shield over the catalytic converter.
Genuine question:
How would you say your country has changed since Saddam?
Thank you 😊
Those vehicles didn't work out in the desert, so VW from Brazil sold thousands of Passats with minimal alterations to Iraq. Saddam paid with petroleum which went straight to Petrobras (Brazilian petroleum company owned by government) that paid VW.
that’s fascinating. money always finds a way
It’s hard to find an Iraqi whom’s father didn’t own one of those 🙂
@s.a.6444 Around 220,000 Brazilian VW Passat LSE were exported. From those, 170,000 alone to Iraq, in 5 years. In Brazil, they are called Passat Iraque and are loved by collectors, for some reasons: being rarer than most versions, AC from factory, red interior in some cases, better gearbox and the fact that they had four doors while most of the ones sold in Brazil had two doors. Back then, the VW taxis and "corporate" cars used to be 4-door Santana. Some people say the "Iraqi" Passat also had an improved radiator, but I don't know if this is true. It wasn't the most loved or expensive Passat in that era (it was probably the Passat Pointer GTS), but no doubt it is special for collectors nowadays.
They probably made tons of mods and just said they didn’t . Europe insists on being in a competition with America that America has no clue about, but still almost always wins 😂
Iraq just didn’t want to pay as the idea of a euro car being more reliable than an American car is nonsensical
@PenskePC17 It wasn't tons of mods. And even though this specific Passat was a VW with Audi roots, back then, Volkswagen do Brasil (Volkswagen of Brazil - the first VW factory out of Germany is in Brazil) had a lot of independence from Wolfsburg to do whatever they wanted to. The car was released in Europe in 1973 (I think) and started to be made in Brazil, specifically for the domestic market, in '74 or '75. When they started to be exported to Iraq (mid 80s), it had already evolved a lot in Brazil, entirely apart from the European VWs. The proof that the car was effectively "better" than the exported GMs is the fact that they can still be found everywhere in the Middle Eastern country until today. And don't get me wrong: I have nothing against GM, but they were just trying to sell unreliable junk that they were not able to sell domestically to the Iraqi government, with not enough care. There's no Europe in the deal, it was between the governments of Brazil and Iraq. Brazil wanted oil, Iraq wanted cars. The local Passat LSE (with some adequacies, like a different gearbox, a more conservative engine option, the addition of AC from factory, different interior colors...) ended up being the best match for the Iraqi expectations the Brazilian government managed to find. With the recent release of the VW Santana in the South American country, it was certainly a good deal for VW too, since it was probably cannibalizing the older model. And please keep in mind that these GMs were not Corvettes, and these VWs were not Audi Quattros. They were reasonably priced cars, meant to be daily driven by heads of families, government officials, taxi drivers... No intent to start an American vs. "European" (more Brazilian than anything, in fact) automotive schools war, or something like that.
We called them Iraqi taxis. The standard 3 speed manual transmissions and bell housings had the same bolt patterns as the small block V8s. With body on frame, rear wheel drive configuration, they made great hobby class stock cars in the 90s. I built one. Several buddies did the same.
I did a lot of work on these at an independent shop. I could be wrong but I think it had a really low gear in the rear end. Like a 411 or something like that. They were a great car. Sure, the frame rails would rot off the back end. You could buy repair sections right from GM. I couldn't even count the number of those I welded new rails in. They had horrible carburetors on them. That I do remember.
@@MikeAnderson-uj3oo Yeah all the G bodies were bad, the section of frame behind the rear wheels, most would just be holes.
@@livinginavwvan207 The frame on mine is like new and not a spec of rust.
I remember that, I knew several people who used them for that.
Same bolt pattern because the 3.8 V6 was just a 305 V8 with 2 cylinders cut off. The 4.3L V6 was a 350 V8 with 2 cylinders chopped off. On the opposite end the OG Viper V10 was just a dodge magnum (5.2/5.9) with 2 cylinders added.
I never owned any but some friends did. Amazing how quickly many of them seemed to morph into 5.7L 4 speeds.
Was a bolt in, and would conquer any other cars sold at that time. Everything was junk.
Even the police package cars never got the 5.7. Those all had the god awful 305 or 5.0 V8
@@matthewcaughey8898 The V6 they came with was a decent motor for reliability and fuel economy. But hard to resist a transplant :-)
Almost bought a malibu in the early 90's, it had a 350 and stick that was made by using Iraqi taxi parts, it may have even had the 3 speed. Car was a coupe. It burned oil and had been driven in the winter so I passed
Ford and GM need some modern version of this affordable, stick, reliable. But I’m dreaming
Tell that to the government.....to much mandated Nanny safety features due to idiots
@@neilbrown82yep! The more sensors, computers, and airbags they add, the more the price goes up! And all these 8+ speed transmissions they’re having to build to meet epa standards! Crazy
Chevy spark but it's a little clown car. 🤷♂️
@@neilbrown82the politicians have to protect their income source
@@TheSaltyExplorer yup greasy bastards
When I was deployed to Saudi Arabia in August of 90 for Operation Desert Shield, later becoming Operation Desert Storm which I participated in by invading Southern Iraq with the 1st Brigade, 24th Infantry Division, Mechanized (Heavy) I saw something that surprised me. There were basically 3 motor vehicles that were literally everywhere you looked and almost without exception they were the only ones we saw in everyday use, the Toyota Hilux 4wd pickup for people who had a need for off road capability, Chevrolet 1/2 ton two wheel drive pickup trucks for on road hauling, and Chevrolet Caprice/Caprice Classic 4 door sedans. In the 2 days I spent in Damam (the port city where our military equipment and vehicles were unloaded off ships) there was a bit more variety but even there these were the most common by far. Out of those 3 the Caprice (late 70s to mid 80s models) was by far the most common. There were so many of them that when I got a chance to speak to a Saudi national I asked him why they were so common. His answer, "They are comfortable to drive at whatever speed you want to go, even 120 KPH all day long, the air conditioning works great, they will run with little care or maintenance for over 150k Kilometers, they can carry a couple wives and children, and they are cheap enough that when they do finally quit you just walk away and go buy another."
Later on I noticed the same vehicle preferences seemed to be common in Iraq. Years after coming home when reading some books about the Italian Mafia I learned another detail about these cars in the middle east. Many of them, if not most of them were stolen from cities all up and down the east coast. It was a huge ring of car thieves, many stolen by Mafia crews, many more sold to the Mafia guys (Roy Demeo was a big part of this racket) and the Italians were selling multiple shipping containers at a time filled with Caprices to brokers in a number of middle eastern nations.
Also, a side note, when I was in Iraq, (Feb 91) they had a lot of really nice roads and some nice modern hiways, at least until we wrre finished with them.
ستحاسبون امام الله لانكم دمرتم البلاد
@@TheKing-id8gr unfortunately there is no Translate to English option to click on so my curiosity about what your reply says is going to drive me crazy.
@@oldhillbillybuckkowalski He said, "You will be held accountable before God because you destroyed the country". Don't shoot the messenger I'm just letting you know what he said.
@@Matt-yn8dv Thanks for being my "Terp". I could see where someone might think that but in Desert Storm we mostly concentrated on destroying Tanks, other assorted armored vehicles, artillery, military attack helicopters, jet fighters scud missile systems, and munitions stockpiles, all the stuff that might keep Sadam Hussein from invading his neighbors again... like when he sent his Army to rape, rob, pillage, and slaughter thousands of Kuwaitis all to try and get out of paying back loans he got to fight a genocidal war against Iran for 8 years of what was one of the highest cost in human lives of any war in the middle east all to gain nothing. Of course while we were destroying that equipment and weaponry there were Iraqi soldiers who chose to ignore the leaflets telling them we were coming and the could live if they surrendered and those that chose to fight chose to die. Not ideal but that's how it be sometimes. But we didn't launch Spuds at Israel, we didn't send in an Armored Division to Kanji signaling they wished to surrender and then at close range begin an attack, and we did not set the Rumalia Oil Fields on fire and start pumping oil from off shore rigs into the Persian Gulf in a temper tantrum over loosing, to create an environmental disaster that took decades to complete the cleanup thus really destroying the country. If I will have to answer for what I did in Desert Storm I'm ok with that, but if so I'll be in line to do it behind all the brutal middle eastern dictators that slaughter people for fun and all the terrorists, the largest industry in the middle east that doesn't involve the petroleum industry.
Now if I knew how to translate this into squiggle I'd be all set.
l knew one of the GM mechanics who went to lraq for a year to help keep these cars running.The biggest issue was sand clogging air filters,Unfortunately,the lraqis would pull clogged filters out,dropped to the ground,and off they drove with no filters.So sand ruined the cyl bores in days.They also pulled off the bellhousing dust covers,ruining clutch discs.
bet he had some stories!
If this happened today, and a manufacturer sold a car for 16k, every dealer in the country would mark it up to 45k and ruin any hype associated with “value” and it wouldn’t have sold out or become a cult favorite. First politician who runs on removing laws set up to protect dealers wins my vote! May have to wait another 37 years though, if ever haha
I owned one for a year, bought in 82 for $6120.00 This was the 1st new car I bought and was pissed when I found out there was a $700.00 tax from the feds on the A/C [never have seen better
A/C]. Put on 20,000 Km or so and hated the 3 speed. If you shift slowly it works fine. If you pushed the car in anyway it was annoying; the gearing of the 3 speed and the power band of the V6 made for a very pokey car. Sold it after a year for $6100.00. Best deal on a car ever!
so the heavy duty AC did make a difference!
@@drive Even Rolls Royce used AC Delco air conditioners from GM.
The AC worked real well. The rest of the car was rugged but uninspiring
GM really did and does have the best AC they were an early investor in and then owner of Frigidaire. To this day, GM has the institutional knowledge of that company to make AC that blows so cold your nipples will cut glass.
@@aaronshipley5594 true. nothing freezes you like a GM
I worked at the shipping port in Nova Scotia there's so many stories there that would suit this channel, just about every major automotive event in North America went through that port, vw dieselgate the lesser known Mercedes dieselgate (at one point there were so many sprinter vans they just gave up on shipping them and had them crushed) a ship filled with 800 Audi and VW's once hit rough sea's and totalled every car onboard, when Lada went out of business hundreds of cars got left in limbo at the port, they weren't allowed to be scrapped so the port just buried them and paved over it 😂
I’m Iraqi. The front bumper of this vehicle is a legend back home. It’s so spacious as well.
why is the bumper legendary?
@@driveThe Malibu would get into an accident and absolutely destroy the other car. While the Malibu driver would simply pull the bumper back away from the body and his car would be almost damage free.
@@drivethe iraqi taxis had bumperettes. The domestic model malibus had smooth bumpers
I live in Halifax, I've seen one or two of them still clinging to life
we bought one new. 3 speed manual. only option was a/c. was amazing reliable car and lasted forever. zero issues
It was a 1980's GM product. I'm calling BS.
The c10 pickups are were good
You got a DEFECTIVE car!
I hope they broke it for you under warranty.
Dude these Gbodys are STILL on the road. Lots of 80s gm stuff is actually. Look at all the Fbodys@@ruk2023--
Actually, heavy duty cooling, heavy duty A/C, heavy duty suspension. Mine had an AM/FM/Cassette player. (Maybe that wasn't the case with all of them.) The radios must have been retrofitted by GM to sell them in Canada because the AM/FM bands cover different frequencies in Asia/middle east than North America. And for the guy calling BS, other than tuneups, brakes, one set of shocks and 3 exhaust/muffler systems, I put 300,000 KM on mine and sold it certified when it was 10 years old. LOVED it.
Emissions are the #1 issue for governments…until governments have to pay for it.
I knew guys who built them here in Oshawa (home of the Camaro for a few years). The story I heard was that quality problems were caused by Iraqis removing the air filters to improve performance (bad idea in the desert). I also saw tons of them in the Toronto area. I seem to recall that some of them were three on the tree shifters, anybody remember that? Great story, thanks for that!
IIRC they were floor shifters. But this is 40 years ago. Lol
still one down the street from me used as a daily driver mint shape still too! (cobourg area)
Sister bought one new in Toronto. Three on the floor but the shifting was more like that found in a pick up truck than a car. You moved it slowly to give it a chance to engage. Bare, bare bones interior. Great budget car for it's size.
The nickname in Canada was actually ‘Iraqi Pace Cars’. My neighbour in Toronto was one of the GM engineers sent over to see what the hell was going on with these cars. What he found was zero maintenance and stupid driving. There was no concept of understanding you require oil changes - plus they tried to drive these 3 speeds as if they were Russian army trucks. It wasn’t the throw out bearing at fault - it was riding the clutch pedal mainly. He told me they ran out of pressure plates at one point and most of the flywheels they pulled out were glazed over and had friction damage. If you’ve ever seen videos of their driving in that era you’ll understand why they even broke Russian T-54 tanks! Most of these cars that were removed from Halifax went on to years of good service in Canada and were hell of a good grocery getter or 2nd car. Many had the 3 speed replaced with a 4 and later 5 speed gearbox. Drivability really improved with the better gearbox. The only reason GM put the 3 speed in was the theory of fewer shifts would be less wear. Wrong! The traffic jams were legendary in Baghdad so the lack of torque from the engine and stop and go traffic (and sand) just wore them out three times as fast. In hindsight they should have gone with a 3 speed auto. The idea that Saddam ran out of funds is probably correct as he ended up spending over $600B on the eight year war with Iran from 1980 to 1988. The deal for these 25000 cars was negotiated just as the war started and he had anticipated a quick win over Iran. Then lunch bag let down - the war is lasting too long. I know, let’s screw the Canadian’s. It ended up ok, GM sold the remaining cars at a slight profit. 🤷♂️
Makes perfect sense to me, honestly. Thanks for your input, DS.
I call bs with due respect,
first your call on Iraqis not maintaining their cars the about the Toyota's and the VW Passat from the very same era still around in Baghdad now? If the car was so good howcome the ones stays in Canada had to replace their gearbox anyway? Despite Canada having a colder weather than Iraq. The gearbox was shit and you have to admit it.
Second you have no idea how much is a $600b. Iraq had a surplus or 30b in 1980 and by the end of the war was in debt of 30b, if the number spent is around another 30b (though it might be much much lesser with all the limited export of oil due to the blokade of the gulf of Basrah) then it'll add to up 90b, not 600b if Iraq had 600b (or the ability to obtain 600b in 1980) iraq whould have bought iran cash-on-table
You would think the TH350 3-spd auto would have been the better choice
Canadian here and have never once heard them called that. Iraqi Taxi is what they are
much better explanation than that degenerate video
GM? Shoddy quality? You don't say....😅😅😅
😂
Ford was MUCH worse in that era, trust me.
Look at Ford's recent recall record.
GMC=
Generally
Made
Crappy!
@@dalesmith561just look at their old records
I'd never heard of these cars or this story. Fascinating.
Same here
@@nodak81 ditto
"the smallest engine" still 4x the size of a European engine lol
but only 20 hp more lol
ANd still 110 BHP?
Don't compare modern European engines to 80s smog engines.
@@Texassince1836 an 80's european 1.8 liter, 4 banger was pushing easily 90 hp
@@elias71101lot more torque though
My family owned one of these in the early 80's to 90's. Didn't need a new car for a few years, so it was garage stored until another car headed off to the wreckers. My frugal Accountant Dad regretted not having bought two at the time, hindsight being 20/20. I learned to drive using it, as well as manual transmission. It took PLENTY of abuse from the two teenage drivers in the family in the latter '80s. It towed trailers for long distances with hobby tree-farm stuff on a regular basis. I don't think the clutch was ever replaced.
As far as my memory goes - that car was mechanically/reliability trouble free - it was deer-wrecked x2, rebuilt x2, and sold off with high miles. My Dad was overweight, and as such the HD suspension came in handy. It got replaced by my Grandpa's hand-me-down Chevy Caprice of the same year.
Performance was relative in the late '70's to late '80s.. we didn't really know much better, at the time. We also owned a mid '80s Camaro powered by the same engine. Anemic today, was normal yesterday.
Iraq's loss, was our family's 1980's gain. This stuff makes me feel old.
First time hearing about the "IraqiBu" aka the Malibu destined for Iraq. I like the simple no fuss design of the Malibu, simple and easy to work on, as long as the transmission would work reliability.
I wish more car companies would create "pure base model spec" trimmed vehicles that cost an inflation adjusted $16,000 these days. Great story, thanks for sharing :)
I heard a lot of these had a ridiculous axle ratio too, like a 2.55 or something. It was ok for flat highways but hills were a challenge
For as popular as these cars were, GM had some funny problems selling them. Another story is about the Pontiac LeMans (basically same car from 78-81). Pontiac sold a bunch of them to a car rental company but someone had made the mistake of not ordering them with air conditioning. And they were supposed to be used in Arizona. Eventually the cars ended up being dressed up as police cars - and of course, mostly destroyed - at the end of Smokey and the Bandit II.
Ha...you're right! I'm 50 years old and I have watch all the Bandit movies a bunch of times. I remember thinking it must have cost a fortune to make this movie with them destroying so many cars. It was the desert scene where Bandit drover over all the rigs like a bridge right? And the Bandit movies certainly had some deal with Pontiac as nearly every car was a Pontiac.
A car with an engine physically smaller than what the chassis was designed to accommodate is almost always easy to maintain compared to cars that received the biggest engines they were designed for.
I was helping a friend revive a 3rd gen F-body Camaro with the 5.7 EFI engine, it was an '87 equippes with a smog pump and those aspirator tubes into each individual exhaust runner. It was clear that the F-body was designed for nothing larger than a small block, it was so tight that we did not even bother with plugs. In contrast, my '95 Impala's basic chassis goes all of the way back to 1977, and the platform makes extensive use of the parts-bin on the former mid-sized cars (1970s Chevelle, mid-70s Camaro) along with outer dimensions similar to those older mid-size cars, which were designed to hold big-blocks. There's so much more room to work in the Impala's engine bay compared to that 3rd gen Camaro.
The small V6 (comparatively speaking) and simple drivetrain in these Iraqi Malibus made them a lot easier to service regardless of training, so something that was beneficial to export to a country without a dealer network to fall back on for service also made them beneficial to consumers that might normally not be able to afford new cars and likely couldn't afford to pay for repairs after the laughably short warranties expired. Sure they were underpowered compared to even the mainstream vehicles of the late malaise era, but for buyers that just wanted something to get around in that wasn't already rusting away or expensive to repair this might not have been that big of a deal.
I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia. These things were incredibly popular. A 3-speed, taxi-built mid size American sedan really spoke to the market here at that time. Add in a low price, and there you have it. Worthy of note, the lot where these cars were stored still exists today, it's called Autoport in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and massive vessels from Europe drop their cars here for shipment all across North America by rail.
They should have gave them 4 speeds and 305 V8 packages.
now yer talkin
That's about the only way
I never could figure out why a petroleum-rich country worried about fuel economy of anything. Spec those cars with the 350 (if available at that time) and 4-speed autos.
305 or 350 esp the carb’d ones run hot
@@aaronshipley5594 The cooling problems.
The used an underpowered engine with required less cooling capacity.
Because, with the big engine the cooling problems where only bigger....
The thought of buying a new car for $16,000 makes me physically ill. Where did the times go man
I know. In 1993 I special ordered a Ford Ranger extended cab 4x4. It was $15,800. 4.0, manual transfer case, manual 5 speed, manual hubs, block heater, no a/c, no power windows, no power mirrors, no cruise control, no tilt steering window. Cayman green color. When I ordered it ford said 4-6 weeks, it took 12 weeks. I just rebuilt the engine last fall & still drive it today although it’s not my primary vehicle. Had cracked cylinder heads & lots of oil leaks. No rust since I live in MT where they don’t salt the roads and low humidity.
In 1985 my father was a base commander of an Army logistics depot. There were 300 tan, white and drab colored Chrysler K cars scattered around the base. As the commanding officer my father was driven around in a tan one with unit flags and the colonel eagle insignia on the bumpers.
As some part of some taxpayer bailoyt, Reagan forced the Pentagon and a bunch of other large federal agencies to buy them.
On the bumper there was a warning sticker about not parking over leaves or other combustible materials due to risk of fire. The catalytic converter didn't even have a heat shield, so it was apparently a common thing for someone to park a I car over some dried leaves or trash and come back later to a burned out charred steel frame where their car used to be.
(I believe one of the car rental companies rediscovered this when parking a bunch of excess unused cars in a field near Tampa or Miami airport during the covid lockdown, too.)
I'm from Canada and I owned one in the late 90's. It still is one of my favourite cars I ever owned. It was built like a tank. Of course I threw out that crappy V6 and swapped that for a 305 very early on.
I had an '82 Malibu with the 3.8L V6 (231CID) and auto trans. Surprisingly very reliable.
Two tone?
My best friend in high school owned one of these cars. He got a great deal on it, and it was one of the better cars we had access to at the time. We had a great time with that thing and the car's back story was always a source of humour. Eventually it was destroyed when hit by a large truck in a parking lot. Memories!
jokes on them, these people are extremely resourceful and with chevy parts available in Kuwait...well..it was all a 2 day engine swap.
Wow didn’t Kuwait very long that’s great
Iraq had its own American car culture heck it almost started to assemble Oldsmobiles in the late 80s, if it wasn't for the Kuwait issue Iraq would have been a greater market for US than it is now
My grand father bought one new and later sold it to my parents, my mom learned to drive stick with it and my dad said it would struggle to go up a hill. Still find them at car shows here in canada
I worked in the Middle East in 1991. Even before the first Gulf War was won, Ford and GM had freighters packed with new cars ready to be shipped to Kuwait. They knew that the Iraqis had looted Kuwait of cars. Kuwaitis were anxious to replace their stolen cars. Never stand between a Detroit factory and a Kuwaiti Dinar.
The way we pronounce it in Iraq is “Maleebo” 😂 .. good times!
I owned one of these. Silver exterior and dark blue interior. I swapped out the 3.8 and installed a 350 in it with the 3 speed gearbox . It was a lot of fun. Great memories
In late 90's I worked at a factory with a retired GM worker from Oshawa where these were built, they did really long runs of them being all the same color, he worked on the paint line and made note of that "can't we change the damn color!" Most were light blue from my recollection
The Australian ford falcons as taxis at the start was funny.
My Grandfather worked for GM at this time and purchased 2 of the Iraqi Taxis off the port of Halifax and they were trouble free for many many years. Awesome little machines.
As a Canadian i loved finding these more doors in junk yards and remove all of the parts for a clutch conversion of any auto trans G. body to a manual car. I still own a 400 with 350 Vortec heads 4 speed 2 door Malibu Landau with a flipped around T/A shaker as a ram air scoop painted gold with crab claw flames and black interior and a more door station wagon 4 headlight front end . I always heard the term Iraqi taxi but the term Iraq-a-bu is a new one for me.
I grew up in Nova Scotia and remember these cars being parked at the docks in Halifax for ages until they were sold off. Standard Malibu, Kinda cool.
Loved our 80s Malibu….zero issues with it, 1985 we traded it off for a new F150, while the truck was useful I did miss that car for a time
$100,000,000 / 25,000 cars =
$4,000 per Malibu...
i wouldn't pay that much!
*at the $ value in 1980, or now
Wow that was a great video, hope to see more like it on your channel. My relatives up in Canada actually had one of these said Malibus. Back in the day they were looking to buy a new car and stumbled onto a Chevy dealer's lot in the greater Toronto aera where these cars were sold for a really low price, the dealer did state that these cars were part of shipment to some "place" in the middle east that fell through...lol. You talked about shoddy workmanship, but my relatives kept that car for almost ten years with no problems that's until the rust finally got a hold of it.🙂
that’s hilarious. and thanks for watching! lot more to come
My dad bought one new for $5000 CAD, it made it to 275,000kms, still started...drove it to the wrecking yard. My family and all of our teenage friends learned to drive standard on this. Never replaced a clutch, never needed major repairs, although most gasket surfaces were leaking oil by the end. What finally killed the car was piston wobble which eventual wore the cylinder and coolant leaked into the engine...We replaced it with a Corsica, what a piece a junk that was!
My grandmother had 1980 Malibu 4 door, but the late 70’s style. She had it for most of our child hood but my dad put plenty of work into it through the years but it was as a SOLID car. The most annoying thing about the car was the back windows didn’t not roll down only the little windows that opened on a slant in the rear were not enough for air on hot summer days if anyone remembers that?!🌻
When I was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, TX, in the 80s a local Chevy dealer got about 12 short wheelbase Chevy pickups originally meant for Brazil. A friend got one. It was a nice truck, the only downside was the three-on-the-tree transmission.
Which was easy to swap to a 4 speed auto, change the starter, did this in a 76 5/8 ton C10 with 350
All this hate for GM at this time is a joke the G body Malibu is desired today . We had GM family cars all went over 200k miles , and then we owned taxis Caprice's and some went 500k miles. And in those days government regulations and coming out of the 70's emissions standard regulations they weren't perfect at all but for the time are not as bad as people now go on about.
I have the same feelings.
I owned one of these cars. To date was my favourite of the GM's I did own.
That 3 speed was bulletproof. It was desired by many dirt oval racers.
In fact, many times, guys would swap you a Muncie 4 speed for free just to get the 3 speed.
We swapped in V8's many times, but for myself, I built a V6 monster of a motor that rivaled any small block at the time.
They were actually still A bodies in 1981. They didn’t become G bodies until the 1982 model year.
Nice to see you here!
Reminds me of when i was in Baghdad in 2010 (VBC). There was a giant sea of brand new crew cab chevy trucks. They had been sitting there for a while. The rumor was similar, we struck a deal with the Iraqi gov't and they didnt like them when they showed up. They purchase was rejected I guess. At the end of my tour (2011) we were told to leave the keys to all of our assigned vehicles on the seat & get the plane to go home. We left a mind boggling amount of capitol behind.
Lmao it seems like the Iraqis do the same thing to every nation they’re buying something from. They also pulled the same shit with Ukraine when they purchased BTR-4’s, when they arrived the Iraqis said they were poor quality. Sounds like it’s a common scam of theirs lol
I had an Iraqibu, changed out the V-6 for a 350 4bbl and put a 4 speed into it. It was reliable and I never had anything go wrong with it and found it was as good as anything else Gm made. Yes it also moved and handled well, but rust the ever enemy of all GM cars caught up with it otherwise I would have kept it.
Yes the engine swap.put a 855 Cummins in mine run like hell l and got 60 miles to the gallon 😅
My family bought one and used it as our primary car for 15 years. Great car.
Two of my cousins owned one of these, they drove it for almost 20 years. Simple, basic and cheap, theirs turned out to be very reliable, but rust finally did it in.
What an awesome story, great work ❤❤
"The Middle east didn't have a car industry"
Iran did , they built the Paykan , millions of them !
That's correct... BUT. Did you ever hear of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988)?
Saddam ordering Paykan cars in these days would be like buying cars fromm, let's say, North Korea, or Cuba. As an US guy 😅
Saginaw 3 speeds were one of the best transmissions gm ever made. Guaranteed it was the sand wearing out the bushings
3:35 People around the world had 5 speed manual and 4 speed automatic at that time. While GM was making only 3 speed manual like it's the 1950's.
As a teenager in the 1980s in Winnipeg, yes these cars were around. I never got to drive one, but I remember them and parts of their story. The way I remember the story, they were sent without air conditioning to Iraq. (That would make sense they not wanting them.) I guess my memory has been corrected. I think we can learn a lesson here about having cheap cars to sell. It seems all the manufacturers want to sell us an over the top of the line SUV, b7t I think there still is a market for brand new cheap basic transportation.
1981 it was still an "A" body. 1982 GM came out with the front wheel drive cars - Chevy Celebrity, Olds Cutlass Cierra, Pontiac 6000, Buick Century - these were designated "A" body. The Malibu, Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Regal, and Cutlass rear wheel drive then became the "G" body - they had been the "A" body from 1973 thru 1981.
Also the first "G" body was the 1969 Grand Prix - then 1970 Monte Carlo, both up thru 1972.
I drove one of these on a 2500-mile trip and it worked quite well. It was a typical 6-cylinder, G-body of the day. The only issue was the gearing, which was set up for the flat roads of Iraq, but once changed, they worked well.
The cars should've been ordered as police cars and then they would be taxi cabs after they're retired from service! lol! 🤣
I had a couple these back in the day. We called them iraqi taxis. The most basic car you ever seen. Mine where fairly reliable though.
umm... you had multiple?
@@drive many of us did, they were cheap here in Saskatchewan.. My friend and I put a 350 in mine with a Muncie 4 speed and embarrassed a few 5 liter Mustangs
@@driveI knew of several here in Calgary as well, Iraqi Taxis weren't rare here either.
My dad and stepdad remembered these at the Oshawa plant when they worked their.
@@drive yes i had two. Not at the same time but two in a row here in central Ontario in the 90's. I think they where both the same ugly brown. No options i don't even think they had carpet. Noisy and dusty as hell inside on the back roads
I remember looking at one of these at a used car lot here on Vancouver Island about 1990, never saw another one again.
Was it around 1994? I might have ended up with that car via a wholesaler
My scout leader (a Metro Toronto cop) bought one to drive in and out of Toronto. The car was solid!
I'm happy to see a video on the Iraqibu. I used to own a 1980 El Camino with the same drivetrain, and enjoyed driving it. The 229 V6 wasn't powerful, but it was reasonably peppy, and it worked well with the 3 speed manual transmission. It was finally sold so that I could fit my 1979 Malibu wagon in the garage. An Iraqibu would have been a nice car to have had.
The problem was that GM showed Iraq loaded Malibu Classics, then shipped them stripped basic Malibus. The clutch issue was that the input shaft for the transmission didn't get any grease on them at the factory, hence hard to shift. My dad owned one and worked on many at the dealership he works at. They were good cars.
My uncle bought one of these cars here in Canada. He had it for years and years with no problems. I drove it many times and there wasn’t much difference between it and my from it 1978 Pontiac, not considering the three on the floor. We understood these cars were supposed to be gifted to the families of dead and severely wounded veterans of the Iran-Iraq war, but for that to be true, they would have needed a lot more cars.
we didn’t cover it in the video, but you’re right that some were given to war widows
Not even gonna talk about how SH worked for CIA
I like this. I enjoy these short format, informative, deep dives. Good stuff, I will continue to watch!
thanks for watching! lots more to come
As a Canadian i never heard of this. Thanks for the great video. Cheers from Canada 🍻
Poor craftsmanship? I have owned a few late 70s early 80s GM vehicles i do not think they were low quality at all. They held up well and lasted into the 250 plus thousand miles.
As long as you didn't buy one of those "new-fangled" X-cars.
@@frankdeboer1347 i had a 77 Olds Ninety Eight and a 85 half ton Chevy pickup. I cant say anything bad about either. And if i had something bad to say i would.
Back then people junked cars because something simple like the distributor went out or a new model came out. I mean people still do but a lot of people have gotten wise to that.
@@Yophillips3272 For sure. Alot of people wrote a car off as dead ehen it was something simple.
I've talked with people like you. Later it always comes out that "held up well" actually means only having to rebuild the engine once or twice and that it's on its third transmission. Same with Mopar fan boys. Some people seem to think "reliable" and "easy to work on" mean the same thing.
that 3.8 is one the best engines offer
We should have sent him 25,000 Ford Pintos (AKA the original “Chariot of Fire”) instead!
These vehicles have a complete GM engineered manual transmission clutch assembly & all small parts necessary to swap a monty- Carlo . Cutlass , Grand-Prix. All in one neat package. Clutch linkage ,pedal, driveshaft shifter mount for
floor
Camaro 4 speed in a cutlass anyone ?
They are getting harder to find as complete cars look carefully before buying
I went to college in North Dakota...close to the Canadian border. I recall seeing one of these Malibus parked by the student union. I thought it was a former police car but it certainly looked like one of these Malibus...because of the 3 speed on the floor and the tweed interior.
Great storey that was completely off my radar until just now! Thanks for sharing it. I learn something new almost every day! As Always, May God Bless you and yours! 😇
fascinating! thanks for the video
Every one I saw was green. And a 4 speed manual
Yep. Family bought one. We're Canadian, in Brampton specifically, and the thing lasted for many, many years with no real problem. Other than the fact that it wasn't made for Canadian winters.
Boy if Saddam Hussein had brought a GM product today he would really know what a lemon is
Checking in from Nova Scotia - ive had the pleasure of going for a ride in one of these back in the day.. can confirm the A/C was really really really good lol. Every time i see an old G Body Malibu i try to get up close to see if it has the 3 speed on the floor.
No rolling rear windows! 😂😂😂
GM does this today in Mexico. They send over all there Lemons to Mexico. Here in Mexico 2023 Yukon Denali I got the engine seized not even 500 Kms on it.
There’s quite a few reports here on RUclips about GM engines grenading with less than 5K miles on them. Definitely not a MX only problem.
@@morstyrannis1951 in the USA they offer like up to 100,000 mile warranty. Here in Mexico they offer 1 year of free on star.
@morstyrannis1951 No, they definitely do I've worked for a different manufacturer and it's part of the procedure and kind of a running joke to send out the junk.
Great story.
I'm a gearhead & well read and never heard of this notable episode !
For a future story you could cover how an unlikely economy sedan became an overnight automotive racing success & enduring cult classic - Im referring to the BMW killer Datsun 510 sedan.
(Datsun being Nissans name aforehand)
This humble sedan was massaged into a TransAm Series Race Winner by Pete Brocks race shop around 1971 & in a year 1972 was beating out older more prestigious makers BMW & Alfa Romeo handily.
The short iconic B&W race film "Against All Odds" gives a great overview of this story inc interviews with Driver John Morton & builder Pete Brock, and highlights of the races.
Absent this success, it's not clear if Datsun / Nissan had much chance of market prominence.
I had 3 Datsun 510s about a decade later in 1982-86 and built 1 into a budget version of Pete Brock BRE 510.
Great times !
Did well at Autocross / Gymkhana (stadium parking lot racing around cones & timer) with that fun car !
A few years later I literally gave it away in a fit of irrational generosity.
LORD knows what it'd be worth today - def one that "got away" lol.
Great story dude. I love simple machines or objects that just do the job, nothing fancy.
Cool story, weird set.
Thanks, good feedback.
You guys do understand that the truth of the matter is that the cars were largely fine. Saddam just did not have the money to pay for the rest of the order.
Just stumbled into your channel and glad I did I just subscribed!!
glad you’re here. we’ll make it worth your while
Fascinating, thanks!
That's why I only buy Toyota in United States. Because Toyota doesn't pull bullshit like this. Every manufacturer plays politics like lgbt, diversity etc ... However, Toyota never play politics when it comes to "building a car" ...
Lol Toyota was in bed with GM in the 1980's
Canadia
ya
@@drive eh
Thank you for not making this video 20-30 minutes long. Like everyone else
One of my customers I went through a Chevy Blazer 4 by 4 he said don't worry about scratching offenders they're going to kick all the doors in when they get off the boat, he was responsible for designing and building most are interstates in Iraq. The government sent him there to take control that operation.
Over the years, I've owned 3 of these cars. Cheap, yes, but I found them to be reliable. Eventually they're overcome by rust.
I remember seeing so many GM cars up here with bumpers being held on with ropes, bungee cords, etc. Those rear frame rails didn't last long eh? 😖
Come on the man is dead leave him alone
I have one with 3 speed manual still in orginal paint
whoa, really? what do you think of it?
@@drive
its a nice car until now sell for a good price in iraq it's sells between 6000$ to 10000 $
I'm old and clearly remember when they rejected the Iraqi taxis. I personally remember friends buying them. They were mostly trouble free most going hundreds of thousands of miles. Several were modified and drag raced. But lemons... Hardly.
First Iraqi