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It was proved in the early 70s the 1960 to 63 Corvairs were no worse than the average car of that era including Porsche, VW Bug and other vehicles, but Nader had no clout against "foreign" makes so he went after GM and its weird car. Btw - GM modified the rear suspension in 1964, improving the handling, I know, we had a 64 Corvair Monza convertible.
I was in my twenties when the Corvair came out and I was working as a mechanic. It was just as bad as Nader said it was. And NO, it was never proved that Corvairs were no worse then anyone else. The GM engineers knew this but the bean counters over ruled them until Nader's book came out forcing them to install the original suspension braces in 1964. If you had owned a 60-63 model and went around a curve a little too fast the rear wheels would have folded up causing a nasty crash. Nader went after the entire industry, he wasn't afraid of any one! pointing out that safety was never a big concern. Steel dashes, rigid steering wheels, and lots of pointy things inside the cars made them death traps. If you hit a tree you died the tree survived! Today car are much safer because of Nader!
Fun facts about Gtemlins, They came out of AMCs AMX program, Look up AMX GT. The Gremlin used the same floorpan as the AMX and had the same wheelbase length of 93 inches, but lighter by about 400 pounds. This meant that one could upgrade to any AMC V-8 with off the shelf parts and have a nice sleeper.
My husband in 1972 bought a Gremlin 5 liter brand new. It was part of a special order for the California Highway Patrol with modifications. Full roll cage , heavier leaf springs, sat closer to the road, built for the expressway driving. Top speed 140+ MPH. THAT ROLLCAGE saved our lives. We suddenly came to an unmarked T intersection one night. He swung left and almost made it. The right rear tire blew and we went into a field that was nearly 6 feet lower than the road. We rolled over a boulder just above his head. We DROVE TO THE NEAREST FARM for help. We both survived with nothing but concussions . When AMC wanted to replace it with a1973 model,we were told that if we had had a 1973 we 2ould have had broken backs. My husband told them to repair the 1972. We used it for ten more years. Only selling it forparts as we were expecting our fourth child. 😊
The later Saturn "S" series (possibly the final year only, which was 2002) had an optional automatic transmission that would NOT upshift unless your foot was at least a little bit "on the gas pedal". Nice on downhill slopes. The driver had to continue paying attention, of course.
i must be blessed. I had a Corvair, 62, and an amc. Pacer. The Pacer had the trans replaced twice in 8 months. I called it the holy car because when you turned the key, you had to pray first. you would be rolling along at 55 and it would just quit. And it would not restart. I was towed so often i knew all the tow drivers by name. Also, driving in Chicago summer in a giant glass bubble, not the best idea. The AC rarely worked. The Corvair was different. It was a 62 and had an air cooled engine. I never had a handling problem and never overheated in El Paso where the daily temperature is 90 degrees. Drove it for 2 years and only did brakes. Except for the annoying push rods which traveled in tubes outside the engine. Every 3 months you had replace the gaskets at the end of the tubes.
Automatic seatbelts were an alternative to airbags. Part of the mandate for “supplemental restraint systems” to be added to all cars. Airbag systems were expensive and hard to engineer into new models. As automatic seatbelts proved to be a failure, airbag technology became cheaper and easier to design into new cars.
I had this feature on my first car. It's not mentioned in the video, but the auto-belt was a stop-gap feature. Coming government regulations were to require "passive safety" protection that could protect occupants to at least some extant even if they forgot to buckle up. The ideal method would have been to install air bags, but for some cars that would be impractical. For some, the price would have been jacked up too much. Other cars were near the end of their design cycles and retrofitting for air bags wouldn't have been worth it for a model that would be replaced in a year or two. Automated seat belts were the answer to this problem. They faded into obscurity as airbag systems became cheaper and more widespread.
As I recall, the AMC gremlin was the demolition derby driver's car of choice. The car's pointed rear end was like a battering Ram and could destroy even much bigger cars.
17:34 - The real problem of the TeleTouch system is that it solved a problem that didn't exist. In an car with automatic, you touch the shift maybe three times: once to back out, once to drive, and then once back in to park when you got to your destination. And, in all probability, the car was already stopped when you made the shift. You didn't need the controls on the hub because you weren't constantly taking your hands off the wheel to shift while driving.
Jaguar isn't the only one who made that mistake. Twincam Harleys came with plastic tensioners that were cut through at 20-80k. Pain to replace, and a hydraulic tensioner was over $350, plus you had to remove the pipes, timing cover, floorboards and rear brake. NOT a quick job!
The Gremlin shouldn’t be considered a failure, they produced almost 700,000 units during its run. Second best selling vehicle in amc history. If the styling fails your personal taste then say that. From a Ford guy
I didn’t think the automatic seatbelt was irritating. It did take like 4 seconds to go from front to back but it wasn’t an issue. I didn’t get into the car start and stop like I was on the Dukes of Hazzard.
It's a shame when people talk about things they have no knowledge about. I owned many of these vehicles and loved each one. They all had little Quirks, but all cars do. At least these cars made it out of the parking lot, which is more than I can say for some GM cars I purchased. You shouldn't have to have the dealer to get his wrecker to tow your new car out of the road at the end of his driveway., or to keep your new car that has 8 miles on the odometer for 6weeks because it started knocking and smoking before you got to the end of his driveway. Just saying, everyone produces a lemon now and then, just some produce more than others.
The YUGO really wasn’t a bad looking little car for the era, in fact it fit right into it’s segment. The disappointment was in its reliability. Lots of kids first cars were all over the lot at my high school
I would not consider a car which was produced and sold for 10 years, such as the Gremlin, a failure. We owned 2 of them in the 70's and we loved them. They were "cute" little cars that got around in the snow very well. They sold 670,000 of them. I'd say that that makes them at least a moderate success.
I think the problem is that the design engineer (Homer Simpson?) put it on the wheel where the horn is. Had it been on the dash it probably would have worked out fine.
@@jackbits6397 And if you want proof of that, consider the many Chrysler products that had their push-button transmission controls on the dash, near but not on the steering wheel. Chrysler moved away from this style not because the design was unsafe or unreliable, but because they thought it was too "different" and thus held back sales.
1. Renault weren't the only ones trying annoying electrnic voices in the 80's. Japan was all over that and yes, it was just as annoying. 2. Buick Riviera's touch panel was annoying, but who remembers BMW's one dial nightmare that owners had to take a CLASS in just to operate the car? 3. Corvair's swing axle isn't quite fair. back in 1960 when it was released, there were LOTS of cars on the road with swing axles. And consider this; even with it's inherent flaws, it was still better than the solid rear axle you got in every other American car. 4. The Gremlin was brilliant, dont let anyone tell you otherwise. The Pacer otoh... ;) 5. Cadillac 8-6-4. Great idea just too early. My father had one and hated it, hated when it switched between them because you could literally feel it and it lost that silky smooth V8ness. I get it. Today it can be done much more elegantly with electronics and FI. 6. Auto seatbelts - I had one and didnt mind it at all.
VW had the same swing axle system but Nader did not have the guts to attack them. Chevrolet changed it in 1965 and VW followed in 1968. Corvair became a design leader at that point.
It wasn't Jaguar's fault that the Teflon (NOT plastic!) cam chain guides failed and they did warranty the car engines so it wasn't that big of a deal. Honda motorcycles used Teflon for their guides and had no problem. BTW talking cars started with a TV program called "My Mother The Car" back in the 1960s. Today AI voices are in the GPS mapping systems with voice warnings available on some cars. Better computers make a lot of the old ideas work better today!
I bet people would be lining up to buy Yugo's now because not many can afford anything else and you can buy a new one for what it costs to repair any other modern car, and when you get a recall on a Yugo you kinda expect it.
I have never understood the early 1980s Cadillac "bustleback". The car looked like it was carrying a coffin sideways in the rear. So a luxury brand (Cadillac) gave you less trunk space than the previous year. I think they did it because the old rear end styling was getting stale. But the sideways coffin.....I thought it was UGLY.
Some of the most dependable engines have had plastic timing chain tensioners - the legendary Toyota 2200 RE used in the 1980s had them and the engines gets 300-400k miles on them
Even my Chevy's have neoprene chain tighters..... But as econo throwaways....don't expect much over 200000 out of them.... That said....I have saved a good fortune on transportation costs!
My Harley Twincam went out at 30k, some would male it to 80. PIA to replace, expensive to change to hydraulics. Still, love the bike a d will install the improved nylon pads next time.
On top of that, these were _specially designed_ records that were compatible only with Highway Hi-Fi. (Supposedly, they skipped less than the standard kind.)
Renault is still building junk, only they call it Dodge now. I owned a 63 Corvair Monza convertible. Loved the car, never understood what Nader was whining about it was perfect. Except for the aluminum engine that needed replace ever freaking 30K miles. LOL yeah when I was 10 years old I just new record players in cars was stupid.
Also, _someone_ had to learn the lessons that seem obvious today: Have physical controls for things that drivers commonly adjust while on the move, make sure the controls actually respond to your touch, and so on.
Touch screens were a dreadful idea in the 1980s, but they haven't aged well. Having to take your eyes off the road to navigate a series of touch screen icons to turn the defroster on or adjust the radio is a hazard to the occupants as well as drivers of adjacent vehicles and pedestrians. Dancing lights scrolling text on the radio display are a distraction, not a benefit. Physical knobs and buttons may be so 1970s, but they are safer and easier to use.
10:17 If the Nash All Season Weather Eye was such a failure, why does every car available in the US use the same basic system components but with automatic controls that deny the driver the ability to fine-tune the climate?
Plymouth's original plan was to mate two tuned up Neon 4-cylinders for an inline 8. Fools didn't even put in a turbo six, which is probably a good idea as Chrysler couldn't make a working turbo if their bottom line depended on it.
Prevent $1000s in unnecessary car repairs, diagnose 7,000+ car issues from your phone. Works with all gas-powered cars and trucks built after 1996 and diesels built after 2008. Get 50% off using our link: deals.getfixd.io/GZ49LGD/T3WBN3/
It was proved in the early 70s the 1960 to 63 Corvairs were no worse than the average car of that era including Porsche, VW Bug and other vehicles, but Nader had no clout against "foreign" makes so he went after GM and its weird car.
Btw - GM modified the rear suspension in 1964, improving the handling, I know, we had a 64 Corvair Monza convertible.
Don't forget the early Mustangs! No frame behind the rear axle?
No worse than? That's no recommendation.
I was in my twenties when the Corvair came out and I was working as a mechanic. It was just as bad as Nader said it was. And NO, it was never proved that Corvairs were no worse then anyone else. The GM engineers knew this but the bean counters over ruled them until Nader's book came out forcing them to install the original suspension braces in 1964. If you had owned a 60-63 model and went around a curve a little too fast the rear wheels would have folded up causing a nasty crash. Nader went after the entire industry, he wasn't afraid of any one! pointing out that safety was never a big concern. Steel dashes, rigid steering wheels, and lots of pointy things inside the cars made them death traps. If you hit a tree you died the tree survived! Today car are much safer because of Nader!
Jaguar saw this video and said " That hurt our reputation, let's see if we can destroy it completely"!
Fun facts about Gtemlins, They came out of AMCs AMX program, Look up AMX GT. The Gremlin used the same floorpan as the AMX and had the same wheelbase length of 93 inches, but lighter by about 400 pounds. This meant that one could upgrade to any AMC V-8 with off the shelf parts and have a nice sleeper.
My husband in 1972 bought a Gremlin 5 liter brand new. It was part of a special order for the California Highway Patrol with modifications. Full roll cage , heavier leaf springs, sat closer to the road, built for the expressway driving. Top speed 140+ MPH. THAT ROLLCAGE saved our lives. We suddenly came to an unmarked T intersection one night. He swung left and almost made it. The right rear tire blew and we went into a field that was nearly 6 feet lower than the road. We rolled over a boulder just above his head. We DROVE TO THE NEAREST FARM for help. We both survived with nothing but concussions . When AMC wanted to replace it with a1973 model,we were told that if we had had a 1973 we 2ould have had broken backs. My husband told them to repair the 1972. We used it for ten more years. Only selling it forparts as we were expecting our fourth child. 😊
The later Saturn "S" series (possibly the final year only, which was 2002) had an optional automatic transmission that would NOT upshift unless your foot was at least a little bit "on the gas pedal". Nice on downhill slopes. The driver had to continue paying attention, of course.
i must be blessed. I had a Corvair, 62, and an amc. Pacer. The Pacer had the trans replaced twice in 8 months. I called it the holy car because when you turned the key, you had to pray first. you would be rolling along at 55 and it would just quit. And it would not restart. I was towed so often i knew all the tow drivers by name. Also, driving in Chicago summer in a giant glass bubble, not the best idea. The AC rarely worked. The Corvair was different. It was a 62 and had an air cooled engine. I never had a handling problem and never overheated in El Paso where the daily temperature is 90 degrees. Drove it for 2 years and only did brakes. Except for the annoying push rods which traveled in tubes outside the engine. Every 3 months you had replace the gaskets at the end of the tubes.
Automatic seatbelts were an alternative to airbags. Part of the mandate for “supplemental restraint systems” to be added to all cars. Airbag systems were expensive and hard to engineer into new models. As automatic seatbelts proved to be a failure, airbag technology became cheaper and easier to design into new cars.
The Gremlin was very popular in its first few years
I was waiting for the AMC Pacer. The Gremlin wasn't so bad, but the Pacer was just down right ugly.
Automatic seat belts were on a lot of cars - you quickly got used to them. And yeah, you still had to put on the lap belt.
I had this feature on my first car. It's not mentioned in the video, but the auto-belt was a stop-gap feature. Coming government regulations were to require "passive safety" protection that could protect occupants to at least some extant even if they forgot to buckle up. The ideal method would have been to install air bags, but for some cars that would be impractical. For some, the price would have been jacked up too much. Other cars were near the end of their design cycles and retrofitting for air bags wouldn't have been worth it for a model that would be replaced in a year or two. Automated seat belts were the answer to this problem. They faded into obscurity as airbag systems became cheaper and more widespread.
As I recall, the AMC gremlin was the demolition derby driver's car of choice. The car's pointed rear end was like a battering Ram and could destroy even much bigger cars.
17:34 - The real problem of the TeleTouch system is that it solved a problem that didn't exist. In an car with automatic, you touch the shift maybe three times: once to back out, once to drive, and then once back in to park when you got to your destination. And, in all probability, the car was already stopped when you made the shift. You didn't need the controls on the hub because you weren't constantly taking your hands off the wheel to shift while driving.
Jaguar isn't the only one who made that mistake. Twincam Harleys came with plastic tensioners that were cut through at 20-80k. Pain to replace, and a hydraulic tensioner was over $350, plus you had to remove the pipes, timing cover, floorboards and rear brake. NOT a quick job!
The Gremlin shouldn’t be considered a failure, they produced almost 700,000 units during its run. Second best selling vehicle in amc history.
If the styling fails your personal taste then say that. From a Ford guy
I didn’t think the automatic seatbelt was irritating. It did take like 4 seconds to go from front to back but it wasn’t an issue. I didn’t get into the car start and stop like I was on the Dukes of Hazzard.
The Riviera you showed? Exterior was the late 60s early 70s! I thought that the Gremlins were the coolest when I was a teenager 👍
It's a shame when people talk about things they have no knowledge about. I owned many of these vehicles and loved each one. They all had little Quirks, but all cars do. At least these cars made it out of the parking lot, which is more than I can say for some GM cars I purchased. You shouldn't have to have the dealer to get his wrecker to tow your new car out of the road at the end of his driveway., or to keep your new car that has 8 miles on the odometer for 6weeks because it started knocking and smoking before you got to the end of his driveway. Just saying, everyone produces a lemon now and then, just some produce more than others.
The YUGO really wasn’t a bad looking little car for the era, in fact it fit right into it’s segment. The disappointment was in its reliability. Lots of kids first cars were all over the lot at my high school
An obsolete Fiat with engineering tweaks to make it cheaper and built by Commies. What could go wrong?
I would not consider a car which was produced and sold for 10 years, such as the Gremlin, a failure. We owned 2 of them in the 70's and we loved them. They were "cute" little cars that got around in the snow very well. They sold 670,000 of them. I'd say that that makes them at least a moderate success.
The push button transmission was only about 40 years too early. Many vehicles have some form of that today
I think the problem is that the design engineer (Homer Simpson?) put it on the wheel where the horn is. Had it been on the dash it probably would have worked out fine.
My 60's Polara had those, with a hot 318. Was OK unless you were racing someone!
@@jackbits6397 And if you want proof of that, consider the many Chrysler products that had their push-button transmission controls on the dash, near but not on the steering wheel. Chrysler moved away from this style not because the design was unsafe or unreliable, but because they thought it was too "different" and thus held back sales.
Still hate them
Since the Edsel had an automatic gearbox, why would the driver ever need to change the selector while going round a corner?
That "mid 1980s" Buick Riviera is a 63.
Indeed - no research, lifted from the first page on Wikipedia!
1. Renault weren't the only ones trying annoying electrnic voices in the 80's. Japan was all over that and yes, it was just as annoying.
2. Buick Riviera's touch panel was annoying, but who remembers BMW's one dial nightmare that owners had to take a CLASS in just to operate the car?
3. Corvair's swing axle isn't quite fair. back in 1960 when it was released, there were LOTS of cars on the road with swing axles. And consider this; even with it's inherent flaws, it was still better than the solid rear axle you got in every other American car.
4. The Gremlin was brilliant, dont let anyone tell you otherwise. The Pacer otoh... ;)
5. Cadillac 8-6-4. Great idea just too early. My father had one and hated it, hated when it switched between them because you could literally feel it and it lost that silky smooth V8ness. I get it. Today it can be done much more elegantly with electronics and FI.
6. Auto seatbelts - I had one and didnt mind it at all.
My buddy in HS had a 1983 300 Z and it talked. Said stuff like "door is ajar" in a female voice.
Yep
Now we have Vvt (Variable valve timing) which is so problematic, there is a VVT eliminator kit!
There was nothing unique about swing axle rear suspension. Every Volkswagen Beetle and Mercedes of the era used it,
VW had the same swing axle system but Nader did not have the guts to attack them. Chevrolet changed it in 1965 and VW followed in 1968. Corvair became a design leader at that point.
It wasn't Jaguar's fault that the Teflon (NOT plastic!) cam chain guides failed and they did warranty the car engines so it wasn't that big of a deal. Honda motorcycles used Teflon for their guides and had no problem. BTW talking cars started with a TV program called "My Mother The Car" back in the 1960s. Today AI voices are in the GPS mapping systems with voice warnings available on some cars. Better computers make a lot of the old ideas work better today!
I can see what was wrong with the Prowler. No "Go Faster" stripes 🙂😅😂
I bet people would be lining up to buy Yugo's now because not many can afford anything else and you can buy a new one for what it costs to repair any other modern car, and when you get a recall on a Yugo you kinda expect it.
I have never understood the early 1980s Cadillac "bustleback". The car looked like it was carrying a coffin sideways in the rear. So a luxury brand (Cadillac) gave you less trunk space than the previous year. I think they did it because the old rear end styling was getting stale. But the sideways coffin.....I thought it was UGLY.
Some of the most dependable engines have had plastic timing chain tensioners - the legendary Toyota 2200 RE used in the 1980s had them and the engines gets 300-400k miles on them
Even my Chevy's have neoprene chain tighters.....
But as econo throwaways....don't expect much over 200000 out of them....
That said....I have saved a good fortune on transportation costs!
My Harley Twincam went out at 30k, some would male it to 80. PIA to replace, expensive to change to hydraulics. Still, love the bike a d will install the improved nylon pads next time.
It is about design and quality
The Pacer and Gremlins are cool. Stuff a small V8 under the hood and you drive a piece of nostalga.
I think I remember hearing that the AMC gremlin was LITERALLY designed on the back of an airline "airsickness" bag.
At 12:39, it says that the Gremlin came with a six cylinder engine while the spec sheet on screen talks about a peppy four cylinder… 😏
Gremlins were great and popular
Friends don't let friends drive Yugo's.
Nothing nicer than playing your records in your car with no AC on a 90 degree day,😁
On top of that, these were _specially designed_ records that were compatible only with Highway Hi-Fi. (Supposedly, they skipped less than the standard kind.)
Renault is still building junk, only they call it Dodge now. I owned a 63 Corvair Monza convertible. Loved the car, never understood what Nader was whining about it was perfect. Except for the aluminum engine that needed replace ever freaking 30K miles. LOL yeah when I was 10 years old I just new record players in cars was stupid.
Yugo was no worse than anything else on the roads back then. It just lacked every commodity..
Touchscreen wasn’t the issue…the tech just wasn’t up to the challenge at the time.
Also, _someone_ had to learn the lessons that seem obvious today: Have physical controls for things that drivers commonly adjust while on the move, make sure the controls actually respond to your touch, and so on.
Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth suffered from poor build quality and were not very reliable
Seems mostly like first drafts of questionable features we still have today
Touch screens were a dreadful idea in the 1980s, but they haven't aged well.
Having to take your eyes off the road to navigate a series of touch screen icons to turn the defroster on or adjust the radio is a hazard to the occupants as well as drivers of adjacent vehicles and pedestrians.
Dancing lights scrolling text on the radio display are a distraction, not a benefit.
Physical knobs and buttons may be so 1970s, but they are safer and easier to use.
Buicks touch screen is back worse than ever. Now you can watch TV while driving. Progress? BS.
10:17 If the Nash All Season Weather Eye was such a failure, why does every car available in the US use the same basic system components but with automatic controls that deny the driver the ability to fine-tune the climate?
Could do with less of the "Well...." cliché
The Yugo was too cheaply built
Plymouth's original plan was to mate two tuned up Neon 4-cylinders for an inline 8. Fools didn't even put in a turbo six, which is probably a good idea as Chrysler couldn't make a working turbo if their bottom line depended on it.
You left out the awful EV experiment
Don’t ever buy a Jag. Expensive zjunk. YUGO Nowhere