RadioBanter - View Single Post - BPL - UPLC ->Repeat the lie three times and claim it for truth

June 28th 04, 02:36 AM

In article , (Steve
Robeson K4CAP) writes:

It was the early 70's when Detroit and the others really started slipping.
That was the era of the Gremlins, the Mavericks, Pintos and Vegas.

Yep. The main reason was simple: Detroit hadn't made the necessary investment
in basic R&D. They knew how to make big heavy inefficient cars but not small
efficient ones.

For example, the Pinto was cobbled together from parts used in the base model
Mustang of years earlier. Ford didn't have a decent domestically made 4
cylinder engine so they borrowed from their European affiliate. The
transmissions were borrowed from bigger cars. Still used the ancient concept of
front-engine, rear wheel drive. End result was that the first models were
unnecessarily heavy, slow, and gas-hungry.

Meanwhile foreign carmakers like VW had cars with front wheel drive and
transverse engines. No drive shaft. Less weight, less space, better traction,
less total manufacturing cost once you get the bugs worked out. They'd already
learned how to build efficient, clean small engines. Heck, when Chrysler came
out with their Omni/Horizon cars (which were clones of the VW
Rabbit/Golf/Scirocco) they actually bought the engines from VW for the first
few years.

The probelm wasn't that Americans can't build good small cars - we can. The
problem was that American car manufacturers didn't do their homework for years,
then had to cram to catch up.

Recall that Chrysler almost went under, and was rescued by federal government
loan guarantees.

73 de Jim, N2EY