<VV> A housewife looks at...

[Secular]

  A housewife looks @ the Corvair
  by Rosemary Francis

  AFTER my husband and I returned from our trip in the Corvair -- ­twice across 
  the continent in 17 days-a friend asked me if it wasn't nerve-wracking to 
  drive hour after hour, often at high speed, in a little, light car.

  The fact is, this car has a good, solid, "heavy" feel. You sit low in it, and it has a 
  reassuring close-to-the-road feeling, es­pecially on curves. You won't believe 
  the ride at first. It's as soft as a baby buggy's.

  In the beginning I worried that drivers of bigger cars couldn't see me as I got 
  ready to pass. I got over that-obviously they could. And the Corvair is easier 
  to get into and out of than most "big" cars.

  Inside, everything is so handy. The shelf above the dash is constructed so that 
  nothing slides off. The lighter, ash­tray and radio are at your fingertips.

  It does seem to me, though, that the factory could call in a woman with some 
  imagination to do something about the upholstery. It's pretty drab. But my biggest 
  complaint was that I found it most difficult to reach back inside the car to lock 
  the back doors.

  So far as shopping goes, the Corvair is a housewife's dream. It's small and easily 
  maneuvered without any power steering. and so easily parked. The trunk has 
  plenty of space for a week's groceries. It's a lot easier to unload a cart full of 
  groceries into a front trunk at the supermarket than it is into a rear one.

  It's not easy, however, to load luggage into the trunk. Wheel wells, the spare 
  wheel and the heater cut into the available space. We found that the trunk would 
  take only one big traveling bag.

  Styling, with a woman, is of course a sort of personal thing. I like the Corvair's. On 
  our trip scores of women gave the little car a double-take and a big grin. A lot of 
  other women obviously felt as I do-that the Corvair is a doll.

  Source:

  Popular Science - January 1960 - page 117

  ---

  Tony I.