<VV> GM Design/ Manufacturing

[Sethracer at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/1/2009 9:02:41 AM Pacific Standard Time,  
ricebugg at mtco.com writes:

The  question I wish I had an answer for was why the Corvair was kept  in
production so long, given the sales compared to Falcon's and Chevy  II's.
There are few left to ask, and no known documentation of the  discussion and
decision making process.  I suspect it they decided to  recoup the
development cost and mixed in was some amount of pride and love  of the car.
It appears all the car guys at Chevrolet & GM loved the  Corvair, while the
marketing, sales type and the dealers did not.   Then there was the general
public, most of whom yawned at the  Corvair.  They voted with their pocket
books and the rest is  history.

That Chevrolet/GM did the LM is just mind-boggling to  me.

Historically Yours,
James Rice



Thank You James!  I just finished reading a new (to me) book. "All  Corvettes 
Are Red" by James Schefter. As is obvious from below, I also own a  Corvette. 
The book is actually an "Insider history" of the process of bringing  to 
production the all-new 1997 C5 Corvette. Originally planned as a 1993  model, GM 
financial problems, political in-fighting and strange personality  conflicts 
caused the delays (Mostly the $$). 
The reason I am bringing it up as a reference for James' notes above, is  
that it details the GM methods of design, approval (after approval after  
approval) and the methods of moving to production. It encounters almost  everyone who 
was anyone in GM from the 80's through the late 90's. For us, it  shows the 
hoops that the Corvair must have gone through to make it into  production, 
although the re-organization of GM several times during the C5  gestation will 
make you cringe, something that didn't happen during the Corvair  design. The 
other big lesson from the book for me was the huge scope of GM  - at the time - 
and how thorough the process is for designing and evaluating the  cars in the 
run up to production. The first question I had was: Where the heck  were these 
guys when the Pontiac Aztec was being designed? But anyway, if you  are a real 
GM guy (see my signature line below), you should get this book out of  the 
library - mine came from a used book store - and read it. If nothing else,  you 
will laugh your ass off at the current Senators and Congressmen who think  
they can tell the auto manufacturers how to build cars people want -and do it  
right now. Last week would be  better.      

 
 
 
Seth  Emerson

C's the Day! - Corvair, Camaro, Corvette



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