<VV> Nader and demise of the Corvair VVD,V182,I5

[James P. Rice]

Hugo:  Some history is in needed here.   GM did not sue Nader because they
had decided some months before Unsafe at Any Speed came out to terminate
Corvair production at the end of the 66 model year, ie:  No Corvair after
the fall of 1966. They simply did not care to defend what they knew to be a
lost cause.  

GM had the Camaro coming as the Mustang fighter in the fall of '66 as a '67
and needed the production line space for the 2nd generation Chevy II.  The
2nd generation Chevy II came out in the fall of '67 as a '68.  IIRC, it was
then Chevrolet president Pete Estes who got the BOD or maybe somebody to let
the car die a slow death, just so Nader could not say he forced GM to cancel
the car.  As Chevy President, he may have had the authority to make the
decision w/o consulting anybody else.  

The story about the incompetent detectives is true.  No one knows who made
the decision to hire them.  I may have been an Executive Secretary who know
what her boss wanted done, but was unwilling to give the order on the
record.  Our who paid them...!

Historically Yours,
		
		James Rice
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 13:38:25 -0500
From: Hugo Miller <hugo at aruncoaches.co.uk>
To: Doug Mackintosh <dougmackintosh at yahoo.com>
Cc: Virtual Vairs <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Subject: Re: <VV> Nader

Haha I never knew that story about GM and the gum-shoes! Of course a 
man like Nader would be squeaky clean, wouldn't he! But I'm still 
surprised GM didn't hit him with a law-suit and challenge him to prove 
his claims. If I had been his attorney I'd have been very worried!
American cars in general are renowned in Europe for their poor 
handling. That is for the simple reason that American roads tend to be 
straight, unlike the twisty former cattle tracks that are the basis for 
so many roads in England. Having said that, VW's are of course European, 
and they manage to stay on the road quite well. Unles you drive like an 
idiot, that is, which is the same case with the Corvair.


On 2020-03-03 13:18, Doug Mackintosh wrote:
> The short answer is that it sounded plausible and ultimately the
> government (precurser to the NHTSA) had tests run which did not
> conclude until a final report issued in 1972, which exonerated the
> Corvair, but of course that was too late to have any effect since
> production stopped in 1969. The actual cause of the Corvair's demise
> was the Mustang and the fact that it was cheaper to compete with the
> Camaro than to make the Corvair competitive as a cheap street drag
> rubber-burner.
>
> The other thing was that GM had the bad judgment to send Private Eyes
> after Nader to try to discredit him by catching him in some
> embarassing behavior. In this respect Nader was clean as a whistle,
> and GM was caught in the act and ulltimately suffered the indignity 
> of having their CEO publicly apologize to Nader in public congressional
> testimony as I recall.
*******