Hot Asian Cars, Designed In Detroit

Those side doors were legendary for failure, as were the window locks.

The '62 Chevy II wasn't a a very good car in comparison to the Falcon,
even though the Chevy II had a much larger but obsolete engine, the
235 "Blue Flame," usually saddled with PowerSlide. The Ford was a
weak performer, with the 170 being the largest available and the
equally bad two speed "FoMo" trans. Chrysler had the BEST idea, with
the A-cars, most of which would outlast any Falcon or Chevy II.

The "box," as we called the 510, was well loved by its owners, despite
the usual Japanese bad paint, bad interior and lousy amenities. What
turned people on to it was the Ajin Precision OHC 4, many of which
would turn 300K miles before having to have the head pulled.

I don't think "Dr. Z" knows what he's doing in the US market. Germans
are genetically programmed to overcomplicate and undersimplify
anything they build, although their technological abilities can be
astounding. German car owners are fastideous about maintenance, while
Americans are idiots who think a car is a "turn key" item that never
needs service, and get riled when someone suggests they need to change
their oil more than once every five years. It's not a good fit at
all.

Chrysler needs to get rid of Daimler and return to what caused their
glory days of the '60s, when superior ruggedness, dependability and
serviceability carried the day. From what I read in here, DC is using
overly complicated and fragile digital control systems similar to the
awful ones used by VW-Audi and BMW, which need frequent
troubleshooting and repair/replacement. Ask any honest Mercedes
owner...those cars are shop queens, and have been for many years, and
it's always niggly LITTLE things going wrong. I'm seeing that a lot
with DC cars now. The troubles with TCMs alone have given DC cars a
black eye with buyers, while the transmissions themselves seem pretty
hardy overall. The "oil sludging" scare now, from what I've seen
lately, is simply a byproduct of the usual American car owners'
negligence, something for which Chrysler designed the K car to
withstand...somewhat. Despite being beat to death, they'd just keep
running!

 

Back in their heyday, whizbang stylist Harley Earle and wizzard
engineer "Boss" Kettering could crank out new designs and styles
whenever they wished. The Corvair "pancake" 6 was a Kettering idea,
but it only took GM 26 years to get it to market!! It took them from
1938 to 1949 to get their first OHV V8s, two separate, competing
projects to market...one by Bennett at Olds, one by Barr and Cole at
Cadillac...although WW II can be blamed for about four years of that
time lag. However, when GM wanted to move fast, they could. "Boss"
Kettering got his EMD 567-series 2 stroke diesels and his smaller GM
Diesel Division (later "Detroit Diesel" after the consent decree in
the '60s) engines to market within 18 months, again with a big push by
Al Sloan at the corporate offices. Both came to market in 1939.

In their consumer car lines, GM only took two years for them to get
the original HydraMatic to market in the '38 Olds. Reason: Sloan
picked the HydraMatic as a pet project to get through the GM central
committees for his then-favorite division, Oldsmobile. Originally,
the HydraMatic was going to go to Buick (where Sloan "grew up" in GM
after being a ball bearing salesman for New Departure), but they
refused, preferring instead to try to downsize the Allison bus
transmission into the Dynaflow...which again took 10 years to get to
market, in 1948! Little did they know that a young John DeLorean was
doing the same thing over at Packard in only 18 months, which resulted
in the Ultramatic, which copied the GM bus transmission right down to
the torque converter clutch (first application of this anywhere, NOT
the Torqueflite of '78) and the four element converter. DeLorean
rushed the Ultramatic into production with one fatal design
flaw...using a bushing with no seal to seal up the torque converter
output shaft, which made the Ultramatic one of the most unreliable
automatic transmissions ever sold. While many blame the demise of
Packard on their continued use of obsolete straight 8 engines while
Olds, Buick and Cadillac had modern, efficient OHV V8s, the Ultramatic
was the last nail in the coffin that sealed their fate. By the time
Packard ponied up their big V8s, it was far too late for them, and
they were gobbled up by the Studebaker family. Meanwhile, DeLorean
had abandoned Packard, and became part of the problem at GM.

Chrysler trivia: The original 318 "A" engine uses the exact same
lifters as the '55-'56 Packard V8s, along with several other piece
parts. Why? Chrysler bought the brand new Packard engine plant from
Studebaker in late '56, complete with tooling. Why reinvent the
wheel? Packard V8 fans routinely rebuild their engines with Chrysler
lifters, wrist pins, valve guides and several other indentical small
parts. Had Packard survived '56 and fixed the Ultramatic disaster,
the Packard V8 would've been a real contender for GM to deal with.

 

The '62 Chevy II wasn't a a very good car in comparison to the Falcon,
even though the Chevy II had a much larger but obsolete engine, the
235 "Blue Flame," usually saddled with PowerSlide. The Ford was a
weak performer, with the 170 being the largest available and the
equally bad two speed "FoMo" trans. Chrysler had the BEST idea, with
the A-cars, most of which would outlast any Falcon or Chevy II.[/QUOTE]
I disagree with regard to the 6 cyl Chev II I had vs the Falcon.
I had two friends with the Falcon, a much less solid car with a weak
engine. IMO the Falcon was a typical tin can from Ford.
The Chev II gave good fuel mileage, equal to the Falcon.
I pulled a 1,500 lb camping trailer coast to coast and in the western
mountains. About 15,000 miles of towing, in the 95,000 miles I had it.
Standard shift of course, had to double clutch to shift down to the non
syncro low gear on the very steep (logging road class) hills when towing.

I forgot one ugly design build problem I had. Rubber bushings in the
front suspension which wanted to remember where I was. I replaced them
with Teflon ones.
Also had to add a front sway bar as GM didn't install it in my6 cyl
model.
What a huge difference these two simple changes made to steering.
So after I modified GM's partly completed car, it proved a good solid
performer.

 

I agree. Have you noticed how much weight Chrysler cars have put on
since Daimler took over.

Well Daimler will have to get rid of Chrysler, but the lower costs from
Chrysler's volume will hold them back.
DC seems to think all Chrysler cars should have a truck front grill.
With the 300 Chrysler did return to the 60s. OK for a few years, but
they lost their steady customers and can't keep the emotional new ones
that bought the 300.

 

The 170 was as big as they offered in the "Falcoon" in '62. Still, it
was better than the 144 of 1960, especially with the 2 speed FoMo. The
spring tower front ends of Falcons were notoriously weak, a problem
that carried through on the derivative Mustang and even the Maverick.

Standard transmission was the saving grace on your car. '62 Chevy IIs
with Powerglide were notoriously slow and fuel hungry. I believe you
could also order a Chevy II with overdrive, as you could the Falcon
after '61.

 

Sometimes I think Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler Corp. as a German tax
write-off.

Well, not really...the "crossed bars" grille is a salute to Chrysler's
glory days with the letter series 300s of the '50s, but only old
timers seem to remember that.

The 300M was just another gussied up LH, wasn't it, a la Iacocca's EEK
cars. The current 300 is a whole different concept and even has some
performance in its hemi form, but as I said, that car has been spoiled
by being a "ghetto ride," which scares off buyers looking for a long
term car investment. Cadillac's now feeling the problems associated
with having that image.

 

troll ! pretty pathetic one too...

he drives a 1978 Honda- what would he know about an American car ??

he's a RICER

he recently disassembled an entire 318 engine, when all it needed was a
thermostat !

 

Yes, Cadillac has a problem with sales up about 10 % this year I believe. .

 

The very first live 300 I saw was a black one driven by a suspected pimp.

Today I saw an all black Magnum at my Chrysler dealer.
Wow it's a hearse!

 

A few years ago I would receive regularly the monthly mag of the ADAC,
Germany's largest motoring organization (equivalent to the AAA in US, I
guess).

Annualy they published break-down and repair stats for all cars with more
than 10 000 annual sales. In all classes where the Japanese manufacturers
(Toyota, Mazda and, I think Honda) were represented they clustered at the
top of the reliability tree.

There were anomalies and distortions in the figures. E.g. they were not
normalised for mileage, so that cars like the Merc S Class came out worse
than they should because their average mileage was much higher than those of
other cars, but as a rough-and-ready measure the tables were not bad.

Don't know how it is now. Sadly I don't get the mag anymore.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

 

Is this a full-sized truck?

http://www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk/con...ebsite/en/home_mpc/trucks/home/news_desk.html

Chrysler's parent is rather good at them.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

 

[/QUOTE]
You're VERY SLOW to change.

 

Just a tidy looking highway car hauler.

In NA Kenworth builds some large highway and logging haulers:
http://www.kenworth.com/1000_hom.asp
REAL TRUCKS!

This BIG TRUCK used in the Alberta tar sands trumps most:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060
702360.html
-trucks that can carry up to 320 tons of tar sands per load, and can do
a quick job on that Chrysler(?) pickup.
http://psychogoat.com/gallery/miningpics/MVC_001F

The Titan max. sized truck is now retired from coal logging in SE, BC,
Canada. From GM's glory days!
http://www.bigthings.ca/bc/sparwood.html
http://www.bigthings.ca/bc/pictures/truck1.jpg

 

Terex was back when GM was still an engineering/manufacturing company.
Now, they couldn't build a Terex to save their asses, because they no
longer have the manufacturing capability or talent to do so. Hell,
they haven't even built a locomotive in the US in about 15 years,
mismanaging Electro-Motive Division into a distant second behind
juggernaut GE. EMD's attempts to build a 4 stroke, 6000 HP diesel
prime mover have failed for years now, and many so-called
"convertible" locomotives sold to US railroads still carry their
"temporary" 2 stroke 710-series V-20s. Any GM rail motive power sold
in the us (principally to transit systems, not even Amtrak buys their
stuff anymore) is all built in London, ON, Canada. EMD's La Grange
plant is mostly shuttered now, only producing parts, and then only
when they feel like it.

Note another fallen good company in that article...Kaiser. Now, down
south, Henry Kaiser is remembered almost exclusively for his
non-profit health care system, one of the best in the country, and a
continual target of for-profit health care providers and Republicans.
People don't seem to remember that Henry Kaiser paved Cuba's first
roads, was the primary manager of the "Six Companies" which built
Hoover Dam, was the prime mover of WW II's Liberty Ships, for which he
built a steel mill and shipyards on the West Coast to produce in
record time, had the largest aluminum processing operation in the
country for years, and who dared challenge GM at their own game,
building cars. GM's Sloan found out in short order that Kaiser
wouldn't be swatted down as easily as was Tucker in '48.

Sadly, the Kaiser Aluminum operation has been taken over by
megalomanic corporate hustler and S&L thief Charles Hurwitz, who has
to be the polar opposite of everything Henry J. Kaiser was.

 

Trucks so not dig coal they haul it


mike

 

GM did not need to swat down Kaiser/Frazer, their cars simply could not
compete in economies of scale. Kaisers and Frazers were merely assembled
cars. Kaiser never really made cars, only bodies. The complete drive train
and accessories were purchased from other manufactures, GM, Bendix,
Continental, Frigidaire etal.


mike

 

True, but sales of the Henry J and Caribbean gave GM fits, as did
Nash's early Metropolitan. At the time, GM had nothing in their line
to compete with small economy cars, and the GM (and Ford) dictum of
"mini cars, mini profits" was under attack. After K-F started
marketing the Henry J under the Allstate name through Sears, K-F
started having lots of trouble getting bearing assemblies from New
Departure, transmissions from Saginaw Gear or any ignition parts from
Delco Remy, as well as Hydra-Matics from Detroit Transmission for the
Caribbeans.

Also true, but Kaiser-Fraser was developing their own OHV V8 engine by
1951, and that DID get GM's attention. After Henry Kaiser got the
Willys line away from GM, who'd originally wanted it, he knew that
competing against GM and a resurgent Ford with cars was futile, and
concentrated instead on Jeeps all the way until the line was sold to
AMC. For "economy" cars at a low price, the Continental 4s and 6s
were more than adequate at the time K-F was still producing cars, but
the writing was on the wall that if they wanted to compete, they'd
need a lot more than Oldsmobile-equipped Caribbeans and flathead Henry
Js to keep afloat.

The Kaiser V8? It was also sold to AMC after K-F got out of the car
business and became their 327 by the late '50s, a move that later put
Kaiser at a disadvantage when customers started wanting V8 power in
their Kaiser produced Jeep products. Prior to that, the only V8s the
new AMC had were leftover Packard V8s that wound up in their big '56
and '57 Nash and Hudson models, which disappeared the next year.
Meanwhile, Studebaker had taken over the Packard name, and the '57
Packard was just a rebadged Studie President with their 289 V8 and
Borg-Warner transmission. Studie wanted no part of the Packard drive
train at all, although once the bugs were worked out of it, it was
indeed a fairly good engine....just HUGE by 1956 standards. The '56
Packard V8s were larger than even Cadillac's, which upsized in '56 to
a 365 that was riddled with cooling and vapor lock problems, mostly
caused by heat generated from the new water cooled Dual Coupling
Hydra-Matic.

 

You have covered KF pretty well but how could you let out the Darran?


mike

 

The Darren was intriguing and made a big publicity spash, especially
with the wild (for then) paint and interior colors. Most Darrens were
seen running around LA, as they were a hit with the movie crowd.

Now, if you want to talk about rare...how about that Muntz Jet?

 

Yes Kaiser failed, but here their Rocky mountain thermal coal operation
and coal loading terminal at Vancouver live on in better hands.

I believe it was the son who lived in Vancouver for many years after
starting the BC coal operations.