Just found this new video.
Narrator sounds like he is on a heavy dose of Valium, but okay video over all.
Any Publicity is good publicity, so they say.

> > > YOUTUBE - Why The Rear-Engine 1960-1969 Chevrolet Corvair Failed < < <

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WA. state, 1 mile south of the Canadian border,
I am not at the end of the world, but you can see it from here.
Have; '66 Monza Coupe - 140, 4-spd. Daily driver beater
'67 Monza Vert. - 140, 4-spd. Daily driver beater
'67 A/C Moredoor Monza
Have had; '61 Monza coupe, '62 Monza Wagon, '63 Spyder, '65 Corsa
.
non-vair
'04 Dodge Cummins Quad Dualy, approaching 400K
17'Terry

In the world of auto manufacturing I am not sure I would call a 9 year production run with 4 or 5 models a failure. That would be kind of like calling a Ford Falcon a failure.
Now an Edsel=Failure
Or a Chevette=Failure
Or a Ford Fairmont=Failure (I mean really, have you ever driven one of them)
Or a Chrysler "K" car=Failure
Or a Honda 600=Failure
Lots of cars out there that were way worse "failures" than the Corvair. Seems that is what they are remembered for though.
I do find it interesting that almost to the person the people I have told I purchased a Corvair to restore smiled and said they either had one, knew someone that had one or wanted one back in the day. Oh, my mother had one, Oh, I dated a girl that had one, Oh, my friend and I got into all kinds of stuff in one, Oh, I always wanted one of those, Oh, my neighbor had one, Oh, that was my first car, I had to share it with my sisters. Etc.
Lots of memories for a failure.
Just my 2c
Joe

Joe in South Ga
1965 Corsa 2 dr Coupe Turbo 4sp because I love the looks
18ft Chaparral 180 Sport because I live on a lake, seemed like the thing to do
Chevy Pickup to tow boat and tote things
Chevy Cavalier because they drive like a go-cart

Drove lots of K car's , great car's , cheap to run and repair

Orangeville, Ontario. CANADA

Mel Wrote:
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> Drove lots of K car's , great car's , cheap to run and repair

The "K" car is documented as a success for Chrysler. Literally saved the company. Not my kind of car, but I've driven them and friends put over 100K on them. A good basic car. Not even close to being a failure.

Guess we will file that one under personal experiences and preferences. I watched two of them rust out from under me in less than 4 years.Not that I am a hate kind of guy but it comes close with the K car.
Not arguing about the K car saving Chrysler, kind of says more about Chrysler at that time than the actual car.
Joe
66vairman Wrote:
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> Mel Wrote:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> > Drove lots of K car's , great car's , cheap to run and repair
>
> The "K" car is documented as a success for Chrysler. Literally saved the company. Not my kind of car, but I've driven them and friends put over 100K on them. A good basic car. Not even close to being a failure.

Joe in South Ga
1965 Corsa 2 dr Coupe Turbo 4sp because I love the looks
18ft Chaparral 180 Sport because I live on a lake, seemed like the thing to do
Chevy Pickup to tow boat and tote things
Chevy Cavalier because they drive like a go-cart

I never said the car was a failure.
That just happened to be the title of the video.

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WA. state, 1 mile south of the Canadian border,
I am not at the end of the world, but you can see it from here.
Have; '66 Monza Coupe - 140, 4-spd. Daily driver beater
'67 Monza Vert. - 140, 4-spd. Daily driver beater
'67 A/C Moredoor Monza
Have had; '61 Monza coupe, '62 Monza Wagon, '63 Spyder, '65 Corsa
.
non-vair
'04 Dodge Cummins Quad Dualy, approaching 400K
17'Terry

Oh yea I knew that. I was just making a comment on what I thought about the Corvair being a failure.
Everyone has an opinion don't they. That video has theirs, I have mine. But what do I know, I owned and LOVED three Chevy Vega's
Joe
American Mel Wrote:
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> I never said the car was a failure.
> That just happened to be the title of the video.

Joe in South Ga
1965 Corsa 2 dr Coupe Turbo 4sp because I love the looks
18ft Chaparral 180 Sport because I live on a lake, seemed like the thing to do
Chevy Pickup to tow boat and tote things
Chevy Cavalier because they drive like a go-cart

Same here on the Vegas. 2 1972s and a 1976 Spirit of 1776. Great little cars while I had them. 2 first ones sold after putting on 30 k due to orders overseas. Second one totalled on dark winding road. Biggest failure car I had was a 1978 Chrysler LeBaron wagon. Kept wiping out engine computers. Kept it 2 years and got rid of it.

Al Lane
Ellabell, GA 31308

1966 Monza Coupe, 110 hp, 4 Spd
1966 Monza More Door 110 hp, PG
1968 Camaro SS Coupe 350 CI 295+ hp PG
1964 Greenbrier Deluxe, 6 dr, 80 hp car engine, PG
1947 Farmall A tractor 15 hp

mtmouse Wrote:
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> Or a Chevette=Failure
> Just my 2c
> Joe

Corvair: ~1.8 Million units over 9 years

GM would beg to differ with your viewpoint that the Chevette (T-car platform)...


"Introduced in September 1975, the Chevette superseded the Vega as Chevrolet's entry-level subcompact, and sold 2.8 million units over 12 years. The Chevette was the best-selling small car in the U.S. for model years 1979 and 1980."

"The Chevette ultimately reached 2,793,353 sales for its entire production across the 12 model years 1976-1988.[1] Global T-car sales surpassed 7 million in the end."

Source: [en.m.wikipedia.org]

I drove a 1985 Pontiac T1000 5-door for 6 years - car never let me down.

bnc

Must be me. I am the only person I know that had a new Toyota Tercel loose an oil pump and lock up the engine at 78 miles. Didn't even make it home from the dealer.
My attempt at a Chevette was miserable as well.
Joe

To continue the Chevette digression even further, . . .
Here is an interesting page about just how successful the Chevette was on a GLOBAL scale.
Like the Corvair, there were 2-doors, 4-doors, convertibles, and even truck variants produced!
A diesel,
and dunt dunt dunh.
GM did an experimental . . . . Electrovette ! ! !
More and more like a deja vu of Corvair!

> > > Carhunter - Chevette < < <

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WA. state, 1 mile south of the Canadian border,
I am not at the end of the world, but you can see it from here.
Have; '66 Monza Coupe - 140, 4-spd. Daily driver beater
'67 Monza Vert. - 140, 4-spd. Daily driver beater
'67 A/C Moredoor Monza
Have had; '61 Monza coupe, '62 Monza Wagon, '63 Spyder, '65 Corsa
.
non-vair
'04 Dodge Cummins Quad Dualy, approaching 400K
17'Terry



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2019 05:57PM by American Mel.

GM built a prototype V6 powered Chevette in 1982 that gave the V8 Camaro, Trans Am, and the V6 Turbo Buick Regal in production at that time a run for their money.

bnc

Long ago I had a girlfriend with a Chevette that had been really well taken care of since new and it was great. 4-speed with no options ran and drove great.
The only real issue the car had (before she totalled it) was it wouldn't hold alignment because the body would slowly bend.

Joel
Northlake, TX
5 Ultravans, Lost count at 100 Corvairs...

Yeah, uni-bodies will do that . . . . . . . . if you keep banging them into curbs.

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WA. state, 1 mile south of the Canadian border,
I am not at the end of the world, but you can see it from here.
Have; '66 Monza Coupe - 140, 4-spd. Daily driver beater
'67 Monza Vert. - 140, 4-spd. Daily driver beater
'67 A/C Moredoor Monza
Have had; '61 Monza coupe, '62 Monza Wagon, '63 Spyder, '65 Corsa
.
non-vair
'04 Dodge Cummins Quad Dualy, approaching 400K
17'Terry

She was a good driver but ran it really hard. Pretty much went everywhere full throttle. It wouldn't hold camber in the front. The wheels spread pretty evenly out at the bottom. The alignment shop would bend it back straight.

Joel
Northlake, TX
5 Ultravans, Lost count at 100 Corvairs...

When I think of an automotive failure I don’t focus so much on reliability as much as sales volume. Some of the one I can think of:

Pontiac Aztec, totally missed the mark
Nissan Leaf, huge investment for Nissan. Low sales volumes
Chevy Bolt
AMC Pacer, good initial sales but plagued with reliability issues.

David North Idaho
1965 Corsa Turbo converted to 140
1971 Super Beetle with 2.5L Subaru engine
1965 Corsa mid engine project
1973 Mercedes 280 project

Pontiac Aztec!
Now that thing is an automotive styling abomination ! ! !
Looks worse than some ALL of the CrAzY Japanese concept cars I have ever seen!
They should have taken the entire design crew out and horse-whipped them . . . . . before shooting the lot of them ! ! !

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WA. state, 1 mile south of the Canadian border,
I am not at the end of the world, but you can see it from here.
Have; '66 Monza Coupe - 140, 4-spd. Daily driver beater
'67 Monza Vert. - 140, 4-spd. Daily driver beater
'67 A/C Moredoor Monza
Have had; '61 Monza coupe, '62 Monza Wagon, '63 Spyder, '65 Corsa
.
non-vair
'04 Dodge Cummins Quad Dualy, approaching 400K
17'Terry

David you make a good point about success measured by sales volume or profitability. I guess I was looking more at quality and value of the end product.
Some cars sold millions of copies of well, crap. My best examples would be along the lines of a Ford Fairmont. A total POS but sold millions, mainly to fleets and government contracts. A financial success but a total POS car.
As Always, Just my 2c
Joe

Joe in South Ga
1965 Corsa 2 dr Coupe Turbo 4sp because I love the looks
18ft Chaparral 180 Sport because I live on a lake, seemed like the thing to do
Chevy Pickup to tow boat and tote things
Chevy Cavalier because they drive like a go-cart

Early Ford Escorts sold a ton but pretty much all blew head gaskets.
Late 80s 5.0 Mustangs sold like hot cakes but went through transmissions like popcorn. The small Ford dealer in town always had at least 2 dozen in the back for transmission work.

Joel
Northlake, TX
5 Ultravans, Lost count at 100 Corvairs...

Speaking of failures - I still have my 64 Greenbrier, but it needs an exhaust system and an engine rebuild etc etc.
My stepson kindly donated a 2008 PT Cruiser to me for free and I like it just fine BUT it spent 5 years sitting. Only has 60,000 miles on it. The problems I have had the past 5 months are replacing a drivers side brake pad and caliper on the front left hand side (an easy job) and have had to replace the cam sending unit and the car is now down with a bad crank sending unit.
Unfortunately i have no shop manual but am attempting to tackle the job anyway. The crank sending unit is not easy to get to. I find that after rebuilding Corvairs for nearly 50 years it is a little unnerving to work a machine that I have little spatial relationship with. Once the sending unit is replaced I expect to to have many good miles, judging by Lindas 2004 PT we've had the past 2 years or so.
PT Cruisers haven't taken the place of Corvairs in my mind and heart but time marches on.

Lon Wall
Conductor and Fireman
Oregon Coast Scenic Railraod

Lon Wall

Fireman Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad #25 #2
OCSRR.com
Fireman Sumpter Valley Railroad #3 and #19
svry.com
www.pacificmodelloggerscongress.com