appliguy
Well-known member
Ralph Nader didn't kill the Corvair....and you could ge
GM had already decided that there would be no more development on the Corvair past the second generartion of Corvairs introduced for the 1965 model year sometime in late 1963 or early 1964. GM's reason for this was because the Corvair had originally been introduced to do battle with the Valiant and Falcon but did not live up to the sales expectation of the GM brass. Originally the Corvair was offered as a 4 door in 500 and ritzier 700 trim. A coupe was add in May 1960 and a Station wagon and Corvair vans and Rampside Pickup were added for the 1961 model year and so was the bucket seated 900 Monza coupe.. By that time Chevy realized their compact was being badly outsold by the ultra conventional Falcon from Ford so they add their own conventional compact to the line in the form of the 1962 ChevyII. That is also why the Corvair lost its slow selling station wagon after the the 1962 model year and the vans and Rampside pickups were gone afther 1965 and why from 1962 on, with the addition of a convertible, the Corvair took on an image as a sporty, fun, yet economical car.
FYI..Ralph Naders book didn't come out until the 1965 models were already out. The problem he wrote about was the 1960 thru 1962 (possibly 1963) models penchant for having skiddish rear handling because of the lack of a rear anti sway bar. That problem was corrected by 1963 or 1964.
FYI#2 The original Beetle was offered with a true 3 speed automatic transmission starting in 1973 with the introduction of the fuel injected models (that coincided with the introduction of the first watercooled front engine VW to hit the American shores The VW Dasher). I know this for a fact as one of my neighbors ahs a white convertible with an auto trans and fuel injection from circa 1975.
GM had already decided that there would be no more development on the Corvair past the second generartion of Corvairs introduced for the 1965 model year sometime in late 1963 or early 1964. GM's reason for this was because the Corvair had originally been introduced to do battle with the Valiant and Falcon but did not live up to the sales expectation of the GM brass. Originally the Corvair was offered as a 4 door in 500 and ritzier 700 trim. A coupe was add in May 1960 and a Station wagon and Corvair vans and Rampside Pickup were added for the 1961 model year and so was the bucket seated 900 Monza coupe.. By that time Chevy realized their compact was being badly outsold by the ultra conventional Falcon from Ford so they add their own conventional compact to the line in the form of the 1962 ChevyII. That is also why the Corvair lost its slow selling station wagon after the the 1962 model year and the vans and Rampside pickups were gone afther 1965 and why from 1962 on, with the addition of a convertible, the Corvair took on an image as a sporty, fun, yet economical car.
FYI..Ralph Naders book didn't come out until the 1965 models were already out. The problem he wrote about was the 1960 thru 1962 (possibly 1963) models penchant for having skiddish rear handling because of the lack of a rear anti sway bar. That problem was corrected by 1963 or 1964.
FYI#2 The original Beetle was offered with a true 3 speed automatic transmission starting in 1973 with the introduction of the fuel injected models (that coincided with the introduction of the first watercooled front engine VW to hit the American shores The VW Dasher). I know this for a fact as one of my neighbors ahs a white convertible with an auto trans and fuel injection from circa 1975.
