This Nick Gillespie post on the probably-doomed Chrysler-Fiat deal reminds me of the Chrysler Cordoba, which he uses to illustrate Chrysler's many problems:
Reminds me, I say, because this is the car the McArdle family drove. Though not in 1975. The McArdle family does not buy new cars. Buying new cars causes hair to grow on your palms. No, my family drove this car when I was in high school in the late 1980s. Needless to say, I was, like, the only kid in America who never wanted to borrow the family car.
On the other hand, I do credit the Chrysler Cordoba, with it's "thickly crucial luxury of seats available in soft Corinthian leather" for ensuring that I passed my driver's test on the first go. In 1975, it may have been "the small Chrysler", but a decade and a half later, it was about as zippy and manoeuverable as the Love Boat. After that, parallel parking a regular car was as easy as falling off one of the soft corinthian leather bucket seats.
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
The car I took my driver's test in was the 1979 Ford Pinto, so I am unmoved by tales of woe from the used-Cordoba-driving elites.
You're a spring chicken.
Mine was a '69 dodge dart.
'72 Dart, Slant 6, metallic brown with the vinyl top. It still runs.
73 Pontiac Grand Am. Land Yacht with a 400 cu. in. V-8.
My next car was a 65 VW Bug. I loved those cars. Nothing I couldn't fix myself.
Hey nice work stealing this from Marla at ZeroHedge. Why not give credit instead of robbing ideas.
Shame on you!!!!
http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-know-my-needs.html
The whole "article" you linked to is a YouTube video. Said video is the FIRST one to come up if you search for "Chrysler Cordoba".
Megan can't be stealing anything because there is nothing to steal.
Maybe this is a whoosh, but note that she gave credit to Gillespie at Reason magazine. Who, for what it's worth, didn't credit to ZeroHedge. Who, for what it's worth, didn't credit SistemasNormales, who uploaded the video in 2007.
"thickly cushioned," not "crucial," luxury of seats available in soft Corinthian leather.
Though I like your interpretation better.
It was "Carinthian", not "corinthian", Because...there is no objective correlative. Nothing to do w. Corinth. It was a totally made-up word. There was a great Montalban interview re this, but I can't think of the reference.
Here's YouTube to the rescue on that topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnZdMeEfG1Y
You can make the claim today that buying a new Honda or Toyota makes a lot more sense than buying them used, particularly if you are planning on holding them for 5 years or more. But American cars in the 1970's and 80's were junk, and it made absolutely no sense not to buy them used if you were going to buy them at all.
Buy them used, be handy with a wrench, and drive them into the ground (a race between panel rust and mechanical failure...)
I think the McCardles had the right idea. :)
you should only buy new if the maker/model is very hard to find used, and that shifts over the years, but currently in canada, that applies to subarus and volvos
btw, i passed my driving test in a 1980 Ford Fairmont, but was only really allowed to use our 1976 Honda Civic, and only then after i was 18......
hopefully my kids will use the subway/bus rather than drive, hahahaha
All these gripes about Pintos and Cordobas reminds me of my ‘70s car experience. I took my driving tests in my mother’s aptly named ’76 Oldsmobile Omega, with the low end 6 cylinder engine (250ci if I recall right). The model year had not been designed with the then newly mandated pollution controls, but was required to have them all the same, which really robbed the engine of power. The car stalled on more trips than not, including while I was trying to pass the parallel parking test (rolled into the back pylon because of the sudden loss of power to the brakes, but my ability to keep it to a light tap impressed the DPS trooper enough he gave me a second chance). Olds stuck the pollution control stuff wherever it could be force fit, meaning a very cramped space under the hood and a catalytic converter slung so low that twice in three years road hazards burst the casing, once the culprit was a fairly small tree branch (a good size stick really) and the broken converter heated up the floor board so badly the rear carpeting melted. Fortunately, I saved enough money to buy my own ’72 Cutlass Convertible. While it had issues (it when through gaskets pretty often) you could really see the decline in Olds quality from it to the newer Omega, and from there things just got worse.
I like how the driver brings the car to a stop at maybe 5mph and the unwieldly thing visibly lurches and rocks on its suspension.
motion sickness set in just reading this.
I once owned a GM car: a Vauxhall Insipid.
I just find it fascinating that Chrysler's designated savior is a company which GM paid €1.55 billion to not buy in 2005.
Memento Mori is latin for "A reminder of Death" , a skull
set in the middle of the table at a party to remind the
guests that all good things come to an end. Hmmm...
rick audenophilic There was a great Montalban interview re this...
Yep; The hardest part was getting him to mispronounce "Cordoba" in
the American way. :)