AMC Eagle?

[Petros]

Toughtercel,

the reason those cars got a bad reputation was not the media, it was they were bad to own, bad to fix and bad to operate. the Tucker was interesting but it was not the wonder car it was made out to be, it was a PIA to drive, uncomfortable, and not as good a car as others at the time. It went out of production because they could not sell it any, too costly, not because of any conspiracy. Tucker made up the conspiracy to deflect attention away from his own cars short comings. If it sold well there was nothing anyone could have done to stop him.

Unreliable awful cars become collectors items because not many are sold, and ones that were the owners were all to happy to send to the junk yard. So they become rare, and for a good reason. WE are lucky we can still buy and get parts for the TErcel, which is a great car and will not turn into a collectible anytime soon because people keep them running, and they sold lots and lots of them. It the Tercel became worth $30k because it was rare, I do not think I would drive mine (worth too much to risk damage to it). I just as soon they stay cheap, plentiful and reliable.

[ARCHINSTL]

I go back to that Tucker era (well, I was a wee lad...). The Big 3 did not buy them up and crush them. Only something like 56 or so were ever made. The Tucker Club site (quite interesting) has a list, with photos, of each Tucker made and the history of each of the survivors. While it was innovative in many ways, it was just not practical as far as mass production goes. I believe Tucker was (at least initially) sincere - but starting a car company at the time, particularly one that had so many unconventional features was just impractical and pretty doomed from the start.
Heck - even Henry J. Kaiser, one of the wonder-workers of WWII production, came a cropper with the postwar Kaiser-Frazer cars and these were utterly conventional (and buttugly to boot). And "Yes," I know about the supercharged '54 Manhattan...
Tom M.

[hberdan]

Without a doubt, the AMC Hornet was one of the fugliest cars ever built, followed by the Pacer and the Gremlin. And I say that as the owner of a Tercel wagon.
At least the Tercel is reliable as hell.
I can remember one of the arty ranges at Fort Riley being restocked with target vehicles in about 1975 or 6, goes back a ways, anyway, many of the wrecks were non-running AMC's...
My very first car was a 1964 Chrysler Newport, push button tranny and everything; was a hand me down from a brother in law in 1969, and it already had a worn out engine and tranny. A piece of junk, like so many US cars of that era; designed to last much less than 100K miles...AMC was no better, and even uglier. And that was long before Iaccoca bought jeep and combined the two companies...an old family friend told a story of buying a brand new Chrysler in 1941, just before the war started; it broke down constantly, he couldn't get any parts because of the war, of course, and he junked it after a couple of years of war-gas-rationing limited driving. Said he would never buy another Chrysler.

[Petros]

We have owned exactly one Chrysler product, one of the mini vans (Grand Caravan), and I do not think I will ever buy another Chrysler again either (even if they survive).

had to redesign the engine mounts, two failed within the first 50k of driving due to bad design. Even worse, you can not drive it with a failed mount, the engine falls out! It left my wife stuck with two small children. We overhauled the transmission every other year (we doubled the life of the trans by redesigning it with a shift kit, cooler and a few other upgrades). Chrysler keeps a lot of tranny shops in business. The "default" mode of the electronic injection was to shut off, even when unimportant relays fail (so what every idiot junior engineer who designed that must of not had a wife with kids). Most Japan cars have a limp home mode so you can at least get off the freeway. My wife was stuck in snowy weather twice with two children in car seats in the back. When I diagnosed the problem, and replaced the $12 relay, I wanted to find out what sh*t-for-brains engineer thought it was a good idea shut off the fuel supply when a cheap relay failed, and chew him out in a way he will never forget. the welds in the steering column assembly failed from my 115 lb wife was pulling on it too hard in turns (nothing important mind you, only the steering column). I could go on and on for many pages, the best part about the car was the engine, made my Mitsubishi of course (I have heard the model with the Chrysler made engine was much worse to own).

If I ever meet Mr. Iacocca I will tell him he should be embarrassed to be selling such junk to their customers. How do they ever expect to get repeat customers when his company treated them like that. Apparently they did not get repeat customers, so the company was given away to Fiat (Fiat did not even have to pay anything for getting Chrysler!). And they got what it was worth.

[ARCHINSTL]

Petros - your comments about the Grand Caravan were interesting. One of my dotters had one and it ate two transmissions in less than 110K. The first went within the warranty period (don't recall exactly when), and when the last went, it died in KC - so the son-in-law traded for a - ready ? - Pacifica... Now that almost made the van look like quality...
Also interesting was your note about the no limp-home feature. This must have been the cause when it had to be towed to a dealer twice (all I ever heard was that "something electronic" failed).

Funny - back in the '30s and '40s Chrysler was well-regarded for engineering and quality - but the cars were dull.
Tom M.

[Petros]

The real shame on all of the US car companies is the Chrysler mini-vans are actually rated as one of the most reliable minivans made in the US, the rest are even worse! We bought a Mazda MPV 4x4 van, and want a difference! It is now approaching 300k miles, with some major maintenance issues, but I do not resent working on it. It has been a great workhorse, and parts are available at the local pull-a-part. The original auto trans on the MPV lasted 240k miles with daily driving on steep gravel roads, put in a used one and now expect it to last until 400k miles.

I think it was Chrysler that first introduced the automatic transmission, and they always had a reputation for a great ride. The Caravan was a great idea, and really an excellent design concept, it was just executed in an embarrassingly poor way. The Euro and Japan car companies ate their lunch after they started importing their minivans, putting Chrysler out of business.

[ARCHINSTL]

I think GM introduced the first real auto trans, with the Hydramatic debuting just before WWII - maybe in '40 or '41.
Chrysler had, by that time - and well into the '50s - an automatic clutch kind of arrangement, as I recall. It even used a fluid drive and a 3-speed MT. It introduced a real auto trans, the PowerFlite, in the early '50s. Its second auto, the TorqueFlite, was regarded as one of the very best for many years.
Ford introduced its auto trans with the '51 Fords and Mercs - to its embarrassment, it used the Hydramatic in Lincolns for some reason - dunno why.
Apart from Packard with its Ultramatic and Buick with its DynaFLow (aka DynaFlush...), I think just about every other American maker used GM's Hydramatic in some form or other. I could be a leetle wrong on this, though. I know Rolls-Royce tried to develop their auto - but gave up and used the Hydramatic, much to their chagrin.
Tom M.