Fed caves again

[Amianthus]

uhm
I mught be wrong
but I think it`s more than a loan
I think read somewhere the government is in control of it now.

The loan also gave them an 80% stake in the company. So, the government can set policy until it gets paid back.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Chrysler repaid the bailout ahead of time. Made Lee Iaccoca a household name again.

=====================================

Well, it is true that Chrysler paid off the loan ahead of time.

What made Lee Iacocca a household name (not again, he wasn't one before that), was his mug on TV for years, telling us how great the K-cars were, which was only sort of true. They DID have VW engines in the 4 cylinder models. The Mitsubishi 6 was a terrible motor, good for maybe 80K at most, and unfixable because of a major design defect.

What made the K-car sell was the horrible crap that GM was putting out during those Roger Smith years, and the great affinity most Ford products had to combine with the atmosphere. Except the Pinto. That exploded and barbecued all its hapless occupants when hit from behind.

What made Iacocca famous was the same thing that made Victor Kiam famous (Remington razors: liked them so much he bought the company).

[Amianthus]

What made Iacocca famous was the same thing that made Victor Kiam famous (Remington razors: liked them so much he bought the company).

The Mustang made Iacocca famous the first time.

[hnumpah]

Except the Pinto. That exploded and barbecued all its hapless occupants when hit from behind.

I bought a '76 Pinto brand new when I got back from Turkey. Three weeks later some lady rearended me at 30+ mph in Tennessee and drove me up underneath a van. It didn't explode. In '79, same car, I got rearended and driven into another car, then rearended again and rolled end over end, landing right side up, off a ramp. It didn't explode then, either. I walked away from both crashes with no injuries.

[sirs]

Glad you did, H.  The potential for far worse, sure was present.  My brother was in a roll over accident, in our Mom's used Datson B210 (we called it Rodney, for some reason).  He was T-boned in an intersection, the car rolling several times, ending up laying on the driver side.  My brother, who was driving, walked away with some cuts and bruising.  His friend, in the passenger side that was impacted by the other car, was permanently brain damaged, and confined to a wheelchair.  Both were wearing their seatbelts   

[Xavier_Onassis]

Iacocca did come up with the Mustang, and that certainly did make him famous among car fanciers, most of whom overlooked that the Mustang was basically a jazzed up Falcon. The K-car era ads were what brought him household recognition.

You were lucky that your Pintos did not explode. You mush have been hit at an angle that did not rupture the tank and spray fuel all over you. I don;lt think MOST rearended Pintos exploded, but had they installed a $10 deflector, none of them would.

[hnumpah]

The first one hit me square on the rear end. I was at a dead stop behind the van, and she hit me at 30+ mph, never even touched the brakes. Everything that could hold liquid on the car, except the windshield washer, was busted. I had to get out and shut her car off before she blew us all up - the front of her car, engine running, was sitting in gas from my ruptured fuel tank, and I had just filled it up. The second one was also square on, but we were both moving, so the impact wasn't as hard. It was enough to make me lose control and hit another car in the next lane over, then the first car hit me again and knocked me off the ramp. We went end over end and landed upright, and my passenger and I both walked away. I wore seatbelts in both wrecks - have since I got bumped off the track and rolled a stock car over three times 'way back when. My passenger in the second wreck had never worn seatbelts in his life, until that night - he saw me put mine on, and put his on as well. Saved him serious injury, and possibly saved his life.

[kimba1]

an old friend of mine onetime got sideswiped by a pickup truck.
he told me if his friend were to not wear a seatbelt she would most likely not be alive.
it tore him up (inside)real bad how close that he could of lost her.
ever since he would drive unless everybody has thier seatbelts on .

[Xavier_Onassis]

Cars catch fire much less often than in the movies, I recall a Chuck Norris film in which EVERY car he rode in exploded in a huge ball of fire.