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I've read "Unsafe at any Speed" years ago, and there was some mention of VWs in the chapter on the Corvair if I recall correctly.. Nader did have some interesting points- cars in general were not as safe as they could be, and the auto industry as a whole did bear a near-callous disregard for safety. However, that said, in large part the public was not interested in safety. Unsafe at any Speed was a sort of wake-up call for people- safety wasn't really in the public consciousness at the time. It's stunning to us 30-somethings that people 40 years ago thought that putting up your arms to grab the dashboard would save you in a collision, and yet, people did think this way. The problem with the Corvair was not so much that the swingaxle design was flawed (it was no more flawed than any other swingaxle, really). The problem was that it was a sporty car with radically different handling than anything buyers of Detroit products were used to, and the low performance of the VWs (and the mindset of VW drivers having better assumptions of their cars limitations) of the time was much more forgiving. That said, Nader's still a bit of a kook. I give him a lot of credit (and blame, to a certian extent) for giving the public a much-needed wake-up call, though. On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:27:03 -0600, Jim Adney <jadney@vwtype3.org> wrote: > On 17 Dec 2004 at 11:27, Steven Ayres wrote: > > > BrianF=> the corvair died a premature death ... > > > > Well, the line did last for a fair number of years in the context of the > > times, so I don't think it should be seen as a failure in itself, > > It lasted 10 years, compared to 11.5 for type 3s. 10 years wasn't bad for an > American car design. Having grown up in that era, I respected Ralph, but I > thought his criticism was off base, and I don't think it had that much impact > outside of some small circle. OTOH, I never understood why the same criticism > wasn't also leveled at VW, since both used the same swing axle, which Corvair > fixed in '65 and VW fixed in '69. > > > What's left is the engineering concept of the air-cooled rear-engine design, > > and that seems to have survived pretty well overall even though GM got out of > > it. And if GM lost some public face on the Corvair, I say it serves 'em right > > for trying to kill VW by copying. > > Fair enough. ;-) > > -- > Jim Adney > jadney@vwtype3.org > Madison, WI 53711-3054 > USA > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >