Great cars! The 200sx is a favorite ever since the neighbor kid’s Dad got a new white one as a commuter car when I was a wee lad. Something about the chiseled lines really appealed to me. Now I’d want it with an LS swap.
The Laurel is a beauty, and with those wheels calls to mind an early 626.
Love the Q45/Cima.
The Cressida also grabs me as one of my favorite ‘real’ cars was an 87 in black with blood red leather. Just a wonderful car in all respects. I own some newer cars now that I’d trade for one.
OK one more comment and I will stop– the CUBE– I thought I was the only one who actually likes them. Back about 2014 I had a silver one for a week as a rental, and I loved it! The usefulness and even the way it drove, yes with that dreaded CVT….. I was driving a minty aluminum Jag XJ8 (BRG), a Suburban (pewter) and a Mustang 5.OL GT convt (cranberry) at the time yet I wanted to buy a Cube! Wife and kids voted that down, sadly.
Okay, one reply for the three! Glad you liked them all. Some of the Japanese kits I had to get from Japan as they’re a bit hard to get here – like the Laurel. I remember seeing a two-toned one in a magazine, and knew I just had to build one. It does have something of a Mazda vibe about the styling.
After I sent this off I realized I should have mentioned the Cima was a Q45 in the US. Infiniti was a disaster for Nissan here, but then Nissan itself didn’t have the quality reputation to make a prestige arm viable. Interesting shape though. The NSX is one of those colours that’s hard to photograph, very dark without the camera flash on it. And the Cube ticks all the boxes for me: a practical shape made visually appealling by lots of interesting detail work. Just needed a dash of colour!
Another Cube-liker here. Grey imports in Oz, but seem to be fairly numerous. In fact, I haven’t boldy bought one only because of grey-import parts fears, which I know from the travails of an acquaintance aren’t unjustified.
There was something of a ‘high performance’ version known as the 352H that had a raised cab to accommodate a larger radiator for the big 450 h.p.+ diesels of the day. The H models typically had Caterpillar 3408’s, Cummins K series, and Detroit 8V-92TA’s under the cab. The H’s could be readily identified by a taller grille, a longer step well under the door above the front wheel (this was a feature of the later 362’s), and larger cab hinge cutouts above the bumper. The 352H was like the Freightliner Powerliner but not as flashy!
I always fancied a Tagora – simply to be “thrawn” [perverse] as we say in Scotland.
But no cheap 2nd hand ones ever appeared – because no one bought the damned things when they were new I daresay.
“That taint lingers like the stench of squandered opportunities and ambitions of covetousness.” That’s good stuff.
I don’t understand the love given here to the Fairmount. I actually bought a new one in ’78. For three long years I suffered the indignities that only a truly crappy car can impose (I only kept it for that long because my young daughter loved, loved, loved the light blue color). Want to make a new friend? Find another Fairmount owner and start trading horror stories.
Now how did I guess that, Scott? They are a very nice looking car; shame we didn’t get them here. But we did get the Skyline instead, so…. That Laurel was one of those cars I went out of my way to do a specially good build on. I’ve got a C33 build coming up later this year; I’m not sure whether they came as a two-tone, but mine will be!
All three are popular here in New Zealand too, especially with all the extra chrome bits. I see significantly more Elgrands than the others though. The styling of all of them is a little bit, um, out there, but I’m glad they exist as they bring something different to the streets!
There were at least two Packards in my home town during the 60s, early 70s. The neighbor had one (he was a “get off my lawn” type of guy) and the picture attached which was taken in 1971. If you find yourself close to Warren, Ohio, stop by the National Packard Museum. https://packardmuseum.org
I remember a color-shifting paint that was offered on some U.S. Fords in the ’90s, akin to the paint on the Fairlane hardtop — the model years escape me right now, but it was available on the SN95 Mustang for a minute. It was an interesting idea, but the net effect usually ended up being a sort of root beer brown, which wasn’t the sportiest.
I remembered being amazed by the Artari video game like monocolor CRT display in a Riveria of this era at my high school’s carwash and simultaneously wondering why GM bothered to have a vastly different dash design than the strange but futuristic pod radio HVAC type interior in my elderly Aunt’s Somerset. And that Somerset was a decently fast and sharp handling car that I hooned a few times with one wheel miniburnouts with it’s surprisingly powerful and rumbly V6.
At the time, I thought at the time that Riveria was an upscale Somerset with cheesier brake lights and not an entirely different platform underneath because I tended to skip magazine articles on any non Grand National Buicks in the library. And now future me wonders why GM didn’t even bother to give such an expensive car composite style headlights like the Lincoln had.
And now future me wonders why GM didn’t even bother to give such an expensive car composite style headlights like the Lincoln had.
Oh, it was worse than that: They developed a proprietary Guide Division halogen headlight that looked like sealed beams. (They were about 20 percent smaller and somewhat brighter, but you wouldn’t know that unless you did a side-by-side comparison.)
Irv Rybicki and the entire GM management should have been hauled out of the GM headquarters and had their pensions revoked for allowing these monstrosities out the door. Just how stupid could these people be to allow GM to fall the way that it has? It is no different today with Mary trying to shove these over-priced electric trucks out the door. Where happened to the real car designers? It seems as if GM only employs monkeys with computers as designers. This company could do better, but chooses not to. Time to clean house at GM and the other so-called car companies.
I have long felt what Mr Niedermeyer stated more eloquently than I ever could that GM’s second wave of downsizing – the 1985 C/H, the 1986 E/K platforms – as well as the 1988 W and 1991 Saturn platforms were a disaster. GM didn’t suffer in the late 70s and early 80s the way Ford and Chrysler did and wasted so much money on these new platforms. Too bad GM didn’t do more platform sharing or update the first wave platforms.
Sorry, phone glitch won’t let me respond directly to comments.
Likely thousands of people bought the traditional rectangular sealed beams headlights at Pep Boys when their halogen bulbs burned out in those Guide Division composites, thinking the old type would work. I am fairly even keeled, but would have had a difficult moment and used bad words if that had been me.
In the 90s I had 4 magazine subscriptions all car and the future was very evident then. GM passed the same cars from magazine to magazine with the same motor and transmission against the top imports. You would have maybe 2 or 3 GM products with minor body changes that couldn’t compete showing how poor the American products were. That continues today with the EV movement, and as a result we are the laughing stock of the world. Then to top it off the government encourages them with their poor products.
Lee Iacocca became kind of a folk hero when he saved Chrysler in the 1980s. Also him appearing in commercials cemented and enhanced his folk hero status. He was a good marketer at Ford but the success of his products except for the Mustang only weren’t long term. He was able to maximize the use of car platforms though in different forms. I still admire him for saving Chrysler and the Mustang.
I sat in so very many old and stinky weirdo back-rowers in dodgy lots that your post has brought on nasal PTSD. (And why was it always aroma-enhancingly stinking hot or very wet when I was doing this all those years ago? But I am digressing).
None, I have to say, remotely resembled this fine collection from your excellent skills. Why, that F100 Bumpside looks real – well, it would’ve had you not carelessly parked it upon a grid, anyway. (I’ll pretend it’s in a black-tiled showroom). Superb.
But my fave has to be that faded Fairlane. I know it wasn’t your aim at the time, but it’s a ripper: from the photo, it’s got uneven fade, cheapo repairs round the arch (likely a pic trick, but still), a crinkly under-rusted vinyl top, and 7th-owner bogan hot-up wheels. Quite wonderful.
That wood in the interior is something great, really striking interior design. To think they went from that to horrible plasti-wood applied everywhere in a few years. If only the 67+ Eldorado had an interior half that cool….
Good grief, Alphard could it be, one might wonder? And, what with all the curlicues and chromey wiggles on the faces, one might be tempted describe the frontal aspect as not so much cubic as pubic, but that would be uncouth. Btw, do they sell a car-bra for these that resembles a pair of undies?
The side-on view of the latest Alphard, in black, is pretty funny – looks for all the world like a small troop of old-school nuns trying to sneak back after hours. I know this because we’ve got a few of them round here. Alphards, that is. Or nuns. (It was dark and I’d had a few. Drinks, that is. Please).
Like others, I actually like the original Delica quite a bit. The shaver-faced update assists it not, but that admittedly godawful Mitsu facial disfigurement is common to all their products, which are plentiful enough in these parts such that I don’t notice it any more.
Fun as this all is, the Asian perception of art stuff, of the appearance of things, is wholly different to that of the West, and these vans reinforce that fact. For sure, they’d be non-sellers outside of where they thrive, and they do indeed appear quite odd, even awful, to “us”, but their prevalence in Tokyo alone attests to a different way of thinking and seeing
I have a stroked Cleveland (393 cubes) running 10.7: compression.
I went through several “ignitions” until I decided to use the better parts from different sources.
I have a DuraSpark II distributor that has a full bushing on the shaft (truly, the only weakness), GM HEI module (mounted on a thick aluminum heat sink block), and a TFI style coil. These fire Summit Racing (built by Taylor) 8.5 mm wires to Autolite plugs. Since assembly of this ignition, it has been as reliable as I could ever ask.
I could not bring my self to mount that big, ugly, HEI to the front of my engine. I figured with the open air scoop, it wouldn’t last that long anyway.
Two weeks ago at a car show was a fully nut & bolt restored 1965 Eldorado convertible in a medium silver metallic paint with red leather interior. It also had non-stock wire wheels. It was magnificent.
Pinto, Maverick, Granada – once introduced Ford appeared to have lost interest. They were not updated in any serious way but left to wither and die. This is not a reflection on Iacocca’s original idea but more one on Ford management. The Marks were kept current and did well. The Mustang ran into competition that was not there when introduced (the Valiant/Barracuda doesn’t count). Lee was far from perfect but you can’t hang all of the decline on his ideas.
A couple of things to keep in mind about the context of the Maverick and Granada.
The Maverick’s first year was a long one that no doubt helped it post such high first year numbers. When introduced it was Ford’s lowest price entry. That role was quickly taken by the Pinto. So not really surprising that it saw such a significant drop from the 1st to second year, between the extended first model year and there being a new addition for the person who was just looking for the most economical car in the show room.
Ford was also surprised when the take rate for the LDO Maverick was so high, and of course not surprised that it saw a bounce in sales due to the first Energy crisis. Because of that the decided that it would soldier on as the entry level compact while what had been intended as a direct replacement the Granada was moved up market as their premium compact. So considering that the 1975 up Maverick was just seen as a cash cow, that was fully amortized and competing with the Pinto for those looking for the best price and economy, and the Granada for those looking for a nicer compact I think it did pretty well in 75-77.
The Granada suffered a similar fate when the Fairmont was introduced as Ford’s new compact for 1978. Not sure if Ford had intended for the Fairmont to directly replace the Granada on not but it definitely didn’t help the Granada’s 78-80 sales numbers. So for 78-80 the Granada took over as that fully amortized cash cow that they might as well keep cranking out for a few more years past its original sell by date.
It would be interesting to see a graph with combined Maverick, Granada, and Fairmont numbers for 1970-1980. On second thought since the Granada got a second generation based on that Fairmont maybe that graph should run from 1970-1982.
The Pinto also faced some competition from inside the Ford showroom starting in 1978 with the introduction of the Fiesta which was the new Ford MPG champ with the more modern FWD architecture and better space utilization.
Don’t forget that the Falcon was Robert McNamara’s baby: the stripper original 1960 Falcon was his idea of the perfect car. When he was picked as JFK’s defense secretary he was President of the Fomoco. Ford was a strong Number 2 to Chevrolet all those years and was as successful as it was because they figured out market niches (launch of 1949 Ford) and Lee Iacocca was a very shrewd marketer. From his autobiography he came up with memorable tag lines like “A (19)56 Ford for $56”, he attached himself to product shots and got coverage in Life Magazine. He was Steve Jobs before his time. But he was fired by Henry Ford II: the Mark Lincolns were Mr. Ford’s idea of a great car. You’ll need to remember that Ford, was and is, a family-run company.
It was insane the way GM was obsessed with going to all FWD, and shrinking their cars down to cartoon characters. For example, the Cadillac Seville, had a good design with the 80-85 version, then they just had to turn the engine transverse to gain a measly 6 inches or so of reduced length, to gain what, 1/25 additional MPG by saving maybe 30 lbs? They gained cars that were much less attractive, and a mechanics nightmare with working on these transverse engines. Such stupidity.
Great cars! The 200sx is a favorite ever since the neighbor kid’s Dad got a new white one as a commuter car when I was a wee lad. Something about the chiseled lines really appealed to me. Now I’d want it with an LS swap.
The Laurel is a beauty, and with those wheels calls to mind an early 626.
Love the Q45/Cima.
The Cressida also grabs me as one of my favorite ‘real’ cars was an 87 in black with blood red leather. Just a wonderful car in all respects. I own some newer cars now that I’d trade for one.
Oh one more note- that violet NSX is flat out YUMMY!
Thank you for the informative article. As one who spent a good portion of my life selling commercial application trucks, this is interesting,
Paul, you win my heart with old trucks. Thanks.
OK one more comment and I will stop– the CUBE– I thought I was the only one who actually likes them. Back about 2014 I had a silver one for a week as a rental, and I loved it! The usefulness and even the way it drove, yes with that dreaded CVT….. I was driving a minty aluminum Jag XJ8 (BRG), a Suburban (pewter) and a Mustang 5.OL GT convt (cranberry) at the time yet I wanted to buy a Cube! Wife and kids voted that down, sadly.
Okay, one reply for the three! Glad you liked them all. Some of the Japanese kits I had to get from Japan as they’re a bit hard to get here – like the Laurel. I remember seeing a two-toned one in a magazine, and knew I just had to build one. It does have something of a Mazda vibe about the styling.
After I sent this off I realized I should have mentioned the Cima was a Q45 in the US. Infiniti was a disaster for Nissan here, but then Nissan itself didn’t have the quality reputation to make a prestige arm viable. Interesting shape though. The NSX is one of those colours that’s hard to photograph, very dark without the camera flash on it. And the Cube ticks all the boxes for me: a practical shape made visually appealling by lots of interesting detail work. Just needed a dash of colour!
Another Cube-liker here. Grey imports in Oz, but seem to be fairly numerous. In fact, I haven’t boldy bought one only because of grey-import parts fears, which I know from the travails of an acquaintance aren’t unjustified.
There was something of a ‘high performance’ version known as the 352H that had a raised cab to accommodate a larger radiator for the big 450 h.p.+ diesels of the day. The H models typically had Caterpillar 3408’s, Cummins K series, and Detroit 8V-92TA’s under the cab. The H’s could be readily identified by a taller grille, a longer step well under the door above the front wheel (this was a feature of the later 362’s), and larger cab hinge cutouts above the bumper. The 352H was like the Freightliner Powerliner but not as flashy!
I like this dumpy looking old MoPar .
Looks like all it needs is a fat wallet and the desire to save it .
-Nate
I always fancied a Tagora – simply to be “thrawn” [perverse] as we say in Scotland.
But no cheap 2nd hand ones ever appeared – because no one bought the damned things when they were new I daresay.
“That taint lingers like the stench of squandered opportunities and ambitions of covetousness.” That’s good stuff.
I don’t understand the love given here to the Fairmount. I actually bought a new one in ’78. For three long years I suffered the indignities that only a truly crappy car can impose (I only kept it for that long because my young daughter loved, loved, loved the light blue color). Want to make a new friend? Find another Fairmount owner and start trading horror stories.
It truly was the last FOMOCO car I ever owned.
Wonderful assortment as always Pete! The C31 Laurel is my favourite – they were sold new here and always looked good in two-tone. Just gorgeous!
Now how did I guess that, Scott? They are a very nice looking car; shame we didn’t get them here. But we did get the Skyline instead, so…. That Laurel was one of those cars I went out of my way to do a specially good build on. I’ve got a C33 build coming up later this year; I’m not sure whether they came as a two-tone, but mine will be!
139 P76s left in New Zealand, and they’re still fairly well-known here for a car that didn’t last long!
All three are popular here in New Zealand too, especially with all the extra chrome bits. I see significantly more Elgrands than the others though. The styling of all of them is a little bit, um, out there, but I’m glad they exist as they bring something different to the streets!
There were at least two Packards in my home town during the 60s, early 70s. The neighbor had one (he was a “get off my lawn” type of guy) and the picture attached which was taken in 1971. If you find yourself close to Warren, Ohio, stop by the National Packard Museum.
https://packardmuseum.org
I remember a color-shifting paint that was offered on some U.S. Fords in the ’90s, akin to the paint on the Fairlane hardtop — the model years escape me right now, but it was available on the SN95 Mustang for a minute. It was an interesting idea, but the net effect usually ended up being a sort of root beer brown, which wasn’t the sportiest.
Mystic, that was what it was called.
I remembered being amazed by the Artari video game like monocolor CRT display in a Riveria of this era at my high school’s carwash and simultaneously wondering why GM bothered to have a vastly different dash design than the strange but futuristic pod radio HVAC type interior in my elderly Aunt’s Somerset. And that Somerset was a decently fast and sharp handling car that I hooned a few times with one wheel miniburnouts with it’s surprisingly powerful and rumbly V6.
At the time, I thought at the time that Riveria was an upscale Somerset with cheesier brake lights and not an entirely different platform underneath because I tended to skip magazine articles on any non Grand National Buicks in the library. And now future me wonders why GM didn’t even bother to give such an expensive car composite style headlights like the Lincoln had.
Oh, it was worse than that: They developed a proprietary Guide Division halogen headlight that looked like sealed beams. (They were about 20 percent smaller and somewhat brighter, but you wouldn’t know that unless you did a side-by-side comparison.)
Irv Rybicki and the entire GM management should have been hauled out of the GM headquarters and had their pensions revoked for allowing these monstrosities out the door. Just how stupid could these people be to allow GM to fall the way that it has? It is no different today with Mary trying to shove these over-priced electric trucks out the door. Where happened to the real car designers? It seems as if GM only employs monkeys with computers as designers. This company could do better, but chooses not to. Time to clean house at GM and the other so-called car companies.
I have long felt what Mr Niedermeyer stated more eloquently than I ever could that GM’s second wave of downsizing – the 1985 C/H, the 1986 E/K platforms – as well as the 1988 W and 1991 Saturn platforms were a disaster. GM didn’t suffer in the late 70s and early 80s the way Ford and Chrysler did and wasted so much money on these new platforms. Too bad GM didn’t do more platform sharing or update the first wave platforms.
Sorry, phone glitch won’t let me respond directly to comments.
Likely thousands of people bought the traditional rectangular sealed beams headlights at Pep Boys when their halogen bulbs burned out in those Guide Division composites, thinking the old type would work. I am fairly even keeled, but would have had a difficult moment and used bad words if that had been me.
In the 90s I had 4 magazine subscriptions all car and the future was very evident then. GM passed the same cars from magazine to magazine with the same motor and transmission against the top imports. You would have maybe 2 or 3 GM products with minor body changes that couldn’t compete showing how poor the American products were. That continues today with the EV movement, and as a result we are the laughing stock of the world. Then to top it off the government encourages them with their poor products.
Lee Iacocca became kind of a folk hero when he saved Chrysler in the 1980s. Also him appearing in commercials cemented and enhanced his folk hero status. He was a good marketer at Ford but the success of his products except for the Mustang only weren’t long term. He was able to maximize the use of car platforms though in different forms. I still admire him for saving Chrysler and the Mustang.
I sat in so very many old and stinky weirdo back-rowers in dodgy lots that your post has brought on nasal PTSD. (And why was it always aroma-enhancingly stinking hot or very wet when I was doing this all those years ago? But I am digressing).
None, I have to say, remotely resembled this fine collection from your excellent skills. Why, that F100 Bumpside looks real – well, it would’ve had you not carelessly parked it upon a grid, anyway. (I’ll pretend it’s in a black-tiled showroom). Superb.
But my fave has to be that faded Fairlane. I know it wasn’t your aim at the time, but it’s a ripper: from the photo, it’s got uneven fade, cheapo repairs round the arch (likely a pic trick, but still), a crinkly under-rusted vinyl top, and 7th-owner bogan hot-up wheels. Quite wonderful.
Immortalized on the cover of Shakedown Street.
Valid point. I pulled my numbers from the Standard Catalog. It agrees with your Caprice numbers, but obviously not with the VIP.
That wood in the interior is something great, really striking interior design. To think they went from that to horrible plasti-wood applied everywhere in a few years. If only the 67+ Eldorado had an interior half that cool….
Good grief, Alphard could it be, one might wonder? And, what with all the curlicues and chromey wiggles on the faces, one might be tempted describe the frontal aspect as not so much cubic as pubic, but that would be uncouth. Btw, do they sell a car-bra for these that resembles a pair of undies?
The side-on view of the latest Alphard, in black, is pretty funny – looks for all the world like a small troop of old-school nuns trying to sneak back after hours. I know this because we’ve got a few of them round here. Alphards, that is. Or nuns. (It was dark and I’d had a few. Drinks, that is. Please).
Like others, I actually like the original Delica quite a bit. The shaver-faced update assists it not, but that admittedly godawful Mitsu facial disfigurement is common to all their products, which are plentiful enough in these parts such that I don’t notice it any more.
Fun as this all is, the Asian perception of art stuff, of the appearance of things, is wholly different to that of the West, and these vans reinforce that fact. For sure, they’d be non-sellers outside of where they thrive, and they do indeed appear quite odd, even awful, to “us”, but their prevalence in Tokyo alone attests to a different way of thinking and seeing
I have a stroked Cleveland (393 cubes) running 10.7: compression.
I went through several “ignitions” until I decided to use the better parts from different sources.
I have a DuraSpark II distributor that has a full bushing on the shaft (truly, the only weakness), GM HEI module (mounted on a thick aluminum heat sink block), and a TFI style coil. These fire Summit Racing (built by Taylor) 8.5 mm wires to Autolite plugs. Since assembly of this ignition, it has been as reliable as I could ever ask.
I could not bring my self to mount that big, ugly, HEI to the front of my engine. I figured with the open air scoop, it wouldn’t last that long anyway.
The two toned Clipper hardtop with trailer looks sharp to me .
I can’t see how the Mayfair had any sporting pretensions at all .
-Nate
Two weeks ago at a car show was a fully nut & bolt restored 1965 Eldorado convertible in a medium silver metallic paint with red leather interior. It also had non-stock wire wheels. It was magnificent.
Pinto, Maverick, Granada – once introduced Ford appeared to have lost interest. They were not updated in any serious way but left to wither and die. This is not a reflection on Iacocca’s original idea but more one on Ford management. The Marks were kept current and did well. The Mustang ran into competition that was not there when introduced (the Valiant/Barracuda doesn’t count). Lee was far from perfect but you can’t hang all of the decline on his ideas.
A couple of things to keep in mind about the context of the Maverick and Granada.
The Maverick’s first year was a long one that no doubt helped it post such high first year numbers. When introduced it was Ford’s lowest price entry. That role was quickly taken by the Pinto. So not really surprising that it saw such a significant drop from the 1st to second year, between the extended first model year and there being a new addition for the person who was just looking for the most economical car in the show room.
Ford was also surprised when the take rate for the LDO Maverick was so high, and of course not surprised that it saw a bounce in sales due to the first Energy crisis. Because of that the decided that it would soldier on as the entry level compact while what had been intended as a direct replacement the Granada was moved up market as their premium compact. So considering that the 1975 up Maverick was just seen as a cash cow, that was fully amortized and competing with the Pinto for those looking for the best price and economy, and the Granada for those looking for a nicer compact I think it did pretty well in 75-77.
The Granada suffered a similar fate when the Fairmont was introduced as Ford’s new compact for 1978. Not sure if Ford had intended for the Fairmont to directly replace the Granada on not but it definitely didn’t help the Granada’s 78-80 sales numbers. So for 78-80 the Granada took over as that fully amortized cash cow that they might as well keep cranking out for a few more years past its original sell by date.
It would be interesting to see a graph with combined Maverick, Granada, and Fairmont numbers for 1970-1980. On second thought since the Granada got a second generation based on that Fairmont maybe that graph should run from 1970-1982.
The Pinto also faced some competition from inside the Ford showroom starting in 1978 with the introduction of the Fiesta which was the new Ford MPG champ with the more modern FWD architecture and better space utilization.
Jason attached the receipts, and I’m here for it.
Don’t forget that the Falcon was Robert McNamara’s baby: the stripper original 1960 Falcon was his idea of the perfect car. When he was picked as JFK’s defense secretary he was President of the Fomoco. Ford was a strong Number 2 to Chevrolet all those years and was as successful as it was because they figured out market niches (launch of 1949 Ford) and Lee Iacocca was a very shrewd marketer. From his autobiography he came up with memorable tag lines like “A (19)56 Ford for $56”, he attached himself to product shots and got coverage in Life Magazine. He was Steve Jobs before his time. But he was fired by Henry Ford II: the Mark Lincolns were Mr. Ford’s idea of a great car. You’ll need to remember that Ford, was and is, a family-run company.
It was insane the way GM was obsessed with going to all FWD, and shrinking their cars down to cartoon characters. For example, the Cadillac Seville, had a good design with the 80-85 version, then they just had to turn the engine transverse to gain a measly 6 inches or so of reduced length, to gain what, 1/25 additional MPG by saving maybe 30 lbs? They gained cars that were much less attractive, and a mechanics nightmare with working on these transverse engines. Such stupidity.