I mean, that does make it substantially more practical (which, is supposedly the only reason anyone buys a crossover anyway, I mean, they can’t be doing it for style), but, considering this is from the guy that spent millions in extra development money and months of extra time to make top-hinged doors sort of work on…

None of them would make any acknowledgement of that, either. 

Subways can’t move steel beams! This is all Bush’s fault.

A regular manual transmission converted to semi-auto operation?

Hmm, I wonder if maybe Spain had a similar regulation, seeing as how the Rana was never sold anywhere else. Not that that was necessarily intentional though, I would think that the company hoped to sell a lot more than they did.

I wonder if there was a consideration for easy conversion to a 3-wheeler for export markets where that was an advantage?

That was not possible in the SS’ case, Holden’s problem was not primarily their fixed costs, which can be offset with volume, but in their variable costs, meaning that they could not turn a profit on their cars no matter how many they built and sold. The more they built, the more they lost. Their factory was too small…

Yeah, Tesla has done surprisingly well with a lineup of 2/3 passenger cars (and their only crossover being $79,000+), this one is going to blow all kinds of sales records for them. They’re going to have to add extra computers in their stores to handle all the customers coming in to order online. 

GM couldn’t make money on the SS, it was too expensive to manufacture and ship. They only sold it in North America because they were obligated in their union contract to make a “good faith” effort to make Holden viable via export sales. But, it was never going to work. The more they sold, the more money they would…

Only if you have more than 2 people with you. And when I do, I follow the same rules I use on airplanes - sit on the aisle. I don’t mind standing up to let other people out when they need to, and that way I can come and go as I please without worrying about bothering someone else.

I love things that are specifically designed with the goal of simplicity, durability, and easy repairs. A shame the attitude seems to be on the wane. 

Your dad owned the Verkins?! That is seriously worth a write up. That car was reasonably well known in the late ‘40s/early ‘50s, Robert Verkins was a fairly prolific tinkerer, had several automotive-related patents.

Would that have been asbestos cloth?

No way, better feeling of privacy and usually more comfortable/thickly padded seats. 

They use an aubesian, its a device that’s sort of a long arm with a gripper on the end that holds the toilet paper. 

Of course I remember the Chrysler Laser, it was the only sports car to offer front wheel drive, gas charged shock absorbers, and the option of Mark Cross leather.

I feel like Karmann was on the right track with this thinking. Like the original Karmann-Ghia, this is a design that could have been adapted for a 20 year production run. Imagine 1980s-style plastic covered bumpers, blacked out chrome, updated alloy wheels, and maybe quad rectangular sealed beam headlights for the US.…

Ah, so this might explain why it seems to be getting more difficult to find a booth these days. 

Wait, did you shoot the bird or the car? 

This could be designed to escape the Corvette’s traditional market completely. Lot of young money in the Mid East and China, and they do buy a decent quantity of European sports cars. Whether that market is also already saturated and past its peak, and whether GM can export enough to make up for declines in the USDM,…