A bad no start/no power diagnosis on a 1971 Porsche 911

About two weeks ago I took Don Capps on a brief driving tour around Dayton and then pulled my 1971 911 into the garage. It was a hot and humid day with a bit of rain and I had to put the top on to thwart a 5 minute light rain.

Five days later I was out to drive to a cruise-in and turned the key to start it. Nothing. Turn on lights. Nothing. if I fiddled with the starter switch occasionally I got a bizarre buzzer noise, or gauges would kick in, or even the radio would get power. So what to do?

First bit of advice I got off the Pelican Porsche Forum -- check main fuse and also check 6 pin connector under dash. Done. Nothing.

So my thoughts centered on the starter switch. OK, ordered one for $111 and then waited for it to come by removing the old one.  Advice -- don't struggle the way I did but go to Youtube. Remove facia dash plate on left side, emergency flasher, steering wheel and then drill out tow rivets before removing the two bolts that hold in the switch. Also when replacing it, remove upper and lower steering wheel switch covers so you can see exactly where to orient the lock portion of the switch (not the electrical part that you buy) as you slide it over.

BUT -- that was not the problem and I solved it before I replaced the switch but after I removed the old one needlessly.  I was a poor (no) ground due to corrosion near the battery!! Once that was done I realized the lights came on, and thus the real issue was addressed.

If you have an older car, and one that is not driven every day, occasionally check the condition of your grounds. If you don't, you'll end up needless spending money on parts and twisting yourself into a pretzel as you try to get under the dash.

Nixon, Ford II, Iacocca, and Erlichman: The Automobile Industry and Government Regulation

Meeting on April 27, 1971 in the Oval Office

In 2009 Frontline did a story on SUV rollovers. The point of bringing in a 1971 meeting involving Nixon, Ford II, Iacocca and Erlichman was to show how political pressures hampered federal regulators at the Department of Transportation and the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. Additionally, the point was made that while passive restraints and specifically airbags slowly came to be widely accepted by the 1990s, rollover accidents were pushed to a back burner.

You can read from a tape transcript and examine related documents at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rollover/nixon/.

Again, sorting files at the office I looked at this today, and a few things were learned beyond what Frontline emphasized.

1) In this at times rambling discussion, Nixon comes out with a stance that remains with us to this day. Namely, that if one is strident about concerns of the environment or safety, it is merely a cover for the real objective of overturning the capitalist system. When this notion was accepted and who were the main promoters of this idea is in question, but clearly Nixon believed it: He said in the interview:

"But I also know that using this issue, and boy, this is true. It's true in, in the environmentalists and it's true of the consumerist people. They're a group of people that aren't one really damn bit interested in safety or clean air. What they're interested in  is destroying the system. They're enemies of the system. So what I am trying to say is this: that you can speak to me in terms that I am for the system."

2) what followed was a discussion of the bumper standards for 1973 and 1974, and how nonsensical they are. These new and ugly bumpers are only to provide safety at 5 mph.  What about at higher speeds? That s when the damage really occurs. The result of lobbying by the insurance interests.

3) The conversation involving Iacocca clearly indicates that he saw the regulatory threat to the  American auto industry, increasing Japanese competition, and the endgame. He remarked that 91 percent of radios come from Japan. Fifteen percent of car sales are foreign, with Pinto as Ford's best competitive shot with a starting price of $1919. Iacocca continued by saying that 27% of cars sold on the West Coast are foreign.   Labor costs in Japan are $1.50 an hour compared to $7 in the U.S. Inflation was eating America manufacturers alive. Iacocca concluded "we are in a downhill slide, the likes of what we have never seen in our business. And the Japs are in the wings ready to eat us up alive....We cannot carry the load of inflation in wages and safety in a four year period without breaking our back. It's that simple, and that is what we have tried to convey it to these people [Toms and Volpe]."

In sum, while Lee Iacocca received many tributes after his recent death, I see him as the true visionary for what unfolded after 1970. He saw it clearly, and while he would play a role in fighting the good fight against the imports, the die had been cast and history just needed to unfold. And it wasn't just Ford and Chrysler. Iacocca's concerns were most vividly realized in the drop of GM market share in America from over 50% to 15% by 2009.

Trip through Germany 1937

Another Twist to the 1930s Autobahnen Origins Story

I am just now sorting my many automotive history files located in my office at the University of Dayton. At present there are eleven piles with two additional big piles of unsorted files yet to go. No telling what I will discover in this rich collection of sources.

As I was looking through the materials, I ran across this article entitled "Just Like Jersey" published in the New Yorker, April 14, 1945 (p.18). The author tells a story I did not include in the 2nd edition of my The Automobile and American Life. Before I get to that, here is my original excerpt on the Autobahnen.

            These kind of roads (divided highways) were built in Mussolini’s Italy during the 1920s (the autostrade) and in Hitler’s Germany of the 1930s (the autobahnen).³⁷Adolf Hitler’s highways were dramatically innovative roads that were perhaps the most publicized and visible products of the new regime. They have also proved to be the most enduring of the Third Reich’s material legacies, still carrying traffic, and thus promising to fulfill Hitler’s boast that “the construction of these roads will give the German people traffic routes for the most distant future.” The autobahnenwere critical to Hitler’s plan for the mass motorization of Germany, first announced at the Berlin auto show of 1933. Between 1933 and 1936 auto production increased five times. These roads were also important aspects of Hitler’s plan eliminate unemployment; by 1936 some 130,000 men were employed directly and 270,000 indirectly in industries like cement mixing and stone masonry. Construction workers, living under a military-like regimen, were housed in isolated camps near the work sites.

            The autobahns of the 1930s amounted to beautiful works of civil engineering. They blended organically into the landscape; it was said that those who constructed them had a real concern for the environment. Autobahns were built not to disturb scenery and landscape unnecessarily, and they were designed to contribute to the driver’s appreciation of the natural surroundings.

Maybe not as innovative as I once wrote!  The New Yorker article mentions the busloads of German engineers traveling though New Jersey and New York to the mid-1930s learning about the road there and in New York.  They took with them back to Germany state highways maps, plans for cloverleafs,  and blueprints given to them by New York planners Robert Moses. More to the point, the article states that one astute observer saw many "German imitations of the cloverleaf crossing near Woodbridge, Nw Jersey, on U.S. 1, which was the first in the country. Also, there's a stretch between Nuremberg and Berlin that's a dead steal from a stretch along N.J. 2 that runs from Newark up toward the New York state line. 

Why did American visitors to Germany who traveled there in the 1930s think that the autobahn were so original and innovative? According to the source quoted in the article it was because no one was on them, so they appeared so efficient. Compared to the daily traffic on U.S. 1 in New Jersey they were.  

Cloverleaf at Woodbridge, NJ

Watch this 1937 film from Youtube:

https://youtu.be/WTAj60EdPZ8

I'll also feature this on the next blog post!

Theodor von Liebig's 1894 Benz Road Trip

Theodor von Liebieg (centre) on a long-distance journey in 1894 with his Benz Victoria visiting Carl Benz (right) in Mannheim

The Benz Victoria owned and driven by Baron Theodor von Liebieg caused a sensation on his long-distance journey in 1894

Illustrated diary of the long-distance journey by Baron Theodor von Liebieg with his Benz Victoria in 1894: Starting on 16 July 1894 in Reichenberg, Bohemia.

The echo of Baron Theodor von Liebieg’s long-distance journey in 1894 underlies every long-distance trip with a Mercedes-Benz. After all, he pioneered what has, since the middle of the 20th century, been an everyday matter: travelling long distances by car, whether on holiday or on business trips. This mobility culture takes people across national borders, creates new opportunities and opens connections. The spirit of 125 years ago is prevalent again today and is inspiring us to find future-orientated solutions for the networked, automated, shared and electric automobility of the future of Mercedes-Benz.

Did he snatch the new Benz away from under the Grand Duke of Baden’s nose? The young industrialist, Baron Theodor von Liebieg, was assured by Carl Benz himself, the inventor of the motorcar: “ You have ordered earlier, so you will be supplied earlier.” The scene took place in October 1893. Benz – smartly dressed in tails and a top hat – was expecting a visit by the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke wanted to have a look at the first Benz car with double-pivot steering.

Suddenly, a factory owner’s son from Bohemia, just 21 years old, appeared at the company in Mannheim. He piled on one inquisitive question after another and asked Carl Benz if he could have a test drive. According to the legend, the automobile pioneer granted him a short test run – just before the Grand Duke arrived. Immediately afterwards, Liebieg ordered a car of the new design and made a down payment of 1,500 marks. That was almost a third of the total price. Satisfied, he travelled back to Reichenberg (today Liberec in the Czech Republic).

The vehicle was delivered to Bohemia by rail the following spring and handed over to the customer by Benz’s master driver Hans Thum. Liebieg’s Victoria bore factory number 76 and was powered by a 2.2 kW (3 bhp) single-cylinder engine.

Baron Liebieg had set himself a high goal: in the summer of 1894, he intended to drive this vehicle to pay a visit to Carl Benz and continue his journey from Mannheim to the Moselle to visit his mother’s home in Gondorf. Such a journey had “been my ideal since my time as a high school student”, he recalled in the illustrated chronicle of his long-distance journey. After completing some test drives, von Liebieg and his friend, a doctor called Franz Stransky, were confident that, despite the poor state of the roads, the difficult supply of fuel and the high consumption of cooling water, the motorcar would be able to cope reliably with the long-distance journey.

Visit to Benz

Early in the morning, on 16 July 1894, the travellers set off via Bautzen and Dresden as far as Waldheim. A day later, the next leg of the journey took them to Eisenberg, and on 18 July via Jena, Weimar, Erfurt and Gotha to Eisenach. This was followed by a two-day section without an overnight stay, which passed through Fulda, Offenbach, Frankfurt and Darmstadt. Their destination after 26 driving hours was Mannheim, where they visited Carl Benz. The next two days, the journey followed the Rhine to the north and finally up the Moselle to Gondorf on 22 July – the adventure had been a resounding success.

For the 939 kilometre route, von Liebieg and Stransky had taken a total of 69 driving hours. This meant an average speed of 13.6 km/h, which was very respectable in view of the poor roads. They filled up with fuel at chemist shops. Bertha Benz, on her journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim in August 1888, had also purchased ligroin as fuel in a pharmacy en route. The Benz Victoria consumed about 21 litres of fuel for every 100 kilometres. However, its consumption of cooling water was considerably higher because the engine had an open evaporative cooling system, which required up to 150 litres of water for every 100 kilometres. It was not until subsequent inventions in the following years, above all the radiators invented by Wilhelm Maybach at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, that the consumption of cooling water was substantially reduced.

Liebieg stayed in Gondorf for four weeks and during this time undertook a number of trips to France. In August, he and Stransky set out on their return journey. This time, the men made a longer planned stop in Mannheim to have the Victoria subjected to thorough factory maintenance at Benz & Cie. When he picked up the car again later, Liebieg was impressed: “Mr Benz punctually kept his promise and when we picked up our beloved car all ready to go, we hardly recognised it.” The Benz family accompanied the Baron and his friend on their departure as far as Germersheim. All in all, the Benz Victoria had completed a total of around 2,500 kilometres on this long-distance journey by the time it arrived back at Reichenberg.

Ambassador for the motorcar

Carl Benz fully appreciated the enthusiasm and passion of the young Baron. Almost thirty years later, he still remembered this key customer: “My Victoria motorcar and the Baron – they were friends who understood each other and were tuned to each other like two tuning forks. On long, extensive journeys, these two friends sent their Victoria call out into the attentive world and contributed a great deal to the popularisation of the motorcar.”& amp; lt; /p>

In 1895, Theodor von Liebieg made a second long journey with his Victoria. He also competed in motorcar races on behalf of Benz. As a result of these activities, he became an ambassador for the motorcar. Amongst other things, he won first prize in a Benz 8 bhp at the first Austrian International Race in Vienna in 1899 organised by the Vienna Automobile Club. Later, Liebieg also became a motorcar manufacturer when he became a partner in the Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriks-Gesellschaft. In 1923, following a merger with Ringhoffer, the Tatra brand came into being. But Liebieg remained a loyal customer of Benz & Cie. – even after the merger with Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft. The last motorcar owned by the industrialist, who died in 1939, was an exclusive Mercedes-Benz 540 K Cabriolet A.

The Shape of modern Automotive Headlights: Do They Reflect the Pervasive Hate that Divides America Today?

What follows is not my idea. At a conference in April, Kevin Borg, a very good automotive historian, asked me if I thought the angular shape and what can almost be interpreted as a frown or angry glance of many of our current motor vehicles is reflective of societal issues facing us today. I shutter at what is before us with election 2020 in the near future. Many Americans (thankfully there are many who remain caring and compassionate) are filled with hate and distrust. Is that emotion expressed in our automotive headlights. The round, almost happy headlights of the past, so well expressed in the shape of the Volkswagen Beetle, are largely absent in today's styling.  It seems as these newer cars are in attack mode, as I look out of my rearview mirror. What do you think?

The Soul of an Old Machine: Harrod Blank, The Beetle, and the Popularization of the Art Car

More on the topic from the last post!

From Library of Congress Photograph Collection, 

Accompanied by a Mariachi band, on July 10 the last Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line.   It was a German at birth, later “improved,”  and assembled exclusively in Mexico, and for most of its life adopted by Americans. Exported to 119 countries, the Käfer,  Vochito, or Beetle -- whatever it was called – seamlessly assimilated into the culture it found itself. It is no accident that in my undergraduate history course “The Automobile and American Life,” the first image of an automobile that students see is not a Ford Model T, but rather a Beetle art car featured in film maker Harrod Blank’s “Wild Wheels.”  And while art cars are based on many different makes and models, the genre owes much to both the entrepreneurial efforts of Harrod Blank and the egg-shaped Beetle. Art cars, like the plain Beetle itself, express emotive impulses and reflect the tensions inherent to post-WWII American culture and society. Art that is based on the “People’s Car” then, can tell us much about American car culture and what it means to be human.

 To be sure, at purchase most owners were content with keeping the Beetle’s egg-like shape and rather anemic performance. The car was a statement that countered prevailing post-WWII American values of status, speed, power, planned obsolescence, and personal bling. During the 1950s and 60s the Bug was almost everything the vehicles of the Detroit Three were not. It was economical, reliable, well-made, round rather than angular, and to many "cute." It was said to be so tight that one had to crack a window to close a door and it could float when driven into a lake. By 1960, the notion that it was originally thought of as "Hitler's car" was increasingly overlooked.  

But there were also many Americans who were not content with the Beetle as it came out of the showroom. In a 1968 Road & Track survey, while a majority of owners were quite satisfied with the car and indeed would buy another, a number of drivers complained that the cars -- especially those built before 1965 -- were underpowered, slow, and just too plain. Inevitably, hotrodders would add horsepower and handling, with the goal of making the car a “sleeper” at the stoplight and drag strip.   And for some, while the engine and chassis layout were acceptable, others took what was a sublime appearance and use it as a setting to create personal artistic statements.  The car that no American manufacturer wanted in 1946 eventually became a cult car. And from an individualistic emotive impulse the art car came to be a part of American car culture beginning in the 1990s.

While it can be argued that art cars have been around since the model T, in order to understand the movement, we need to look at Harrod Blank’s personality and career, and his first bug art car, “Oh My God!” When, during the late 1980s, Blank found himself owning a battered VW Beetle, he came to the realization that he could use it as a blank canvas to do something different. His work began by painting a rooster on the driver’s side door, but the product kept growing and changing. With a globe added as a front ornament, television mounted to the roof, a bumper made of plastic chickens and fruit, and a sticker on the back exclaiming “Question Authority,” the car evolved into what became “Oh My God,” a reference to Blank’s eventual realization that his vehicle was not the only art car in America. The car was a catalyst to what followed: a book of photos; several films including “Wild Wheels” (1992) and “Automorphia” (2009); and exposition on art cars (2002). Along with others, Blank has promoted of numerous art car events, particularly in the San Francisco Bay area and Houston. Blank followed “Oh My God” with another creation based on a Beetle, “Pico De Gallo,” (Spicy Salsa). It was a fully interactive piece of or art, encouraging the public to interact by playing two electric guitars, drums, keyboards and an accordion. Both vehicles reflected central themes of the art car movement – to engage the public with movement, joy, and wonder. The end game was to foster an art that had the power to change one’s thoughts about an ever-increasing homogeneous world.

Of course, there are other examples of Beetle art cars, featuring wrought iron, lights, and marbles, among other things. And to be clear there are many makes and models are a part of the art car world besides the Beetle. While the biggest art car event is held in Houston in April, you can these unique vehicles at car shows and cars & coffee events around America. There you will find viewers with astonished looks and smiling faces, and happy owners knowing they have shared their joy with a public that rarely makes it to an art gallery.

Different Strokes for Different Folks: The Volkswagen Beetle in its Different Cultural Contexts -- The Art Car Beetle

In America it was named the Beetle; in Germany it was known as the Kafer; and in the last place it was made, Mexico, it was the beloved Vochito. The global popularity of the car lay in its ability to mean many different things to different people.  The Beetle's popularity transcended national borders and even conflicting national subcultures.

In the United States the Beetle morphed according to what its owners wanted it to be. To be sure, most owners were content with keeping the egg-like shape and stock performance as it came from the dealer. The car was a statement that countered prevailing post-WWII American values of status, speed, power,  planned obsolescence,  and personal bling. The Beetle was almost everything the vehicles of the Detroit Three were not. It was economical, reliable, well-made, and "cute." It was said to be so tight that one had to crack a window to close a door and it could float is driven into  lake. Over time, the notion that it was originally thought of as "Hitler's car" was increasingly overlooked.

But there were also many Americans who were not content with the Beetle as it came out of the box. In a 1968 Road & Track survey, while a majority of owners were quite satisfied with the car and indeed would buy another one,  a number of drivers complained that the cars -- especially those built before 1965 -- were underpowered and just too slow for American roads. Clutches failed, engines were only good to about 80,000 miles at best, the egg shape was susceptible to cross winds, handling with its swing rear axle could be tricky, heaters were inefficient, brakes were noisy and often needed service, and the once praised dealer service network was slipping in quality.  And for some, while the engine and chassis layout was acceptable, exterior looks would be greatly modified according to personal preferences. It is perhaps no accident that Harrod Blank's (perhaps the founder of the art car movement) quintessential art car was a Beetle.

1959 Plymouth with Swivel Seats

From Ed!

I'm sure I've told you the story about my 1959 Plymouth with the swivel seats -- the one where, as a senior in college, I took a girl to a movie and then brought her back to her dorm.  My step-father had installed a replacement "spring" under the passenger's seat -- an incorrect spring and one that had a lot of tension on it.  Of course the seats had no seat belts and thinking to impress "Mary" or whatever her name was, I opened her door in the parking lot and told her to "press the lever on the side of your seat."  

Being a petite young lady she was literally ejected from the seat as it rapidly swung to the side and she fell onto the parking lot.  Needless to say there was no second date.

But I found this photo of an ad for that car which is hilarious -- note that the ad says that the car is "built for the one man out of four who wants a little bit more."  Something more seems to be a woman stepping out of the swivel seat carrying a baby in her arms.

One Aspect of General Motors Corporation History

General Motors Building, New York City

The "finance men" at General Motors have often been blamed as the reasons why the firm has fallen on hard times during the past 40 years. What happened to the "car guys" and engineers at GM? Arthur Jones sent me sometime back what he considered as the best article ever published in the Automotive History Review -- William P. MacKinnon's "Developing General Motors Chairmen: The Extraordinary Role of GM's New York Treasurer's Office Since World War I," AHR, 32( Spring 1998), 9-18. Jones may be right about this article, as I found it incredibly informative, written by someone who was for a time but who also is a published historian with a sense of context. It is a good thing that I started to review my file folders this summer!

MacKinnon begins by citing a number of units within major organization that have had a powerful impact on future leadership -- the Skunk Works at Lockheed, the Jesuits within the Catholic Church, the Europeans operations group at Ford Motor Company, the the Green Berets at the U.S. Army Special Forces. At GM since WWI it was for a time Kettering's Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company and Harley Earl's Art & Colour Section, and then to the recent past the small New York Treasurer's Office. The number of leaders coming out of that office at GM, other firms, and government is astonishing, and you can scan the list by reading the article. AT GM it included Jones M. Roche; Richard C. Gerstenberg; Thomas A Murphy; Roger Smith; Robert Stempel; John F. Smith; and Rick Waggoner.

While this article is a celebration of that story of leadership, it does not explore the failings of these men in terms of sustaining the momentum that had its origins with Pierre DuPont and Alfred P. Sloan.  Is it fair to say that these executives were not car people, and thus did not really understand the technology, the cars, and intangible consumer and social behavior? Did they have weaknesses of communication and human relations that blinded them in ways different than what engineers may have possessed?  Should GM have recruited liberal arts majors instead for their top positions?

When The Detroit Automotive Four were at their Zenith -- 1965

The story of the American automobile industry of the 1970s is one of few successes and many failures, and of a general decline that has continued to well into the 21^stcentury.  But it was only a few years before 1970 that the industry – and indeed the American nation – was at its zenith. The four dominant automotive firms in the 1960s – General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and American Motors, were the first, third, fifth and one-hundred and thirteen largest businesses in the U.S., employing most of the 770,780 employees enumerated in the “Motor Vehicles and Parts” industry (SIC 3717) in 1965. One firm in six in the U.S. could be listed as automotive dependent, either making, distributing, servicing or using motor vehicles The Detroit Four were highly integrated, particularly General Motors and Ford, as engines, transmissions, castings and stampings, valves, gears, clutches, wheels, brakes, steering plastics, glass and steel were frequently made in-house.  Suppliers accounted for between forty and fifty percent of the costs of making cars given the highly integrated nature of the business.

That is not to say that even industry-leader General Motors had vulnerabilities even before the Federal Government began challenging the autonomy of the industry, first with the 1965 Motor Vehicle Pollution Act and 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.  John Z. DeLorean recounted how Alfred P. Sloan’s fine-tuned organizational balance between centralized control and decentralized operations had gradually unraveled at the edges:

As I progressed in the corporation, I watched GM’s operations slowly become centralized. The divisions gradually were stripped of their decision-making power. Operating divisions were more and more being made on the Fourteenth Floor. This is because men rose in power who did not seem to have the capabilities or broad business outlook necessary to manage the business. They had gotten into power because they were part of a management system which for the most part put personal loyalties from one executive to another, and protection of the system above management skills; and put the use of corporate politics in the place of sound business leadership. …
They also lost sight of the corporate objective of keeping policymaking and control separate from the day-to-day operations of the business….

And the committees and subcommittees which were methodically set up during the 20s and 30s and 40s to plan and guide General Motors growth were not doing that. They spent little time looking at the big picture, instead occupying themselves with miniscule matters of the operation which should have been considered and disposed in the divisions or much further down the management line.[1]

At the divisional level, DeLorean recognized that in the 1960s Chevrolet was plagued with too many models, options, and engine, transmission, and axle combinations, hence resulting in huge manufacturing inefficiencies. Chevy was losing its market leadership to Ford between 1962 and 1968. These weaknesses were acerbated in 1970 in the midst of a costly UAW strike that shook the firm.   

---

Zion Lutheran Church Car Show, July 7, 2019 -- Two Interesting VW Beetles

I had a nice time at the show today -- and I won one of the drawing prizes as a bonus! Attached are photos of two interesting old VW Beetles. the vast majority of cars were Detroit Iron, but these two were different.
Thanks to the congregation for putting on a spectacular lunch and organizing a smoothly run show.

An ingenious carburetor setup. This owner can really improvise!

Two Kinds of Moms: Subaru Moms and Range Rover Moms

From Ed!

Study: Ann Arbor Has Most Subarus with Hillary Bumper Stickers Attached.

ANN ARBOR — With the 2016 presidential election nearing its third anniversary, a recent study from the University of Michigan has revealed that Ann Arbor is home to America’s highest concentration of Subarus featuring bumper stickers supporting Hillary Clinton, the losing candidate of the 2016 presidential race.

In a press conference, researchers expressed little surprise at the results after having lived in Ann Arbor for at least a few years. 

“This wasn’t a shock whatsoever,” said University of Michigan professor of anthropology, Dr. Taylor Sikura. “Ann Arbor has that perfect blend of liberal ideology and wealth, creating a sort of lukewarm support of socialist policies that wouldn’t genuinely disrupt an upper-middle-class lifestyle. So, you get a lot of people feeling guilty enough to vote Democrat, but not guilty enough to vote Bernie Sanders and actually have their wealth redistributed. And Subarus are just good in the weather up here, I guess.”

Ann Arbor voted overwhelmingly for Clinton over rival candidate President Donald Trump, and has a historical reputation for liberalism. And Midwest weather is indeed challenging, with Washtenaw County receiving on average of 57 inches of snowfall a year. But not all residents are convinced Dr. Sikura is correct in her analysis.

According to local Ann Arbor middle school student Robin Norell, the Clinton-Subaru phenomenon is socially motivated.

“There’s two kinds of moms: Subaru moms and Range Rover moms,” said Norell, referencing the two car brands popular in Ann Arbor. “My mom has a Range Rover, and like, she wears Lululemon shirts and drinks smoothies with her friends and stuff. But Carson’s mom has a Subaru and only eats organic stuff from the farmers market and wears flowy pants.

“They both like Hillary Clinton, only my mom’s friends don’t have the sticker on their car either, so she says it would look weird, and Carson says his mom really wants everyone to know their family didn’t vote for Trump.”

Whatever the reason, Ann Arbor residents seem proud of their ongoing reputation for progressive politics and winter survival skills.

“I don’t really care what people think about me, as long as they know I’m a Hillary woman,” said local resident Jamie Bondra. “That’s why I got the Subaru. It’s not that nice to look at, but it’s low maintenance and gets the job done.”

1

Cars & Coffee, Austin Landing, Dayton, July 6, 2019

I had good fortune to park in the shade this morning, and minimize the effects of a very hot morning with a strong sun. Cars and Coffee brings out plenty of  recently minted cars, and a number of cars that really should be parked at the very periphery (like the Prius that was parked next to my 1971 Porsche 911!).

An unabashed celebration of materialism, Cars & Coffee does bring out the younger set, which is good for the car hobby, but doesn't pique my contrarian attitude that places a high value on the historically technological sublime. Below are three cars that I found of interest: 240 Z  Datsun a 1951 MG TD, a Mercedes Benz 300 CE Cabriolet.

The Dynamic Nature of the Import Automobile Market in the U.S., 1963-74

1963 Toyota Crown

1969 Toyota Corona

1974 Toyota Corolla

The American Automobile Industry experienced several historic inflection points between the middle of the 1960s and the end of the 1970s. One happened in the mid-1960s when government took on the role of regulator, both in terms of emissions and and safety. Another took place at the end of the 1960s when consumers decidedly began to prefer foreign cars, a shift anticipated between 1958 and 1960 but then evaporated to a degree after the Detroit import fighters entered the marketplace (Corvair, Falcon, Valiant). Foreign cars were attractive because they were different; often innovative with front drive and rear engine configurations; and finally they were not often subject to planned obsolescence.   A third inflection point and certainly a most significant one took place beginning in October, 1973, with Oil Shock I. And then the second Oil Shock in 1979-80 catalyzed a new order in the global  automotive business.

Note the table below, and the impact that Oil Shock I had on the import market. Everyone lost, but some were far bigger losers than others.  VW sales had flattened before late 1973, the consequence of too much air cooled Beetle and not enough new product lines. Opel, Volvo, British Leyland,  and Mercedes-Benz also experienced little growth at the end of the era, but M-B would emerge with a true niche luxury brand, as exemplified by the 450 SL that was so popular in California. And Japan, despite a modest 1974 decline, was rising fast on the scene (except note the conspicuous absence of Honda).

Import U.S. Sales by years, 1962-1972 (includes cars, tourist deliveries, trucks)

Mfr.	1974	1973	1972	1968	1963
VW	336,257	480,602	491,742	427,694	278,549
Toyota	269,376	326,844	311,770	130,044	1,096
Datsun	245,273	319,007	268,666	---	---
Capri	75,260	113,069	91,995	---	---
Opel	59,279	68,400	69,407	84,680	176
British Leyland	54,870	65,948	68,641	58,616	55,776
Mazda	75,709	119,004	62,818	----	---
Fiat	72,129	58,447	58,375	30,521	---
Volvo	53,043	60,761	57,772	38,826	14,188
M-B	38,826	42,405	41,998	24,553	11,204

1963 VW Beetle

1974 Beetle -- the elegant simplicity is lost, as mandated bumpers, emissions and safety add-ons  weigh this car down

1963 Opel Kadett

1973 Opel Manta

1973 Opel GT

1965 Fiat 500 F