Comments on: It seemed like a good idea at the time

By: ms7168

ms7168 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:22:29 +0000

My Dad was always a sucker for a neat car. Ran out and bought a brand new 1960 Corvair. We drove it everywhere with seemingly no real difficulty until the following year when he and I took a trip together and on the way home around a winding highway on a mountain it spun out of control and turned over. The very thing that Nader was complaining about. We weren’t hurt fortunately and to show you how things have changed they -fixed- the car instead of totalling it. It never was the same though so in 1962 he bought a brand new Chevy II Nova :) Ours was great. We just outgrew it since we were a family of six so it was traded for something larger in 1966.

By: John Salmon

John Salmon — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:51:40 +0000

Peter Egan couldn’t have done it better. Nice post, CGH.

By: unimpressed

unimpressed — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:19:24 +0000

I still want a Vega….but I wanna stuff a 350 in it.

By: Kay Dennison

Kay Dennison — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:30:03 +0000

My first car was a Chevy II — what a piece of crap

By: CGHill

CGHill — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:09:56 +0000

Nader, in the chapters that weren’t related to the Corvair, came up with an occasional valid insight, though this may be stopped-clock twice-a-day syndrome: shiny dashboards in those days did cause a hell of a lot of glare, and I’d hit a few protruding knobs when I was a tadpole. Still, he stuck all the Corvair stuff in Chapter 1, and reviewers back then were no more willing to read an entire book than reviewers are today.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:18:37 +0000

I’ll have you know the Vega was not a “shitty little car,” it was a shitty car that happened to be little. Surely you don’t believe it would have been less shitty if it had been bigger, do you?

By: Scooby214

Scooby214 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:10:53 +0000

I agree about the beauty of the late model Corvairs. They have always been one of my favorite cars. It was the complete opposite of my old ’64 Impala, so my dad wouldn’t let me get one when they were cheap. I certainly can’t afford one now.

By: Francis W. Porretto

Francis W. Porretto — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:01:52 +0000

After the federal government ruled that the Corvair is not an unsafe car, due to Department of Transportation testimony to that effect, Ralph Nader, a.k.a. The Man Who Cannot Be Wrong, shut up about it.

Nader was never interested in admitting to error. Nor would he concede that other people should be allowed their own priorities, if they differ from his. His giant ego and matching sanctimony got him a reputation as one of the biggest bullies in public life in his day.