Word: corvair
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Nader was able to force off the market General Motors' Corvair, which was withdrawn from production this year. Corvair's sales had plunged by 93% after Nader condemned the car as a safety hazard in his bestseller, Unsafe at Any Speed. That influential book, and Nader's later speeches, articles and congressional appearances, also forced the Department of Transportation to impose stricter safety standards on automobile and tire manufacturers...
...first inkling that all was not well with the Corvair's suspension system came from a disgruntled General Motors auto worker who wrote him a letter. In Unsafe at Any Speed, Nader went on to single out the sporty car's rear-suspension system as an example of hazardous compromise between engineering and styling. At certain speeds and tire pressures, or in certain types of turns, he charged, the rear wheels could "tuck
...FOUR YEARS since his Unsafe at Any Speed drove Corvair off the market and set General Motors detectives on his tail. Ralph Nader has gone a long way towards establishing himself as the Renaissance Man of American crusaders. After cutting his muckraking teeth on the automobile industry. Nader has moved on to hit a staggering range of targets...
...dismissed and settled 47 out of court for a total of $340,000; nearly 60 are still pending. All this attracted the attention of Ralph Nader, the one-man consumers' lobby. He devoted the first chapter of his book, Unsafe at Any Speed, to an attack on the Corvair. During a series of congressional hearings, Nader followed up by calling the Corvair "the leading candidate for the un-safest-car title." The assault was lethal; sales plummeted from 220,000 in 1965 to 14,800 last year...
...want to drop the car while it was under attack, but Corvair's days were obviously numbered. Last week, as the 1,710,018th Corvair rolled off the line, the company halted production. Mourned by its many loyal admirers, the model has now joined Edsel, De Soto, La Salle and some 3,000 others in the great auto graveyard...