Old ways of GM, as explained by XKCD

"themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles" (themanwithsauce) 11/13/2013 at 13:42 • Filed to: XKCD, funny, GM, vega

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Flipped through old XKCDs this morning while waiting for a supplier to call me back. Re-read this one and for whatever reason, I realized that it is a perfect way to describe how the Big 3 (particularly GM) used to operate when it came to compacts and subcompacts starting in the 70s. So let's go through history a bit, shall we?

Hey GM

Remember all those times

You made a shitty small car to fight imports

And then admitted it was bad when you announced the next one

And promised everyone that with this new car, you finally figured it out

Only to repeat the cycle again?

Nothing too deep is meant by this, just found it all really amusing that the cycle only broke once old GM was finally shot in the head.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 11/13/2013 at 13:46

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Wow a new front AND new door handles, they went all out.

lonestranger > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 11/13/2013 at 13:51

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"The next one" Cavalier is the same as the first one, just with a facelift. Maybe you meant this one?

daender > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 11/13/2013 at 13:56

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Hey, the Vega was a decent-looking car at the very least! Like a mini 2nd-gen Camaro. Also, it was a SBC swap away from absolute madness as proven by Yenko.

daender > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 11/13/2013 at 13:57

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Counterpoint because racecar.

lonestranger > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 11/13/2013 at 14:05

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The door handles are the same .

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > daender 11/13/2013 at 14:11

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Countercounterpoint - that is not what was on the showroom floor.

Kugelblitz > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 11/13/2013 at 14:12

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GreenN_Gold > daender 11/13/2013 at 14:13

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I think Vega's look nice too. Is there a support group for us?

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > lonestranger 11/13/2013 at 14:16

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Nope, GM actually did call the second one the "second gen" cavalier. I didn't put the third gen one on there as by that point, GM made saturn specifically because "GM couldn't profitably make a compact/subcompact competitor to the japanese". So they made saturn in the early 90s. Only to remove any uniqueness the brand had when they put the S-series replacement on the corporate underpinnings. Thus completely ruining why they bothered in the first place.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > daender 11/13/2013 at 14:17

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Yes but that's not how they were on the showroom floor. THey looked good until you saw the puddle of oil and coolant underneath and then started it up to hear the aluminum block engine rattling itself to death.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Kugelblitz 11/13/2013 at 14:18

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The X-11 gets a pass, the rest can all burn in hell.

bhardoin > GreenN_Gold 11/13/2013 at 14:23

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The support is that they're now dirt cheap on craigslist, if you can find one that's not just an unmovable pile of rust.

Kugelblitz > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 11/13/2013 at 14:32

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I came within a whisker of buying one. They have parts which are ecologically friendly, i.e. they simply dissolve over time. Horrifying.

The vertical radio was somehow disturbing to me. Loved the graphics (it was black over silver) and the Chevy salesguy was saying there would never be another car like it.

135 horsepower? No.

Thank god. I recently read an article on the X-11 in the auto section of the NYT.

I was this close. Bought a 4WD Blazer instead. Which I drove until a thief killed it in 96. Loved that thing. Weren't many Citations around by then.

daender > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 11/13/2013 at 15:02

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All points are true about the half-arsed engineering and execution except you could technically buy a Yenko Vega from Yenko Chevrolet's showroom before 1973 (1974?).

daender > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 11/13/2013 at 15:06

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Close enough?

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > daender 11/13/2013 at 15:10

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still looks bloated in the back and ugly on the front. Still not well built.

5/10 would lemons with a vengance while on fire.