Shipping a car on it’s nose.

[SC38dls]

XW - most are buried with at least embalming fluid but Ed may also have at least a case of Crown Royal but I hope we have to wait a long long time to find out!  
dave s 

[63RedBrier]

I remember as a kid when my parents bought a brand new Vega at the Chevrolet dealership in Hazelton PA.  I recall it having two taillights, not the quad taillights, so it must have been a later model.  I remember playing in the Vega in the hatch area with the hatch up in the showroom.  It was ORANGE!  A few years later with NE PA winters, the rust monster started to eat it up!  My grandfather in NJ had some stiff plastic that was the same orange color and my parents used this to cover the rust holes.  I don't recall if it was taped on or glued on...  At some point it was traded in on a new white/blue Dodge Aspen station wagon! 

Edited July 26, 2022 by 63RedBrier
add another phrase... (see edit history)

[63RedBrier]

I do have a question about Vegas!  Why are there vents on the rear hatch?  Was it just a design cue?  Or, did it provide some way of equalizing cabin pressure?  Did those vents survive all the way through production?  I don't remember our later model Vega having them...

[Frank DuVal]

1971 All GM (until I am corrected) cars had vents in the trunk lid or hatch. In 1972, after rust issues appeared on these vents, the plastic vents appeared in the door jambs of the rear door or only door on 2 door cars. Some (all?) of these lids were galvanized and "he!!" to repaint.

[8E45E]

22 minutes ago, Frank DuVal said:

1971 All GM (until I am corrected) cars had vents in the trunk lid or hatch. In 1972, after rust issues appeared on these vents, the plastic vents appeared in the door jambs of the rear door or only door on 2 door cars. Some (all?) of these lids were galvanized and "he!!" to repaint.

Only the redesigned-for-'71 full-size 'B' and 'C' bodies, and the 'E/K' Toro/Eldo/Rivs had those.  By 1972, they were gone from the trunklid, after being reduced in size midway through the 1971 model year.

[8E45E]

50 minutes ago, 63RedBrier said:

I do have a question about Vegas!  Why are there vents on the rear hatch?  Was it just a design cue?  Or, did it provide some way of equalizing cabin pressure?  Did those vents survive all the way through production?  I don't remember our later model Vega having them...

It was GM's latest generation of flow-through 'Astro Ventilation' up to that time.  On the full-size cars, the fan could not be shut off.  It was always on 'low' whenever the car was running.

 

That was one thing which proves how disjointed the engineers and designers at GM were at the time.  The Vega designers allowed for triangular air vents to be installed at the bottom corner of the rear side windows on the sedan and hatchback complete with fake louvers.  

 

Craig

Edited July 26, 2022 by 8E45E (see edit history)

[Ed Luddy]

On 7/24/2022 at 6:29 PM, rocketraider said:

What's sad is the Vega could have been a very good little car. Several friends had them and I guess they were ok cars for a high schooler's first car, just no longevity.

 

Had they had good engines that didn't suck oil in 10k miles, decent paint that didn't fall off in the car wash, and steel that didn't start rusting on the assembly line, who knows what Vega could have become?

 

If the financial people had listened to the people who designed and engineered them... Is it just me, or was General Motors the worst for doing that? You sure hear about more blame for their fiascos being laid at the feet of their bean counters.

 

Bottom line, when the General built a cheap garbage vehicle, they did it world class. It unfortunately filtered into what were supposed to be their better cars, and is why there have not been and will not be any newer gm vehicles in my driveway.

Fiat or Lada were better cars than a Vega and that's about as low a bar as one can get!

[John348]

On 7/26/2022 at 1:29 PM, 63RedBrier said:

I do have a question about Vegas!  Why are there vents on the rear hatch?  Was it just a design cue?  Or, did it provide some way of equalizing cabin pressure?  Did those vents survive all the way through production?  I don't remember our later model Vega having them...

I know in 1974 and later H bodies the vents were in the door jambs

[60FlatTop]

On 7/26/2022 at 1:02 AM, John348 said:

As far as a crappy car, that really could be said for every car made in that era, everything was pretty crappy.

 

I think Cadillac put it best.

 

[Leif in Calif]

On 7/23/2022 at 4:24 PM, Phillip Cole said:

The Chevy engineer who was in charge of the Vega Vert-A-Pac project sent me an article on it several years ago. If I can find it, I'll post it. He said the accountants messed up the Vega.

Old GM custom....

[Wascator]

In retrospect, I wonder if all the regulatory pressures coming from the government at that time ate up so much of the budgets that product design and testing suffered? 

[Ray Bell]

One of the things which Lee Iacocca found when investigating waste at Chrysler was that some models missed out on getting three (or was it two?) cars on a rail flatcar by a few inches, that design folk had no connection with shipping folk and nobody sent memos to try to correct things.