Re: [ihc] RE: MV in Light Line

[Howard R Pletcher <n9ads@xxxxxxxx>]

I'll fall back on my disclaimer that I started with:
> > I was not aware of any plans (which doesn't mean there weren't any)
to
> > put the MV in  the Light Line.  
But then, IH often did things without consulting me.  Brooks McCormick
never even called once to see what I thought about anything (which was
probably a good thing).        :-)

What you say about the engine set-back does make sense;I just don't know
what was done with respect to actually putting an MV in the Light Line.  

Work on the 74 Light Line redesign would have started about 1970 and
plans at that time probably did include provisions for the upcoming MV-8.
 In the meantime the 10% per year inflation of the 70's set in, knocking
the profitability out of the line, followed by the gas crisis of 1973
when gas went from $.30 per gallon to $.60 or more in a couple months
(which seemed the same as it would have if gas had gone to $3.00 from
$1.50 this spring--no, actually I think it seemed worse at the time
because we weren't prepared for it at all.) which really killed the sales
of big vehicles.  By the time the 74 model was ready for production,
things were very different than they were when we started on it and
looking back at it, the whole redesign now doesn't make a lot of sense
since it lasted only about 18 months, but dropping the Light Line wasn't
something being planned a year or more in advance as I recall, probably
not even that long.

Howard

On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 11:48:22 -0600 Tom Mandera <tsm1@domain.elided> writes:
> 
> I imagine Jim was thinking along the lines of several others with 
> regard to the engine set-back in 74.