Reminds me of what happened when I worked at a Pontiac dealer back in the
mid 80's- Mechanic helping with the delivery of new cars backed a Bonneville
wagon carefully off the truck, and proceeded to get broadsided by a car
which lost control on the ice.
Of course, thats not half as interesting as what happens whey they park a
row of about thirty cars in the auto transport siding, and the last one in
line is a little too close to the tracks. I have pictures of a whole bunch
of brand new Corsicas and Berettas at the Wilmington Delaware/Elsmere siding
for GM in all sorts of poses- flipped, rolled, wedged under each other. All
because someone parked too close. (I have memories of them forklifting cars
right off the line when they found a defect- took them out, crushed the roof
with the forks, and dropped the whole thing in a dumpster!)
Scott
64 Herald 1200 Convertible
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael D. Porter" <mporter@zianet.com>
To: "Geo Hahn" <geohahn@azstarnet.com>
Cc: "TR" <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 4:01 PM
Subject: Re: Quality back in 78
>
> Geo Hahn wrote:
> >
> > I recall a friend's MGB that was purchased new in 1969 after a respray.
At some point in the shipping of the car some fluid/fluif leaked from an MG
riding above it. Given the propensity of LBCs for leakage... I can imagine
this was not a unique situation.
>
> This happens. One other thing to consider is that cars delivered to the
> US had to go through two ports and rail and/or road transport to get to
> the dealer. Plenty of opportunities for dings and dents.
>
> While it wasn't common, cars were damaged just getting them off the car
> hauler at the dealership, and were repaired locally.
>
> My favorite story in this regard was from a customer in Florida, who'd
> bought a new Toyota in the early `70s. At that time, all the cars came
> in through the port in New Orleans and were hoisted out of the ship bays
> (later, the Toyota Maru and ships like it were side loaders and came
> into Jacksonville and the cars were driven off directly into the
> receiving lot).
>
> The car was delivered in early spring, so it was fairly warm in Florida,
> and the car interior had a very pungent odor when it sat in the sun,
> closed up, for a while. Customer took it back to the dealer several
> times, the seats and door trim were removed, and nothing could be found.
> After several tries at fixing the problem, he took the car to an
> interior trim shop. That shop removed the headliner, and found the
> remains of a rather large swamp bullfrog wedged into a roof support
> above the "c" pillar. The only possible explanation tendered was that
> the car had been dropped in the water when being removed from the ship,
> and that the frog had found its way in there while the car sat
> submerged.
>
> Cheers.
>
> --
>
> Michael D. Porter
> Roswell, NM
> [mailto: mporter@zianet.com]
>
> `70 GT6+ (being refurbished, slowly)
> `71 GT6 Mk. III (organ donor)
> `72 GT6 Mk. III (daily driver)
> `64 TR4 (awaiting intensive care)
> `80 TR7 (3.8 liter Buick-powered)
>
.
> ///
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