[Mgs] Overdrive Numbers

[Barney Gaylord]

At 03:23 PM 1/13/2008 +0000, Paul Hunt wrote:
>....
>So why did so few North American cars have overdrive?

Price competition is a big thing in the USA, and I must admit the 
public is somewhat gullible to pricing tricks.  If the base sticker 
prrice is $50 more that a competitor vehicle, it's sort of screwed in 
mass marketing.  So lots of features that may be standard equipment 
in other parts of the world are separated out and listed as options here.

Gasoline here was around $0.25/gallon in the 60's, sometimes cheaper 
during "gas wars".  It didn't hit $0.60/gallon until the oil shortage 
in the mid 70's.  With cheap fuel available the buyers were making 
the value judgement between saving perhaps $0.0015/mile on fuel cost 
or paying up font an additional 2% for the purchase price of the car.

>And why did Canada and California have significantly more than the 
>rest of the USA?
>....

A little speculation:  In Canada fuel was a bit more expensive, and 
public attitude and constructive pricing may have been 
different.  California (with very little mass transit) may have a 
larger proportion of long distance commuting for the average 
resident.  Just a guess.

Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://MGAguru.com