balthazar

:shrug: sounds like the ‘appliance-conversion’ of the auto industry will suit you well.

All my recent comments here go back to this. And this is NOT the only company pursuing this business case. Over 75 or 80 years; correct. Unfortunately; because it's never been as relevant since (the heyday).

They WERE their own companies. Then they became their own companies under a parent corporation... then slowly/eventually became merely brands in name once Divisional engineering was discontinued. You're still only addressing an inter-Corporate scenario. Pull back farther. Come away from 1980 and 1910; look to the topic at hand- the future. I am still addressing a scenario where audi, BMW, MB, volvo, maserati, ferrari, aston Martin all have sedans riding on the same battery-electric platform with the same performance/ range window, with the same steering & suspension. THAT is where I question the future viability of so many diffferently-badged but very similar vehicles, with (or without) needless grilles, with (attempted) significant price differences no longer tied to expensive powertrain & chassis development costs (everything else is basically the same).

You're both talking about vehicles made by the same corporation. I'm talking about vehicles with the same structure across a dozen corporations and 3 dozen brands. Very distinct distinction.

Aren't you talking about private owners? If -hypothetically- there's 1 BE skateboard under 20 different brands' sedans, is there any 'need' for 20 brands anymore? Don't buyers chose different brands based on how numerous criteria are different between choices? Look at (if you will) the disastrous move NASCAR did by mass-homogenization of the race car- Toyota's running an IBC V8 they never built for the street. NASCAR made it 'all about the drivers' when it was always all about the sum of the driver & CAR. I'm not talking about the OEM-centric efficiency of sharing expensive BE skateboards ... OEM's have been sliding increasing percentages of components to vendors for years... but at least you have corporation-specific major components done in-house. For now.

So far I watched about half this vid, a old timer rebuilding a HydraMatic. GM sold these units to many many other corporations/brands, and apparently they sometimes did modifications to suit their whims. This unit apparently is a Rolls Royce unit, and the video is sprinkled with periodic derogatory comments about the way Rolls chose to change things. Not sure I know how to time stamp vids, so go to 26:15 and watch that sequence for about 60 secs.

Blasphemy! ?

Forget where this one was located :

Lander WY 1967 :

From V8 Buick board: brand new Tomahawk Buick V8 block, will be an 11.3:1 557 CI monster.

We have moderators??

Correction: That is the pace of how the INDUSTRY works.

^ NASCAR 'sticker cars' all over again.

Legalese pertaining to modern, emissions-certified vehicles. It can go in a vintage vehicle just fine.

Fair enough. I don't have high expectations, tho.

OEMs need to get back to this: fewer model lines with more variants in each.

The seats folded flat in my dad's '77 Safari. They also folded flat in the '49 Kaiser Vagabond. And probably every other wagon before & after (up to recent times). Kinda sad it's still being touted as an achievement.

'56 Buick Centurion concept car- the first vehicle with a rear facing camera :

I also keep harping on the cost; both of new BE's and conversion costs. You can buy so many different, factory-built V8s that drop right in so many vehicles; GM Performance sells a 495HP LS3 long block for $7800. If you paid to put it in, it shouldn't run more than a grand- let's peg it at $10K even. EV West charges about $32 grand to do a conversion. More than 6 people may well like the idea.... but there's no price parity.

1919 :

SSDD :

Now up to about 1470 dealership photos. Still around 4600 coded, up to almost 8700 dealers total.