Kleenex Kars

[JHertzman@aol.com]

In AD6-013 Dennis Lou provides solid information on the "Stupid GM Features"
thread, ending with
"In any case, having parts that of your car that you normally rebuild
classified as disposible is an interesting concept.  It's something
I've come across since buying my Bug 3 weeks ago (it takes less than
10 minutes to drive into the garage, R+R a Bug engine and drive out)"

Interesting concept indeed. The original concept of the Citroen 2CV, largely
followed in the design development but not so much so by owners, was to take
the 'Kleenex' concept as far as it would go. If a door got dented, the owner
could remove it in seconds (without tools) and replace it with a new one,
leaving the old one in the recycle bin. As they were all the same color,
painting was not needed, and they could be cheap enough that there would be no
reason to surreptitiously risk night-time dog-bites by liberating a door from
your neighbor's car. In theory the machinery was to be as disposable as the
coachwork. This was in part because the target market was the rural peasantry
("les cous-rouge") who were not accustomed to doing sophisticated surgical
procedures on dying draft-animals. In practice the frugal peasants found
kludges to make anything last longer than intended.

And then there is Formula One, where Colin Chapman long ago figured that any
part which had 49% of its useful life left at the end of a race was far too
heavy, tending to cause the loss of not one race but two.

John