QOTD: Send In the Emergency Backup?
On Saturday night, the Carolina Hurricanes stared down the barrel of a rare occurrence in the NHL — both their goalies were on the sidelines. This necessitated bringing in the emergency backup goalie, a bloke named Dave who is quite literally a Zamboni driver. Their hapless opponents still couldn’t score enough goals and Dave notched a win for the team.
There have been more than a few Hail Marys in the automotive world as well, with manufacturers who are on the brink of bringing in a new model or gambling on a unique body style in order to stave off elimination. Sometimes it works and, well, sometimes it doesn’t.
We can look to Chrysler, who arguably pulled off a Dave moment on more than one occasion. In the early ’80s, the K-Car and its variants brought the company back from the brink and actually contributed to top brass paying back those pesky government loans ahead of time. About a dozen years later, the LH cars were arguably instrumental in evicting all manner of boxy vehicles from — and welcoming new buyers to — Chrysler showrooms.
Any other automotive Hail Mary examples you can think of, B&B? They don’t all have to be success stories (*ahem Packard ahem*). Post yer thoughts below.
[Image: Chrysler]
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Ford's North American shift away from cars and to pickups CUV's/SUV's could be seen as a "Hail Mary". Time will tell if it was successful.
The one that springs to my mind is Mazda's GLC / 323. It saved the company's bacon after all the warranty repairs they had to shell out for for the rotaries. Mazda execs in Japan were going door to door to try to sell cars. The agreement with Ford helped out as well. I've got to hand it to the company though. They came through replacing or repairing all those engines.
Studebaker Avanti
The Corvair.