Well folks, it's time I got back up on my soapbox again as I see rumors and
non-truths are circulating again from misinformed people.
Here is a statement from Shane: "Torwards the end of the M151A2's career,
Jeep/Chrysler had the same thing done to the M151A2s. Rather than being
sold intact, that had to be cut and/or crushed. This is the same thing that
has to be done to the Humvee." Does anyone see what's immediately wrong
with this statement? Jeep/Chrysler had nothing to do with a M151 let alone
order its' destruction. I have posted in the past, policies and statements
from AMG. It was the GOVERNMENT who ordered its' destruction. First, what
did we have? A tactical military vehicle that from the start, was never
intended to be used as a civvy in the first order. It had no DOT lighting
or seat belts. (seat belts came later from a reengineering standpoint) It
had no emission controls to fit standards. (military vehicles are usually
exempt for being tactical) All 151 family vehicles had a single acting
brake system that was obsolete in the mid-sixties and dangerous too if you
developed a leak in it anywhere. They had no crash protection anywhere.
You sat ON TOP OF THE FUELTANK! Remember, this was initially a Ford
designed vehicle, Ford today is still being sued because of the fuel tank
design on old Mustangs and other products 30 years old and earlier. Now
lets talk about the most important thing of a 151-its' ability to rollover
without any warning of overcoming its' center of gravity. Why would
Chrysler/Jeep even care? The answer is, they don't! It never had ANY
IMPACT on their Jeep sales whatsoever and never had anything to do with them
anyway. If anyone has ever driven a 151, you will know that there is
difference as night and day between a 151 and a civvy CJ-7.
Now on to patents. AMG building civvy models to hold on to their patents?
Rubbish! The government solicited I think four manufacturers (but may have
been open to others as well) for a vehicle that would replace five different
family of vehicles. 151, 880, M-37, 715 etc. Each manufacturer was to
design a vehicle to "hummer type" specs. AMG came up with the Hummer of
their own design and was selected above the others. Has anyone noticed that
there are other Hummer lookalikes being manufactured? Does anyone remember
when Ferrari sued the pants off the manufacturer of the Testerosa fiberglass
lookalikes? (even though they were being made to be wrecked or destroyed for
the movie series "Miami Vice"? The Government paid for this design but you
could not use the name "Hummer".
Actually, there is no "official" demil order for a Hummer. Complete Humvees
that are surplus were never destroyed. They were given to forestry, police
or were rebuilt by DoD. Yes, some residue bodies were kind of "demilled"
but not to the point that 151's were given. There were very specific
instructions for those 151's! The 151's had to be destroyed by mutilation.
Hummers are NOT! 151's WERE sold to the general public through auction
sales up to the very early 70's.
Now for AMG's stance on the Humvees getting out: Yes, they have a lot of
heartburn right now of these going to the public but guess what? There is
nothing they can do about it! NOTHING! They are saying they will not
support them but there are thousands and thousands in the military system
right now-plenty of surplus parts to be coming down the line as they have in
the past! Perhaps in the near future, they will do an about face on this
subject when they find out they are not as dangerous as they think. When
you compare a military unit to a civvy, there is really not much difference
between them. Seat belts seem to be the biggest concern. Just make sure
they are anchored to a DOT spec. Well, enough for now. Julian Burke
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 05 2000 - 22:42:05 PST