Simple Successes

[Labcoatguy]

 

[_HighVoltage_]

GM sold a s*itload of these, only because they were cheap:

 

[Lupin_IV]

https://pic.armedcats.net/l/lu/lupin_iv/2008/09/08/08Datsun01.jpg

 

[Cobol74]

Good call Lupin_IV -270?

 

[Spectre]

It's a 240Z.

Here's another one - 60 million sold and counting. Nothing new or radical when introduced, but as reliable as gravity and cheap.

And another - *nothing* revolutionary about it, but the right car, at the right time, in the right place. It literally saved a car company; they sold millions and many are still with us twenty years later.

 

[Phila]

Labcoatguy: I feel like the Caravan/Voyager was something special, because it was the first of its kind.

You were able to have a vehicle that could take a million people or a ton of crap somewhere in something that drives like a car.

 

[Ottobon]

This comes to mind...

Thats a great little car that happens to be pretty simple in design, but so far as a sales success? If that were true Toyota would probably still be making little rwd drift-mobiles, but when was the last time they made something like that? I think the idea died with that car.


Personally? I think the replacement for the VW Beetle would probably count, i mean surely it wasn't a sales failure.

Although it could be argued it needed the grunt of the GTI engine to really be remembered, the standard chassi was good enough that when they made the GTI they changed absolutely nothing.

 

[Spectre]

Labcoatguy: I feel like the Caravan/Voyager was something special, because it was the first of its kind.

You were able to have a vehicle that could take a million people or a ton of crap somewhere in something that drives like a car.

I gotta agree. It was the first of its type, something nobody had thought of before. (No, the Microbus and the Espace do not count.)

 

[avanti]

If one bike deserves to be mentioned it is the Vespa

 

[prizrak]

Civic

 

[_HighVoltage_]

and many are still with us twenty years later.

..erm...no! I've only seen 2-3 of those in the past couple of years. But I agree that they were very successful. However, they didn't save Chrysler - the Dodge Caravan did.

 

[KaJuN]

These are the first things that came to my mind.

https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/09/08/1964_Mustang_large.jpg

https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/09/08/volkswagen_golf_mk_1_gti_alloys.jpg

 

[Ironlord]

Here's an idea for you...

That's not just any old Sherpa, it's my Sherpa. Or it was, it went to the knacker's yard ages ago after the engine broke.

It was a parts bin speciality when it was created, and survived in some form or another from 1974 to 2005. It was basic, unrefined, noisy, ugly, very slow (too slow even for James May) and, to top it all off, had the nastiest stereo (with only one speaker) you'll ever hear. But it did exactly what it said on the tin. Most notably of all, the old Perkins diesel engine, though incredibly gruff, was only two litres, which meant as a 22-year-old at the time, I could insure it. The 2.5 litre in the Ford Transit that I'd wanted was too large, and the insurance companies wouldn't touch me with a barge pole.

 

[Crazyjeeper]

 

[BlaRo]

Love it hate it, you can't deny it.

Sigh...

 

[Spectre]

..erm...no! I've only seen 2-3 of those in the past couple of years. But I agree that they were very successful. However, they didn't save Chrysler - the Dodge Caravan did.

The Caravan is built on the K-car platform using K-car tech. Seriously, it did save Chrysler, both by itself and as the underpinnings for almost every car they made from 1981 to 1995.

Everywhere but the snow/rust belt (where you are), K-cars still prowl the highways and streets of America. I still see a few *different* ones a month. However, rust was not kind to them and killed off the ones it could reach.

 

[MadCow809]

 

[NooDle]

I'm amazed it took so long for someone to post a VW Golf! It was really the thing that saved VW from bankruptcy, and it did it all because it was so simple.

That and the GTI being awesome of course.

 

[bone]

 

[Adunaphel]

BMW's "New Class". It saved BMW from bankruptcy by being exactly what the buying public wanted, while still relatively cheap to produce with not many revolutionary technology in it.