Just don't spin any doughnuts with it.

Corvairs, like VWs in the same era, had it all over RWD/front engine
cars for drive wheel traction.

The 2 speed auto?  Those 194s were torque monsters for a 4 banger! Too
bad half its output was wasted in that horrible transmission.

Don't forget the purposely ineffecient DynaFlush tranmission,
engineered to yield miserable gas mileage "to keep the oil companies
happy," as stated by Buick Division's then president.  When you look
at the entire GM line for '55, Buick surely had the stodgiest styling
of them all, especially when compared to the edgier Pontiac and Olds
offerings.  They knew who they were targeting....richer, upscale
conservative men like bankers who were too "humble" to go for a
Cadillac, a far better car mechanically.

I think the "fat cat" styling of the Buick had a large part in the
decision by the California Highway Patrol to go with their 'Century in
a Special body' in '55 over the more efficient and more powerful Olds
Super 88.  That, and the CHP had experienced bad oil sludging and
stuck lifters in '54 with their previous Olds fleet, a problem cured
by switching to Texaco Havoline in mid-'54.  But the cost to the
taxpayers was considerable, when you figure the Olds 88 got 20 MPG
average in road patrol service, while the Buick barely got 10!  I'm
sure Standard Oil of California, who had the CHP fuel contract for
decades (and a named co-conspirator in several anti-trust actions with
GM), was most grateful for the Buicks.

After the Buicks, the CHP went with Dodge Division, and never went
back to GM again until 1967, when Ronnie RayGun's graft-filled
administration forced the CHP to buy a fleet of short-lived Olds
Delmonts and then some '69 Merc Marquis 428s.  Both were disasters in
regular beat service and were quickly retired, replaced by more Dodges
in mid-year orders.  Both GM and Ford, it should be noted, were also
huge Republican Party donors, while Chrysler was not.  After an exposé
in the Sacramento Bee about RayGun's handlers "guiding" CHP fleet
purchasing to Ford and GM, the graft stopped, and there were no more
non-Chrysler patrol cars until the end of the M-bodies.  The City of
Los Angeles wouldn't even invite bids from GM and Ford, and never
bought anything but Chrysler products for many years.  The only thing
that upset that long-lived relationship was AMC, who had pleaded with
the LAPD to try their Matadors in LAPD beat service, where they were
quite successful.  The city also went to AMC after the '74 oil embargo
for economy cars, and the fleet of LA City Hornets proved AMC could
build a relaible, economical car.

I disagree with regard to the 6 cyl Chev II I had vs the Falcon.
I had two friends with the Falcon, a much less solid car with a weak
engine.  IMO the Falcon was a typical tin can from  Ford.
The Chev II gave good fuel mileage, equal to the Falcon.
I pulled a 1,500 lb camping trailer coast to coast and in the western
mountains. About 15,000 miles of towing, in the 95,000 miles I had it.
Standard shift of course, had to double clutch to shift down to the non
syncro low gear on the very steep (logging road class) hills when towing.

I forgot one ugly design build problem I had.  Rubber bushings in the
front suspension which wanted to remember where I was. I replaced them
with  Teflon ones.
Also had to add a front sway bar as GM didn't install it in my6 cyl
model.
What a huge difference these two simple changes made to steering.
So after I modified GM's partly completed car, it proved a good solid
performer.

I agree.  Have you noticed how much weight Chrysler cars have put on
since Daimler took over.

Well Daimler will have to get rid of Chrysler, but the lower costs from
Chrysler's volume will hold them back.
DC seems to think all Chrysler cars should have a truck front grill.
With the 300 Chrysler did return to the 60s. OK for a few years,  but
they lost their steady customers and can't keep the emotional new ones
that bought the 300.

The rental car companies are getting more imports now.  Last rental I had
was a Kia Optima, that was the worst POS I have ever been in and it was
less than one year old with 14k on it.

Kaiser-Fraser

True, but sales of the Henry J and Caribbean gave GM fits, as did
Nash's early Metropolitan.  At the time, GM had nothing in their line
to compete with small economy cars, and the GM (and Ford) dictum of
"mini cars, mini profits" was under attack.  After K-F started
marketing the Henry J under the Allstate name through Sears, K-F
started having lots of trouble getting bearing assemblies from New
Departure, transmissions from Saginaw Gear or any ignition parts from
Delco Remy, as well as Hydra-Matics from Detroit Transmission for the
Caribbeans.

Also true, but Kaiser-Fraser was developing their own OHV V8 engine by
1951, and that DID get GM's attention.  After Henry Kaiser got the
Willys line away from GM, who'd originally wanted it, he knew that
competing against GM and a resurgent Ford with cars was futile, and
concentrated instead on Jeeps all the way until the line was sold to
AMC.  For "economy" cars at a low price, the Continental 4s and 6s
were more than adequate at the time K-F was still producing cars, but
the writing was on the wall that if they wanted to compete, they'd
need a lot more than Oldsmobile-equipped Caribbeans and flathead Henry
Js to keep afloat.

The Kaiser V8?  It was also sold to AMC after K-F got out of the car
business and became their 327 by the late '50s, a move that later put
Kaiser at a disadvantage when customers started wanting V8 power in
their Kaiser produced Jeep products.  Prior to that, the only V8s the
new AMC had were leftover Packard V8s that wound up in their big '56
and '57 Nash and Hudson models, which disappeared the next year.
Meanwhile, Studebaker had taken over the Packard name, and the '57
Packard was just a rebadged Studie President with their 289 V8 and
Borg-Warner transmission.  Studie wanted no part of the Packard drive
train at all, although once the bugs were worked out of it, it was
indeed a fairly good engine....just HUGE by 1956 standards.  The '56
Packard V8s were larger than even Cadillac's, which upsized in '56 to
a 365 that was riddled with cooling and vapor lock problems, mostly
caused by heat generated from the new water cooled Dual Coupling
Hydra-Matic.

You are correct.

The Kaiser industrial empire was mostly scuttled by the kids after
Henry J. died in '74, preferring to concentrate on the
Kaiser-Permanente health care system, the largest HMO in the US, and
one of the few non-profit ones.  The Kaiser Jeep operation went to
AMC, the Fontana steel mill was sold to the Japanese and its Eagle
Mountain pit mine closed.  It's quite a crime by them that they
allowed Kaiser Aluminum to fall into the hands of a greedy a.shole
like Charlie Hurwitz, an a.shole Texan who seems to delight in
screwing working people more than anything else...except for his love
of violating Federal laws.  When Henry J. was still running things,
any Kaiser entity was known to be a great place to work with excellent
labor relations with their unionized employees.  That still lives on
at Kaiser-Permanente, but died when Henry did at the other, cast-off
operations.

The Fontana mill is still operating, but no longer processes iron ore
into steel.  After the SCAQMD mandated that Kaiser spend millions
retrofitting their coke ovens to cut emissions around 1971, which
Henry gladly spent, the family sold off the mill in '76 and shut the
mine, citing profitability problems.  The real reason was the Nixon
Recession of '74, which had priced US steel much higher due to
outrageous interest rate increases, while the Japanese, due to Nixon's
"laissez-faire" trade ideology, were dumping cheap steel on our
markets daily.  You'll also remember the shenanigans of LTV, Colt
Steel and US Steel about this time, when the old "blasters" of the
Monongahela Valley were finally shut down.

Later analysis showed that the Kaiser Fontana mill was still a
profitable operation when shut down as a mill and sold to the
Japanese, and it was obvious that the family members involved wanted
to get away from industrial operations and concentrate on non-profit
health care.  However, in Pennsylvania, years of management neglect
and greed caused the old open hearth mills to continue on using 19th
century technology all the way into the '70s...they were set up to
fail, and greedy management ripped off the steelworkers' pension
funds.  That's what caused the ERISA legislation of 1976, which Bush
Bird and his handlers have been trying to kill for six years, but now
have no chance..

Kaiser had converted to electric furnaces back in the early '60s, one
of the first US steel makers to make the transition.  After the
shutdown/sell off, the former vertically integrated mill is now simply
a fabrication shop and rolling mill.  After selling the mill, the
Japanese cut wages 50%, but were mandated to provide the same health
care through the Kaiser-Permanente system.  After 20 years, the USWA
finally reorganized the workforce there, and wages are on their way
back up...a rare scenario these days.

The Kaiser mill was originally built in 1941 to provide steel for
Kaiser's shipyards on the West Coast.  After the end of WW II, the
mill provided sheet steel for the GM Chevrolet plant in Van Nuys, as
well as the Ford Terminal Island and Pico Rivera plants.  Once the
Japanese took over the mill circa 1976, they engaged in predatory
pricing of Fontana-rolled sheet steel, thus forcing Ford out of the
area, and forcing GM to cut back production at Van Nuys.  GM did stick
it out until 1992 at Van Nuys producing slow selling Camaro/Firebirds.
The "new" Camaro of '93 was produced in Ohio at Lordstown, much closer
to domestic steel producers.  This also was of dubious wisdom, as the
biggest market GM had for Camaros and Firebirds was...California!  It
costs more to ship finished cars on auto racks 2500 miles than it
costs to ship sheet and coil steel from the Midwest to the West Coast.
Sure enough, the "new" Camaro/Firebird twins weren't profitable, and
GM axed the line rather than admit they'd screwed up...again....still?
The economic disaster that followed the closing of Van Nuys is still
being felt, as middle class workers were uprooted to make way for
hoards of illegal aliens.

GM...the worst there is!