I offer this story for you to review and you may draw your own conclusions. I don't pretend to know all the facts involved and only offer what I found after reading several articles on the subject. I express no personal opinion one way or another.
This controversy started tragically on May 17, 1960. In Monterey County, California, a 16-year-old youth named Don Wells Lyford was out driving his stepfather's Corvair along a twisty, two-lane road when he lost control and crossed the centerline directly into the path of an oncoming vehicle. This single tragedy would have gone unnoticed if it not been for a number of other circumstances. Don Lyford's stepfather was an malpractice attorney who had a former law partner by the name of Don Harney. Mr. Harney started an investigation into the safety record of the newly released Corvair. (Remember we said it radical design brought it more scrutiny than other models released that year) Mr. Harney felt he had a case after talking with a Los Angeles police officer who claimed there had been several incidents in the past six months involving Corvairs flipping over. After investigating further Mr. Haney's law firm filed suit against GM and two Chevrolet dealers in July of 1961. The suit claimed that GM was negligent in the design of the Corvair and the dealers were liable for selling a defective product. The help him collect evidence for his case Mr. Haney placed ads in several lawyer-oriented magazines to organize a group of attorneys interested in furnishing information that could be used against GM and the Corvair. What about Ralph Nader you say? This is where Ralph Nader and the American Trial Lawyers Association (A.T.L.A.) come into the picture. The A.T.L.A. is a group of attorneys that represent the plaintiff in product liability cases. While Mr. Nader wasn't directly involved in the action against GM and the Chevrolet dealers at this point, he gained recognition with an article he wrote titled, "The Safe Car You Can't Buy." He was now on his way to becoming a self-appointed consumer advocate. Before long Mr. Haney was able to add 30 cases to his docket, all were against GM and the Corvair. The first case didn't go to trial until June of 1964. this case involved a party by the name of Pierini. Mrs. Pierini claimed in her complaint that her Corvair suddenly, and for no apparent reason, left the road. When she attempted to return the vehicle to the roadway from the soft shoulder, her Corvair traveling about 30-35 mph, "wildly and uncontrollably" crossed the highway and struck and embankment and rolled over, causing her arm to be severed. The case went on for three days before the GM attorneys decided they were ill-prepared and requested an out of court settlement. Of the original $300,000. requested the plaintiff settled for $70,000. While a court settlement is not an admission of guilt, the press chose to ignore this fact. The headlines of that period stated the GM lost and conceded to building faulty Corvairs. What they didn't report was that out of the next ten cases that followed GM won the next nine and in the tenth one there was a comparative negligence verdict and GM was only held responsible for 12 percent of the damages. By the Pierini opened the door and other cases were filed against GM, 294 to be precise. Let's get back to Ralph Nader. As I stated earlier Mr. Nader was setting himself up as a consumer advocate. I believe he was truly interest in automobile safety. He became the primary consultant to Senator Abraham Ribicoff, who was on a subcommitte investigating automobile industry safety. Mr. Nader released his book "Unsafe At Any Speed" in 1965 and immediately became a target of GM. You would have thought that an automotive giant the size of GM would have used more sense, but apparently they choose to have private investigators check into Mr. Nader private life to see what his motives were. There were rumors that GM used unprofessional means to harass Mr. Nader until GM's president, James Roche, was summoned to Senator Ribicoff's subcommittee to answer charges of harassment. Roche denied any harassments but admitted to an investigation into Nader's life. He then publicly apologized for the investigation. The Ribicoff hearings on automobile safety continued with the 1960-63 Corvairs holding a prominent place. GM attorneys were better prepared this time, bringing in prominent race car drivers such as Stirling Moss, Juan Fangio, Caroll Shelby and Phil Hill to testify. The hearings cost the U.S. taxpayers and GM millions of dollars. To sum it up, GM was not found negligent in it's design of the Corvair and the vehicle wasn't unsafe. But it wasn't until July of 1972 when the U.S. Department of Transportation released a statement that basicly stated: "the handling and stability performance of the 1960-63 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover, and it is at least as good as the performance of most contemporary vehicles, both foriegn and domestic" If you noted the date of the release of this report was July of 1972, about three years after the Corvair ceased production. Unsafe At Any Speed, personally I don't think so, in fact I've owned two Corvairs over the years. A 1960 700 Series and a 1965 Monza. I'll leave it up to you to decide.
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