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Hey, looks like I have really started a good debate!
I just wanted to clarify a bit here. My relationship with Panoscopic has been a passionate one - both love and hate, but somehow the love seems to overcome the hate! After all, I can't bring my mind to sell here. In light of all the positive support, I drove her to work today. Given some of the responses, I think that many of you may share the same emotions.
What I was trying to get at was the Wagoneer in the time it was being sold during the eighties. For people who own them now, you can pick up a decent runner for $1,000, and even with the price of gas, it can be practical to run. Especially now given the uncertain economic times, not being tied to a payment is a big plus!
What is different is when a Grand was sold new. It was at the top of the price scale for any car. Very few people could afford those kind of bucks. It is like $50K in today's dollars. Now, for those who paid that kind of money, I doubt that articulation was a defining factor in their purchase, because most of these probably never made it very far off-road, and the most four wheeling they ever did was in Aspen. Since most of the driving was on-road, the live axle was a liability and not an asset.
The price point of the '80 was a radical departure from when the car was introduced in the 1960's. The value proposition at that time was classic Jeep - an affordable, rugged versatile vehicle for every man. In the '80's, it became pure yuppiemobile.
What happened in the '80s was pure American marketing magic in my mind. Rather than discontinue it, take an old design, "upgrade" it with fake wood, leather trim (the seating is not full leather) some power accessories, double the price, and target it to a totally new audience and bingo - a profit powerhouse. But still not enough to save AMC. Technically, AMC did nothing to upgrade the powerplant and instead continued to use '70's era emissions technology, at a time when Ford had radically improved their V8s (5.0 Mustang) and GM was doing its job too. The output of the AMC 360 on Panoscopic is a measly 126HP, the lowest power per cubic inch in modern history!
I just wanted to clarify a bit here. My relationship with Panoscopic has been a passionate one - both love and hate, but somehow the love seems to overcome the hate! After all, I can't bring my mind to sell here. In light of all the positive support, I drove her to work today. Given some of the responses, I think that many of you may share the same emotions.
What I was trying to get at was the Wagoneer in the time it was being sold during the eighties. For people who own them now, you can pick up a decent runner for $1,000, and even with the price of gas, it can be practical to run. Especially now given the uncertain economic times, not being tied to a payment is a big plus!
What is different is when a Grand was sold new. It was at the top of the price scale for any car. Very few people could afford those kind of bucks. It is like $50K in today's dollars. Now, for those who paid that kind of money, I doubt that articulation was a defining factor in their purchase, because most of these probably never made it very far off-road, and the most four wheeling they ever did was in Aspen. Since most of the driving was on-road, the live axle was a liability and not an asset.
The price point of the '80 was a radical departure from when the car was introduced in the 1960's. The value proposition at that time was classic Jeep - an affordable, rugged versatile vehicle for every man. In the '80's, it became pure yuppiemobile.
What happened in the '80s was pure American marketing magic in my mind. Rather than discontinue it, take an old design, "upgrade" it with fake wood, leather trim (the seating is not full leather) some power accessories, double the price, and target it to a totally new audience and bingo - a profit powerhouse. But still not enough to save AMC. Technically, AMC did nothing to upgrade the powerplant and instead continued to use '70's era emissions technology, at a time when Ford had radically improved their V8s (5.0 Mustang) and GM was doing its job too. The output of the AMC 360 on Panoscopic is a measly 126HP, the lowest power per cubic inch in modern history!
or so say my younguns. nothing gives me a charge like pulling some hapless soul out of the sand. usually its a ford explorer,whose making payments on the thing. ithink the original design engineers of the wag would be amazed to discover that the wag has become a "cult"vehicle and a suburban icon. ilike my wag and am not looking forward to the day when rust and entrophy win out. just let me finish my house and i will head south or west onna hunt for a rust free 6
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. I like the modern feel of the interior with the look of the classic FSJ exterior. If everyone wanted the same thing...it would be a boring world 
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