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In a road test of a 1972 Ford Galaxie, Consumer Reports made a comment that "a recent Ford ad showed violin music being taped from the backseat of a moving car. Unfortunately, our test Galaxie was not nearly as quiet as those ads imply. Although we judged the Galaxie to be fairly quiet, the tires hissed and rumbled, wind whistled around the window seals and doors, and the exhaust droned during even mild acceleration"
if they had simply said " unfortunately the Galaxie was not nearly as quiet..." as opposed to "our test Galaxie was not nearly as quiet..." and if they had said instead "a recent Ford ad showed violin music being taped from the backseat of a Ford Galaxie" instead "from the backseat of a moving car", could they have exposed themselves to a lawsuit?
In otherwords, would they have to have had proof that the ad actually featured a Galaxie backseat?
You see the thing is that back then when you didn't get the answer you wanted or a good review you didn't sue some one. You got off your ass and either you got better or the product you were designing got better! You didn't blame anyone else for your problems! That is one of the biggest problems today!
I owned a 2 door 1972 Galaxie from 1990 to 1997, bought it with 70K on it, with a 400 under the hood. Also had a 1975 Plymouth Gran Fury with 360. The Galaxie was the better car, more reliable and got better gas milage, because the 72 did not have a cat converter on the exhaust. Not that the 400 was a real power house or anything, but I managed to get a ticket one night for doing 102 racing a Nova. The Nova was a POS and I don't think a top shape Nova with 350 would have a problem taking the Galaxie, but I put that old Nova away, then the cops put me away, but just for the night.
The Plymouth threw a timing chain and had engine damage, it was always nickel and diming me. Did a burn out in reverse one time and broke the reverse gear in the transmission. Alternator burned out several times even after replaceing the regulator. Both cars had a very smooth ride, the Galaxie liked to eat front oil seals, noticed it came with plastic timing gears and was glad to get them swapped out in the nick of time, or I would of had another knock knock fizz fizz like what happened with the Plymouth.
After the rear quarters started rusting thru, I sold the Galaxie to a friend that drove it up to just a couple years ago. His dumb wife added transmission fluid to the oil when it would get low. One time she brought it over here and got stuck in a big pile of snow. She jammed it from reverse to drive in the most careless of mannor, you could hear the gears in the transmission grinding to beat hell. But when she would gun that motor that baby still sounded mean and ready to go. After she left I thougt the car would never make it another year, but it still took them 5 more years to kill it. I remember it needed a new set of points very often, if the gap was off even a tiny bit, it would run like crap. Brake lines need replaced, liked to toast off wiper switches if I remember right, and you needed to keep an eye on where the fuel line hooked up to the carb, as it had a screw in fuel filter and the threads would strip out inside the carb where the line connected.
usafracer--youre right. in 1970 Consumer Reports complained to Chrysler Corp engineers about noisy riding and harshness of then recent Chrysler Corp cars; prime offenders were the 1969 mid sized Plymouths and Dodges, the 1969 Chrysler Newport, the 1970 mid sized cars and the worst offender, the 1970 Plymouth Satellite wagon
as a result for 1971 Chrysler Corp came out with a new body isolation system that featured rubber insulation that separated the chassis from the stub frame (or something like that) and several of the Chrysler Corp cars tested for that year rode significantly quieter and comfortably than in the past
a good example of what you were describing
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