There is a K-car near my work, actually. I see it driving around, so I know it’s still being used. It’s a facelift model, with the updated taillamps. I can’t tell what color it was, because the paint’s all burned up
But you’re right. K-cars are rare, even in the junkyards here. I’m only referring to the true K-cars, the aries and reliant, not the various k-car derivatives
I’m not sure about the K car quality, but the ones before that were a pure disgrace. My folks had a 78 Volarie and it was pretty bad from day one. I think the K car was the stop gap to try and stop the bleeding, then the mini van put them in the black again. Too bad because in the 60’s they were known for their engineering excellence. Seems to me we had a 50,000 mile warranty on one car back then too if I remember right. Couldn’t be beat for cost and dependability.
I think Sears started going down the tube when they discontinued sending their catalogs out. A little premature before everyone was on line anyway. Personally, their brands like Kenmore, to me anyway, would be like having a Kmart tag on your clothes. Just not something to be proud of. I thought they should just go with mainstream names since they have ruined their brands. I would actually buy a Craftsman riding mower if it weren’t a Craftsman since it has most of the features I want and in the right color. The fact that it is a Craftsman means that some parts are going to be a problem in the future and I’m sure they are made by MTD anyway, so why change the parts and put a failed brand on it?
I have to agree though, a lot of these businesses are no longer run to make money as a business but being held as an investment. Business operations are secondary. Of course they’d never be a candidate for a holding company buyout if they were a legitimate business in the first place. Too bad.
The,Hondas of,the early 1980s had severe rust problems. As I remember, Honda had to replace the front fenders on the Accords. However it was up to the owners to have the replacement fenders painted. The K-cars were much better than the Plymouth Volare a and Dodge Aspens they replaced. The university where I was employed had the original K-cars in its fleet and I racked up a lot of miles driving these cars to extension classes that I taught and never had a problem. When I would wind up the class at 10:00 p.m and have an 80 mile trip back home, sometimes on icy roads, I was in no mood for car trouble, particularly when I had an 8 o’clock class on campus the next morning.
@Bing I wouldn’t mind having the Craftsman brand on my underwater. It would beat the K-Mart label.
I used to wear toughskins…
I think sears needs to become just a men s store. tool toys and and underwear! what else dors a man need. oh yeah, love…
“I think the K car was the stop gap to try and stop the bleeding, then the mini van put them in the black again.”
As a matter of fact, I believe the original dodge caravan was a k-car derivative . . . as were many mopar products for several years after the k-car was gone
MikeInNH Thank you for the education. I have never been exposed to Sears on-line shopping. I have really not been exposed to much on-line shopping at all. It still sounds like Sears being a pioneer in on-line shopping ignored and was overwhelmed by Amazon. The same as Purolator by Federal Express.
Heh heh, my sister’s first car was a Plymouth Volare, which I used to pronounce “Voll-Air”
sgtrock21: Yeah, I remember hearing that name, Purolator Courier, although I was a kid and didn’t know what it was. Your story is interesting. The company I work for now has changed the name on the building 4 times since I’ve been there and has been passed around to different owners like a joint at a frat party. The first several years were exciting as they were knocking the walls out for expansion, many opportunities to move up, overtime, etc. Then came ownership changes, accounting scandals (owners cooking the books) etc The past 7 years or so has been seemingly endless rounds of downsizing, demotions, jobs eliminated, etc. After a while it gets to be like the little boy who cried wolf. You come to work everyday, and if the lights are on and the gate isn’t padlocked, you go inside and punch the clock and go to work.
If anyone’s interested, I’ll mention more of what I remember about Caldor. They had been a division of May Department stores and were spun off in a leveraged buyout. Later they went public and the stock went from about $13 to over $35 a share. Caldor was remodeling stores and opening new stores at a rapid rate. In retrospect, they should have been working on their logistics issues and staffing problems. When Wal-Mart and Target came in with better prices and service, Caldor withered away. As I recall though, the immediate cause of their chapter 11 filing was that they were using short term credit for long term borrowing needs, to save on financing charges. When they hit what should have been a minor bump in the road, their credit froze up and they had no other option but chapter 11.
They didn’t pay well, either. I remember management had a wistful slogan, “We walk our best people out the door.” Meaning, the good employees eventually wised up and quit for better paying jobs, that’s what I did. I remember when I gave my 2 weeks notice, the manager called me in his office and offered me a promotion to department manager if I was interested in staying with the company, although he couldn’t come close to the money I was getting at my new job. That was when Caldor was still flying high. About a year after I left is when they started unravelling.
Ed Frugal Did your sister live in the San Francisco bay area? The really weird woman I bought my 1976 Volare in Oregon from in the early 1990s was from the bay area. She had bought it new and it was her “baby”. She had a shoe box full of service receipts with only one repair which was under warranty and was a carburetor replacement. It was a base model 2 door (no Corinthian leather). 225cu in slant six with 4spd M/T. I actually liked it!
I’m sure I don’t remember everything about that 78 Volarie, but I do remember right out of the box it had a terrible oil usage problem. Within the first month they had to totally tear the engine down and re-ring it and maybe pistons. There was a leak in the air conditioning that no one could find so they’d fill it up and a couple weeks later, no air again. The air dam underneath fell off at least once and then the tires started going flat. That was the end of it and it was traded.
It still sounds like Sears being a pioneer in on-line shopping ignored and was overwhelmed by Amazon.They ignored a lot of things...on-line ordering was actually keeping them afloat for a few years.
Sears ignored their customers. I use to shop at Sears for their good tools and that Sears stood behind everything they sold. The company went into save mode where they’d buy cheaper goods from overseas, but sell them at the price for higher profit. The goods they were was not much better then Wallmart, but at a much higher price. When people started to realize this they started to shop elsewhere.
My Dad owned a 77 Aspen and brother owned a 78 Volare’. They were pieces of junk. He went through 3 starters under warranty. Finally the dealer pulled the tranny and found the fly-wheel was warped. It came that way from the factory.
The problems the had with carbs was so bad…that there were so many rebuilders for them that you could buy a rebuilt carb for $20.
And keep a supply of ballast resistors in the glove box.
Chrysler had the opportunity to be a GREAT manufacturer…and blew it. They were leading the way in inventiveness which everyone else was following. But they were rushing things to market and not putting the quality in their products. And they knew it.
sgtrock21: No, we are on the east coast. I remember she got about 58,000 miles out of the Volare, I think it was a 1981, if memory serves. Traded it in on a Dodge Daytona which also spent most of its life at the dealership for both warranty and non warranty repair, but she got to 100k with the Daytona. After that she swore she’d never buy another American made car again, but eventually ended up with an American made Toyota. I didn’t have the heart to tell her.
I got a chance to drive a Volare on the highway once when some friends got intoxicated at a concert and I was the sober person who could drive. I remember it being a shaky ride. I think the transmission blew on that car a few months later, but it was already an old car at the time. (NOT the same one my sister had, BTW)