The Corvair in Action! (1960) User Reviews

Promotional Movie

[boblipton · 5/10 · 29 October 2017]

This 1960 promotional movie for the 1960 Corvair -- the first year of its production -- emphasizes its handling, durability and ability to maintain stability on any terrain. As the first GM compact, with many innovations, ranging from a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine, and with many components (including its 6-cylinder engine) made from aluminum, it was seen as the wave of the future. Then, as history tells us, it was the centerpiece of Ralph Nader's book UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED.

Without considering that issue, this movie attempts to sell the American car-buying public on a small car, when it was still enamored of large cars. Its design, although it looks clunky and modular to my modern eye, was considered innovative and modern at the time, although it would be overshadowed by the Ford Mustang, introduced as a concept car in 1962 and a production model in 1965.

corvair commercial

[ksf-2 · 5/10 · 3 November 2017]

although probably quite catchy for its day, this 1960 promo for the corvair is just annoying. every time they switch to a new camera angle, we see a different car, in a different color, with a different year plate. We see it driving through a field, in case you want to do that. We see the wheels spinning through mud, in case you'll need to do that. It's only six minutes, but you get to see the car running through its paces, although it seems to be made for either a racer, or someone driving through other peoples' back yards! a bit of retro. shown on Turner Classic Movies in between....

Ever since that famous "Battle of the Overpass" launched . . .

[pixrox1 · 6/10 · 1 February 2020]

. . . the United Auto Workers Union in Flint during the early 1930s, General Motors has marched on at the front of the Progressive Movement in America. Viewers of THE CORVAIR IN ACTION! will be reminded instantly of this fact, as GM highlights a vehicle STILL ahead of its time with an ability to serve the needs of the Early Onset Alzheimer's crowd. GM's crack team of make-up people, hair dressers and costumers array this promo's featured test driver as a quintessential geezer in the final throes of demented senility. Suffice it to say that this wayward oldster looks like the 2040s version of Clint Eastwood, complete with a ball cap and wingtip shoes. Most of this futuristic puff piece pictures this Highway Menace driving his CORVAIR through mud sloughs, corn fields and--as the narrator asserts--down the middle of a stream for 20 miles! The problem with giving members of the dementia set keys to ACTUAL off-road vehicles is that they might manage to pilot these hulking safari mobiles to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and then be unable to pack them out back to the top piece-by-piece, as National Park Rules require. But Clint could probably carry a CORVAIR up the Bright Angel Trail in four or five hours!

half of the story

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 6 October 2023]

It's a promotional short from car maker Chevrolet. The trunk of this compact car is in the front. They go through the paces in different terrains and weather. They go on the Lime Rock Connecticut Raceway. They drive in fields. They drive in a river. Really? They do breaking tests. Finally, they do all the crash tests and destroy a few cars. Of course, the Corvair is most known today as the centerpiece of Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed. I'm not going to litigate all that. As cinema, this is a standard industrial film. It's a great example and serves to be half the story in an important part of automotive history.

Car, love it

[mrdonleone · 9/10 · 20 November 2019]

In my life doing my life during my lifetime in Baja I had so many beautiful things to see with cars going up and down and over and it was nice and it was greatmaking love in the car and house and beautiful and up and down it was great it was beautiful you don't imagine how beautiful it was and this movie is just beautiful Muslims like me and in the same time it is wonder full to.. wookie poo!!