Ok everyone, gather around for a little story and some odd automotive "history". In 1981 (I believe) the government of Iraq contracted GM to build a fleet of vehicles for use as cabs in Iraq. The 1981 Malibu sedan....with a twist....was their vehicle of choice. They wanted four main features: V6 (the "powerhouse" 110hp 3.8L) Heavy Duty Cooling (for obvious reasons) Air Conditioning (again, kind of obvious) ...and the twist? 3-speed MANUAL Transmission (In a Malibu sedan - WTF??) So GM built a couple of thousand of these cars to fill the order in its plant in Oshawa, Ontario where lots of Malibu's were built in those days. They based these cars on Canadian spec Malibu's becuse the speedo was already metric. Unfortunatley for GM though, when the cars started arriving in Iraq, the Iraqy government was unhappy with the quality of the cars and refused to take the remainder :banned: :catfight:. This left GM in a pickle. What to do with all these cars that were already built and waiting to be shipped? Blow them out the door was the answer!! :applause2: You could pick up one of these Malibu's for less money than a Chevette at the time and you got V6, A/C and a bigger car! So the cars were pretty rare and you don't see a lot of this generation of Malibu anymore in Canada anyway - the body's were usually done after about 8-10 years back then. But the cars that were affectionately named the "Iraqy Taxi" are REALLY rare. Another funny twist to this story - GM had these cars stored in two location while they were fighting with the Iraq government and trying to figure out what to do with all these cars. They were at a compound in Oshawa, Ontario and at the port for the Atlantic Ocean in Halifax, Nova Scotia waiting for the boat. The cars were stored for several months during the dispute and you usually tell where the cars were stored based on the amount of rust on the car! The sea salt took its tole on the cars sitting in Halifax for months on end and the body's rusted off those cars first. So I stumbled across one yesterday and had to take a pic. They look like any other '81Malibu from the outside, but have you ever seen a Malibu sedan with a dog-leg manual floor shift before?? Take a look: http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p244/rucdnutopia/IraqyTaxi5.jpg http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p244/rucdnutopia/IraqyTaxi4.jpg http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p244/rucdnutopia/IraqyTaxi2.jpg Sorry this post is sooo long, but I always thought it was kind of a cool story on a vehicle that was otherwise rather forgettable.
Thank you very mutch for posting this story rucdn Its always interesting to read about car history. Fun to read!
I've always enjoyed automotive history. This may not be the most significant piece of it...just kind of interesting I think.
Why would you need that with such awesome, supportive seats like that bench in the Malibu?? LOL! :applause2:
Cool history RuCdn! Now, I want to find one blinged out with 20's and a shift kit for the awesome 3 speed! LOL!
