Both the Corvair and the VW Beetle's handling problems (which were similar due to their independent rear suspension) were easily corrected with an after market device called a camber compensator. It was just more of an issue for the Corvair because it was souped up to travel at speeds the VW couldn't reach. The Corvair was a financial disaster not because of it's handling problems or safety issues, but because mechanically, it was a poorly designed, shabbily constructed and hastily assembled piece of junk. Sort of the American Yugo. Don't blame it's demise on Ralph Nader, Vance Packard or the car magazines. Blame it on the skinny-tied, button-down, crew-cut, chain-smoking, pill-popping, martini-guzzling, wife-swapping executive dildoes in GM management.

As for your opinion of the American consumer, I'm not surprised--they were jerks who deserved to be taken to the cleaners, right? Don't disguise your contempt for them with your bogus political smegma. In the end, they were the ones who punished the car industry, the only way it could understand: by buying their cars somewhere else.