(By Greg Rourke) – There has been some discussion about manual transmissions in G body GM cars. BMcT recently showed us an Olds with a factory manual. Apparently, they aren’t as rare as one might think. Saddam Hussein ordered 25,500 of them.
Who ordered how many of a what? Yep, our sometimes friend/sometimes enemy Saddam Hussein ordered 25,500 1981 four door Mailbus for use as taxis in Iraq. They were equipped with the extremely low performance 3.8 liter V6, air conditioning, heavy duty cooling, bench seats, poverty caps, rear window defrost delete, 200 km speedometer, and for some reason a 3 speed manual on the floor. Some say they were heater delete. They were ordered through GM of Canada.
After about 13,000 were delivered, the order was cancelled. Saddam claimed quality concerns with the locals unable to reliably shift the Saginaw box. Apparently he had a point, as GM sent a bunch of techs to Iraq to retrofit the cars due to a clutch release issue. I don’t think I’d have volunteered for that service call, as Iran and Iraq were going at it…were they ever not going at it? Later speculation was they just diverted every spare dinar to the war. In any case, 12,500 of these babies piled up on the docks in Nova Scotia.
GM of Canada tried to sell them to another Middle Eastern country, unsuccessfully. So they were sold to Canadians at the deeply discounted price of 6800 Canadian Loonies, as their money is referred to. (Don’t believe me, look it up. I didn’t believe it either) Wait a gosh darn second here…didn’t we say these cars might not have heaters? And Canadians snapped them up at the rough equivalent of $4000 American? No worries, Canadians are tough, probably just put on a hockey sweater.
So now we know. These cars have achieved a small celebrity status. If I got ahold of one, I wouldn’t be able to resist dropping in a snotty small block and an M-22. Your opinions please, as long as they don’t include 26 inch rims.
Sydney NS?..better find a heater, it gets cold by the end of August. Brrrrr.
The poor doofus who bought one of these would end up being horribly tortured by it , then grow a mustache, put on an Army uniform and attempt to invade his local gas station……
Im a fan! cool story, and an oddly, somewhat cool car (with the stick of course). Seriously in need of a blower and BBC in my opinion.
Quite a few of those out here on the Canadian prairie. Tough as nails those things although rust took most of them out. Lots were parted out for the stick shift parts and front sheetmetal.
buddy of mine pirated the pedals out of one of these for his cutlass 350/t-10,well spent loonies eh!
I saw quite a few of these both new and used in the Toronto area. Story behind the manual transmissions were that the mechanics in the Middle East had trouble working on the automatic transmissions! Was funny to see an IROC Camaro and an Iraq Malibu at the lights.
I doubt you could get A/C and heater delete. I’m sure it has a heater.
I can see heater hoses in the pic posted above.
Agreed based on how the GM heater/A/C was designed. “Heater delete” would be removing the heater hoses since you need the box itself for the fan.
I have had a couple of these over the years. Purchased as winter beaters. Both of mine had heaters and AC. In the rust belt they suffer rear frame rot, and many were canabilized for parts for two doors or other G bodies. Fantastic little cars, tough as nails and can be operated/maintained on a dime. Wish I could get a new one.
I knew guys who built them here in Oshawa (until recently, home of the Camaro). The story I heard was that quality problems were caused by Iraqis removing the air filters to improve performance (bad idea in the desert). I also saw tons of them in the Toronto area. Many of them were also three on the tree shifters. Great story, thanks for that!
This brings back memories,i fell a couple hundred short on buying 79 Lemans with a 301 and a 4 speed.One of my buddies said if i bought it he would donate a 455 motor to me if i would put it in the Lemans.would like to find another one!
That’s how I heard the story. But I’m not sure of the heater delete. My step father had one in the early 90’s identical to the one in the video… I never did get a ride in it as my mother and him where mid divorce.. but I remember seeing Heater controls through the window as curiosity got the best of me while it was parked at my grandparents place… Oh and I’m from Nova Scotia, our dollar is nicknamed the loonie and the two dollar coin is the toonie it all spends.
A bunch of these were lined up on the docks here in Saint John, NB. I believe a few of them actually found their way into hands of the locals.
These cars were built in 1981……and probably sold not long after…..the Canadian One Dollar coin – known nowadays as “the Loonie” (due to the embossed image of a loon on the “tails side” of the coin), had not been minted at that time….it did not come into being until, IIRC, 1986….
So….
Now, I am aware of 305 powered factory 4 speed cars of this generation…so manual transmissions were not unheard of.
One myth to bust: If you watch this guys other vids you can see the Full HVAC controls with the Vent, Heat & Defrost settings. GM did not make a Air Conditioning only control head. Plus some areas of the Desert at night it gets cold enough for a Heater.
GM Had a Service Equipment Packages for Fleet Sales, and if you agreed to X number of cars per year, they would option them as you wanted. A Number of Fleets have their own SEO’s Yellow Cab coming to mind. Yellow calls a Fleet Sales office, tells them how many units they want in a car line with their package. GM then builds them.
In the case of Colors, such as these or unmarked police cars they don’t want all the same color: A The order could be broke down by X amount in Red, X amount in Blue, X amount in Campaign.
As for Why the 3 Speed Saginaw over the Super T-10? Cost. They wanted a less complex then a GM automatic, yet a durable lower cost transmission. The Saginaw 3 speed was still offered by GM at the time in 2WD Trucks, G-Vans and P-chassis ice creme/food trucks.
How Durable is that transmission? A lot of NASCAR E-Modified small track(under a mile) cars use them.
I had one of these and thy were fairly common in newfoundland too. with heaters….another thing about them is that the rear windows did not roll down, they were fixed in place but the rear 1/4 vent windows worked, and they didn’t have carpet, rubber colour matched floor.
from another website…….’In her book The Kiss of Saddam, McDonald chronicles the life of Selma Masson, wife of Iraqi diplomat Dr. Mohammad al Jabiri. Masson recalls seeing the special order Malibus roaming the streets of Baghdad with alarming frequency in 1982. With knowledge of the inner workings of the Iraqi government, Masson states the Malibus were often used as a pension payment for families of casualties of the Iran-Iraq war. If your son or husband died on the battlefield, you were entitled to a payment of 10,000 Dinar, (roughly $2500 U.S.) and a Chevrolet Malibu.
One can only assume the rationale for the gift of the Malibu was that it was a cheap way settle an obligation to the military families, and keep money flowing into the ongoing war instead of pension payouts. As an added bonus, young sons would presumably think highly of Saddam after receiving a shiny new American car, and eventually follow in their father’s footsteps as a loyal Iraqi soldier. Widows were also allegedly encouraged to remarry quickly so that Saddam would be able to replenish his army that much sooner.
In another dark twist on the ‘Iraqi Taxi’ Malibu story, Masson notes the Iraqi people cleverly referred to the sedans as the “car of the mourning”, by combining the Iraqi words mal for “belong to” and iubu, the sound a woman makes when she’s crying. No doubt the sights of the car in your neighborhood would mean something bad happened.
This memoir certainly casts things in a different light.’
that is amazing details. thanks for sharing. Maine ended up with canadian foreign cars sometimes..but I never did see this malibu. That is a surprise. I have even been at the helm of a 1.8 liter nissan diesel pickup. I have a very unique (crazy) military tour, gulf 1 generation. It was funny jokes over my head sometimes. I looked eastern and drove a malibu…
I just bought a MINT Iraqi Taxi in March this year. I was looking for a car for my 16 year old son and thought of MY first car when I was 16 witch was a 1981 Taxi and found this one with 35,000km. It has been parked since 1984!!! Original everything, paint, tires, wiper blades…and perfect condition.
They all had heaters, carpet, A/C, HD cooling and suspension as well as the famous 3 speed on the floor shift. They didn’t have rear window defrosters.
Absolutely love this car.