Pro-Car Brochure...My Criterion

I heard rumors M&M was in such a rush to get the Criterion brochure out to the dealers they used the 73 prototype but doctored it up to look like a 74. Now, I just received a 74 Criterion brochure and matched the pictures from it to the ones on the M&M Chapter website featuring the 73 prototype. Have to say, the 74 is not the 73.

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How can you tell? The 74 in the brochure sure looks like it could be the 73. The only difference I can see is the grille/bumper/headlights, which look rather obviously edited on the brochure, especially the far left headlight. Everything else looks the same to me.
 
I gotta say, given the fact that the '73 (below) and the one in the ad for '74 had the same colors, same side lights, same single beacon, same red spotlights, same whitewalls, etc. etc., it seems quite possible to me that the photo for the brochure is the '73 prototype with a '74 front end airbrushed in. True, they could have built one just like it in early '74, but.... This is how things work in advertising.

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nope look again the quarters are different. a lot of difference between the 3 and 4 body. not a lot between to 4 5 or 6 though. the head light housing and the grill park lights would all interchange on them. you could put the whole
4 5 & 6 clip on the 73 as it still has the big front bumper. but the back side is different all together. the flier may be a photo of a artist rendition of a 74 but it's not a 73 car made to look in front like a 74
 
I think I have a clear shot of the flier. then again maybe it's not much better.
 

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Take a look inside...

Open the brochure and look at the large, driver's side view of the Criterion inside. Take a close look through the windshield at the dashboard. You will see the contours of the 1973 dash, along with the tip of the gearshift lever, which stands nearly straight up in 1973.
 
This was the ultra rare 1st 74 Criterion built that was used for the brochure (not really). I just wanted to post this so Richard could cry in his Fruit Loops over breakfast for the next 2 weeks. :yum:
The car is LONG gone.....NO I dont have any parts from it ( I sold them all years ago), NO I dont know where the parts are today....The happiest memory I have of this car was making my driver drive it home for me and hearing him cuss my name all the way because he got showered with 300 lbs of rust falling out of the headliner and interior windshield trim (which fell off too).
This pic was taken the morning the car went to the crusher.

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:bigMoon:
 
While we are on the Criterionoligist kick...Tony K....didya see this one a few weeks ago? Note the lack of roof or side lights. Just loading lights.
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WHAM, BAM, POW!!! Holy Criterion Batman (Cary) that is some awesome picture. Thanks for the post.
When studying the pictures from the M&M Chapter on the 73 Criterion and the pictures from my 74 Criterion brochure, the inside shot are not the same. For instance, the seat patterns in the rear do not match, equipment mounted in the attendants area is differnet.
Pretty sure the brochure for the 74 is a 74. :D

Scanner does not work so no go on me posting pictures from the brochure but may try it later this week.
 
how about it's a brand new addition to the fleet and they have not put the lights they want on it yet. not everyone paid the MM price for the lights. you could get it wired ready to install your own. but see the truckers mirrors. common addition to the car. but the factory mirrors have been left off. some one was vary careful when they ordered this. the paint scheme looks all most military.
 
As for the Cornell Criterion, it certainly isn't new in the photo, as there are more modern ambulances - the late-70's Horton (?) box and the post-75 Ford van in the background. If they were going to install lights, they would have done so. So apparently, it was intended as a non-emergency ambulance, which was not uncommon. The paint scheme was the Federally-mandated standard, white with Omaha Orange stripe (which the military had to adopt, and civilian services had to use if they bought the vehicle with Federal grant money).

Since the information that the '73 was airbrushed for the '74 ads came from Dr. Roger White, who would have known these things for a fact in the day, I will stick with that personally. I'm not really sure it's worth trying to confirm or refute, really. :YesNo:

The car is LONG gone.....
Cary, it looks like it was long gone long before you got it! Really, it's better off, at least the steel (what little was left) was recycled into a Mazda or something. Didn't Ken Elliott have the '73 at one time?
 
I would bet that the three rigs pictured here are built with in 6 months of each other. I won't argue that they could not have painted a 74 using the 73 photo as the base. that would have been fairly easy for a commercial artist to do. the cost factor figured in, most of the fliers were not true photos but renditions of photos. as the paint scheme is the same on all three one can figure that's the way they liked them or were forced to get them. why no lights on top is still anyone's guess. but they did spring for the hood ornament door guards and other stuff that dressed it up.
 
OK, we'll start with this

I have the original photos and workups of the photos used in this brochure. I can tell you for certain these are airbrushed photos of the 1973 prototype Criterion. Here's an example of a workup being made to "convert" the 1973 interior to '74.
 

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The New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center is now New York Presbyterian Hospital Emergency Medical Services. They have a website and may have more info on the whereabouts of this Criterion.
 
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