Great insight! Also the most informative comment section i seen !

Only General Motors could screw up a manual transmission

Those vehicles didn't work out in the desert, so VW from Brazil sold thousands of Passats with minimal alterations to Iraq. Saddam paid with petroleum which went straight to Petrobras (Brazilian petroleum company owned by government) that paid VW.

We called them Iraqi taxis. The standard 3 speed manual transmissions and bell housings had the same bolt patterns as the small block V8s. With body on frame, rear wheel drive configuration, they made great hobby class stock cars in the 90s. I built one. Several buddies did the same.

I never owned any but some friends did. Amazing how quickly many of them seemed to morph into 5.7L 4 speeds.

I am Iraqi and we previously owned two of thes cars.. and even some says that Saddam executed some of the people responsible for this deal.

l knew one of the GM mechanics who went to lraq for a year to help keep these cars running.The biggest issue was sand clogging air filters,Unfortunately,the lraqis would pull clogged filters out,dropped to the ground,and off they drove with no filters.So sand ruined the cyl bores in days.They also pulled off the bellhousing dust covers,ruining clutch discs.

Ford and GM need some modern version of this affordable, stick, reliable. But I’m dreaming

I owned one for a year, bought in 82 for $6120.00 This was the 1st new car I bought and was pissed when I found out there was a $700.00 tax from the feds on the A/C [never have seen better A/C]. Put on 20,000 Km or so and hated the 3 speed. If you shift slowly it works fine. If you pushed the car in anyway it was annoying; the gearing of the 3 speed and the power band of the V6 made for a very pokey car. Sold it after a year for $6100.00. Best deal on a car ever!

GM sold lemons to almost everyone who has bought a vehicle from them. Not just Saddam

If this happened today, and a manufacturer sold a car for 16k, every dealer in the country would mark it up to 45k and ruin any hype associated with “value” and it wouldn’t have sold out or become a cult favorite. First politician who runs on removing laws set up to protect dealers wins my vote! May have to wait another 37 years though, if ever haha

I worked at the shipping port in Nova Scotia there's so many stories there that would suit this channel, just about every major automotive event in North America went through that port, vw dieselgate the lesser known Mercedes dieselgate (at one point there were so many sprinter vans they just gave up on shipping them and had them crushed) a ship filled with 800 Audi and VW's once hit rough sea's and totalled every car onboard, when Lada went out of business hundreds of cars got left in limbo at the port, they weren't allowed to be scrapped so the port just buried them and paved over it 😂

we bought one new. 3 speed manual. only option was a/c. was amazing reliable car and lasted forever. zero issues

I live in Halifax, I've seen one or two of them still clinging to life

I’m Iraqi. The front bumper of this vehicle is a legend back home. It’s so spacious as well.

When I was deployed to Saudi Arabia in August of 90 for Operation Desert Shield, later becoming Operation Desert Storm which I participated in by invading Southern Iraq with the 1st Brigade, 24th Infantry Division, Mechanized (Heavy) I saw something that surprised me. There were basically 3 motor vehicles that were literally everywhere you looked and almost without exception they were the only ones we saw in everyday use, the Toyota Hilux 4wd pickup for people who had a need for off road capability, Chevrolet 1/2 ton two wheel drive pickup trucks for on road hauling, and Chevrolet Caprice/Caprice Classic 4 door sedans. In the 2 days I spent in Damam (the port city where our military equipment and vehicles were unloaded off ships) there was a bit more variety but even there these were the most common by far. Out of those 3 the Caprice (late 70s to mid 80s models) was by far the most common. There were so many of them that when I got a chance to speak to a Saudi national I asked him why they were so common. His answer, "They are comfortable to drive at whatever speed you want to go, even 120 KPH all day long, the air conditioning works great, they will run with little care or maintenance for over 150k Kilometers, they can carry a couple wives and children, and they are cheap enough that when they do finally quit you just walk away and go buy another." Later on I noticed the same vehicle preferences seemed to be common in Iraq. Years after coming home when reading some books about the Italian Mafia I learned another detail about these cars in the middle east. Many of them, if not most of them were stolen from cities all up and down the east coast. It was a huge ring of car thieves, many stolen by Mafia crews, many more sold to the Mafia guys (Roy Demeo was a big part of this racket) and the Italians were selling multiple shipping containers at a time filled with Caprices to brokers in a number of middle eastern nations. Also, a side note, when I was in Iraq, (Feb 91) they had a lot of really nice roads and some nice modern hiways, at least until we wrre finished with them.

The nickname in Canada was actually ‘Iraqi Pace Cars’. My neighbour in Toronto was one of the GM engineers sent over to see what the hell was going on with these cars. What he found was zero maintenance and stupid driving. There was no concept of understanding you require oil changes - plus they tried to drive these 3 speeds as if they were Russian army trucks. It wasn’t the throw out bearing at fault - it was riding the clutch pedal mainly. He told me they ran out of pressure plates at one point and most of the flywheels they pulled out were glazed over and had friction damage. If you’ve ever seen videos of their driving in that era you’ll understand why they even broke Russian T-54 tanks! Most of these cars that were removed from Halifax went on to years of good service in Canada and were hell of a good grocery getter or 2nd car. Many had the 3 speed replaced with a 4 and later 5 speed gearbox. Drivability really improved with the better gearbox. The only reason GM put the 3 speed in was the theory of fewer shifts would be less wear. Wrong! The traffic jams were legendary in Baghdad so the lack of torque from the engine and stop and go traffic (and sand) just wore them out three times as fast. In hindsight they should have gone with a 3 speed auto. The idea that Saddam ran out of funds is probably correct as he ended up spending over $600B on the eight year war with Iran from 1980 to 1988. The deal for these 25000 cars was negotiated just as the war started and he had anticipated a quick win over Iran. Then lunch bag let down - the war is lasting too long. I know, let’s screw the Canadian’s. It ended up ok, GM sold the remaining cars at a slight profit. 🤷‍♂️

GM? Shoddy quality? You don't say....😅😅😅

I knew guys who built them here in Oshawa (home of the Camaro for a few years). 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. I seem to recall that some of them were three on the tree shifters, anybody remember that? Great story, thanks for that!

"the smallest engine" still 4x the size of a European engine lol

I'd never heard of these cars or this story. Fascinating.

My best friend in high school owned one of these cars. He got a great deal on it, and it was one of the better cars we had access to at the time. We had a great time with that thing and the car's back story was always a source of humour. Eventually it was destroyed when hit by a large truck in a parking lot. Memories!

A car with an engine physically smaller than what the chassis was designed to accommodate is almost always easy to maintain compared to cars that received the biggest engines they were designed for. I was helping a friend revive a 3rd gen F-body Camaro with the 5.7 EFI engine, it was an '87 equippes with a smog pump and those aspirator tubes into each individual exhaust runner. It was clear that the F-body was designed for nothing larger than a small block, it was so tight that we did not even bother with plugs. In contrast, my '95 Impala's basic chassis goes all of the way back to 1977, and the platform makes extensive use of the parts-bin on the former mid-sized cars (1970s Chevelle, mid-70s Camaro) along with outer dimensions similar to those older mid-size cars, which were designed to hold big-blocks. There's so much more room to work in the Impala's engine bay compared to that 3rd gen Camaro. The small V6 (comparatively speaking) and simple drivetrain in these Iraqi Malibus made them a lot easier to service regardless of training, so something that was beneficial to export to a country without a dealer network to fall back on for service also made them beneficial to consumers that might normally not be able to afford new cars and likely couldn't afford to pay for repairs after the laughably short warranties expired. Sure they were underpowered compared to even the mainstream vehicles of the late malaise era, but for buyers that just wanted something to get around in that wasn't already rusting away or expensive to repair this might not have been that big of a deal.

My family owned one of these in the early 80's to 90's. Didn't need a new car for a few years, so it was garage stored until another car headed off to the wreckers. My frugal Accountant Dad regretted not having bought two at the time, hindsight being 20/20. I learned to drive using it, as well as manual transmission. It took PLENTY of abuse from the two teenage drivers in the family in the latter '80s. It towed trailers for long distances with hobby tree-farm stuff on a regular basis. I don't think the clutch was ever replaced. As far as my memory goes - that car was mechanically/reliability trouble free - it was deer-wrecked x2, rebuilt x2, and sold off with high miles. My Dad was overweight, and as such the HD suspension came in handy. It got replaced by my Grandpa's hand-me-down Chevy Caprice of the same year. Performance was relative in the late '70's to late '80s.. we didn't really know much better, at the time. We also owned a mid '80s Camaro powered by the same engine. Anemic today, was normal yesterday. Iraq's loss, was our family's 1980's gain. This stuff makes me feel old.

I had an '82 Malibu with the 3.8L V6 (231CID) and auto trans. Surprisingly very reliable.

I'm from Canada and I owned one in the late 90's. It still is one of my favourite cars I ever owned. It was built like a tank. Of course I threw out that crappy V6 and swapped that for a 305 very early on.

I owned one of these. Silver exterior and dark blue interior. I swapped out the 3.8 and installed a 350 in it with the 3 speed gearbox . It was a lot of fun. Great memories

I heard a lot of these had a ridiculous axle ratio too, like a 2.55 or something. It was ok for flat highways but hills were a challenge

For as popular as these cars were, GM had some funny problems selling them. Another story is about the Pontiac LeMans (basically same car from 78-81). Pontiac sold a bunch of them to a car rental company but someone had made the mistake of not ordering them with air conditioning. And they were supposed to be used in Arizona. Eventually the cars ended up being dressed up as police cars - and of course, mostly destroyed - at the end of Smokey and the Bandit II.

Wow that was a great video, hope to see more like it on your channel. My relatives up in Canada actually had one of these said Malibus. Back in the day they were looking to buy a new car and stumbled onto a Chevy dealer's lot in the greater Toronto aera where these cars were sold for a really low price, the dealer did state that these cars were part of shipment to some "place" in the middle east that fell through...lol. You talked about shoddy workmanship, but my relatives kept that car for almost ten years with no problems that's until the rust finally got a hold of it.🙂

My grand father bought one new and later sold it to my parents, my mom learned to drive stick with it and my dad said it would struggle to go up a hill. Still find them at car shows here in canada

Emissions are the #1 issue for governments…until governments have to pay for it.

As a Canadian i loved finding these more doors in junk yards and remove all of the parts for a clutch conversion of any auto trans G. body to a manual car. I still own a 400 with 350 Vortec heads 4 speed 2 door Malibu Landau with a flipped around T/A shaker as a ram air scoop painted gold with crab claw flames and black interior and a more door station wagon 4 headlight front end . I always heard the term Iraqi taxi but the term Iraq-a-bu is a new one for me.

They should have gave them 4 speeds and 305 V8 packages.

jokes on them, these people are extremely resourceful and with chevy parts available in Kuwait...well..it was all a 2 day engine swap.

I remember the poll taken in 1985. 85% of GM owners said they would never buy another one.

The cars should've been ordered as police cars and then they would be taxi cabs after they're retired from service! lol! 🤣

When I was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, TX, in the 80s a local Chevy dealer got about 12 short wheelbase Chevy pickups originally meant for Brazil. A friend got one. It was a nice truck, the only downside was the three-on-the-tree transmission.

I grew up in Nova Scotia and remember these cars being parked at the docks in Halifax for ages until they were sold off. Standard Malibu, Kinda cool.

I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia. These things were incredibly popular. A 3-speed, taxi-built mid size American sedan really spoke to the market here at that time. Add in a low price, and there you have it. Worthy of note, the lot where these cars were stored still exists today, it's called Autoport in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and massive vessels from Europe drop their cars here for shipment all across North America by rail.

My Grandfather worked for GM at this time and purchased 2 of the Iraqi Taxis off the port of Halifax and they were trouble free for many many years. Awesome little machines.

In 1985 my father was a base commander of an Army logistics depot. There were 300 tan, white and drab colored Chrysler K cars scattered around the base. As the commanding officer my father was driven around in a tan one with unit flags and the colonel eagle insignia on the bumpers. As some part of some taxpayer bailoyt, Reagan forced the Pentagon and a bunch of other large federal agencies to buy them. On the bumper there was a warning sticker about not parking over leaves or other combustible materials due to risk of fire. The catalytic converter didn't even have a heat shield, so it was apparently a common thing for someone to park a I car over some dried leaves or trash and come back later to a burned out charred steel frame where their car used to be. (I believe one of the car rental companies rediscovered this when parking a bunch of excess unused cars in a field near Tampa or Miami airport during the covid lockdown, too.)

The way we pronounce it in Iraq is “Maleebo” 😂 .. good times!

The problem was that GM showed Iraq loaded Malibu Classics, then shipped them stripped basic Malibus. The clutch issue was that the input shaft for the transmission didn't get any grease on them at the factory, hence hard to shift. My dad owned one and worked on many at the dealership he works at. They were good cars.

My scout leader (a Metro Toronto cop) bought one to drive in and out of Toronto. The car was solid!

$100,000,000 / 25,000 cars = $4,000 per Malibu... i wouldn't pay that much!

No rolling rear windows! 😂😂😂

The Australian ford falcons as taxis at the start was funny.

I owned one of these cars. To date was my favourite of the GM's I did own. That 3 speed was bulletproof. It was desired by many dirt oval racers. In fact, many times, guys would swap you a Muncie 4 speed for free just to get the 3 speed. We swapped in V8's many times, but for myself, I built a V6 monster of a motor that rivaled any small block at the time.

Poor craftsmanship? I have owned a few late 70s early 80s GM vehicles i do not think they were low quality at all. They held up well and lasted into the 250 plus thousand miles.

My uncle bought one of these cars here in Canada. He had it for years and years with no problems. I drove it many times and there wasn’t much difference between it and my from it 1978 Pontiac, not considering the three on the floor. We understood these cars were supposed to be gifted to the families of dead and severely wounded veterans of the Iran-Iraq war, but for that to be true, they would have needed a lot more cars.

My grandmother had 1980 Malibu 4 door, but the late 70’s style. She had it for most of our child hood but my dad put plenty of work into it through the years but it was as a SOLID car. The most annoying thing about the car was the back windows didn’t not roll down only the little windows that opened on a slant in the rear were not enough for air on hot summer days if anyone remembers that?!🌻

First time hearing about the "IraqiBu" aka the Malibu destined for Iraq. I like the simple no fuss design of the Malibu, simple and easy to work on, as long as the transmission would work reliability. I wish more car companies would create "pure base model spec" trimmed vehicles that cost an inflation adjusted $16,000 these days. Great story, thanks for sharing :)

The thought of buying a new car for $16,000 makes me physically ill. Where did the times go man

They were actually still A bodies in 1981. They didn’t become G bodies until the 1982 model year.

Loved our 80s Malibu….zero issues with it, 1985 we traded it off for a new F150, while the truck was useful I did miss that car for a time

My family bought one and used it as our primary car for 15 years. Great car.

All this hate for GM at this time is a joke the G body Malibu is desired today . We had GM family cars all went over 200k miles , and then we owned taxis Caprice's and some went 500k miles. And in those days government regulations and coming out of the 70's emissions standard regulations they weren't perfect at all but for the time are not as bad as people now go on about.

I had a couple these back in the day. We called them iraqi taxis. The most basic car you ever seen. Mine where fairly reliable though.

that 3.8 is one the best engines offer

I drove one of these on a 2500-mile trip and it worked quite well. It was a typical 6-cylinder, G-body of the day. The only issue was the gearing, which was set up for the flat roads of Iraq, but once changed, they worked well.

I had an Iraqibu, changed out the V-6 for a 350 4bbl and put a 4 speed into it. It was reliable and I never had anything go wrong with it and found it was as good as anything else Gm made. Yes it also moved and handled well, but rust the ever enemy of all GM cars caught up with it otherwise I would have kept it.

Yep. Family bought one. We're Canadian, in Brampton specifically, and the thing lasted for many, many years with no real problem. Other than the fact that it wasn't made for Canadian winters.

My dad bought one new for $5000 CAD, it made it to 275,000kms, still started...drove it to the wrecking yard. My family and all of our teenage friends learned to drive standard on this. Never replaced a clutch, never needed major repairs, although most gasket surfaces were leaking oil by the end. What finally killed the car was piston wobble which eventual wore the cylinder and coolant leaked into the engine...We replaced it with a Corsica, what a piece a junk that was!

I'm happy to see a video on the Iraqibu. I used to own a 1980 El Camino with the same drivetrain, and enjoyed driving it. The 229 V6 wasn't powerful, but it was reasonably peppy, and it worked well with the 3 speed manual transmission. It was finally sold so that I could fit my 1979 Malibu wagon in the garage. An Iraqibu would have been a nice car to have had.

What an awesome story, great work ❤❤

As a teenager in the 1980s in Winnipeg, yes these cars were around. I never got to drive one, but I remember them and parts of their story. The way I remember the story, they were sent without air conditioning to Iraq. (That would make sense they not wanting them.) I guess my memory has been corrected. I think we can learn a lesson here about having cheap cars to sell. It seems all the manufacturers want to sell us an over the top of the line SUV, b7t I think there still is a market for brand new cheap basic transportation.

GM quality--whether you are a dictator or a blue collar worker, everyone gets hosed!😆

Two of my cousins owned one of these, they drove it for almost 20 years. Simple, basic and cheap, theirs turned out to be very reliable, but rust finally did it in.

1981 it was still an "A" body. 1982 GM came out with the front wheel drive cars - Chevy Celebrity, Olds Cutlass Cierra, Pontiac 6000, Buick Century - these were designated "A" body. The Malibu, Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Regal, and Cutlass rear wheel drive then became the "G" body - they had been the "A" body from 1973 thru 1981. Also the first "G" body was the 1969 Grand Prix - then 1970 Monte Carlo, both up thru 1972.

Saginaw 3 speeds were one of the best transmissions gm ever made. Guaranteed it was the sand wearing out the bushings

' They fitted the smallest engine... a 3.8L ' LMAO 😃

As a Canadian i never heard of this. Thanks for the great video. Cheers from Canada 🍻

I remember looking at one of these at a used car lot here on Vancouver Island about 1990, never saw another one again.

I worked in the Middle East in 1991. Even before the first Gulf War was won, Ford and GM had freighters packed with new cars ready to be shipped to Kuwait. They knew that the Iraqis had looted Kuwait of cars. Kuwaitis were anxious to replace their stolen cars. Never stand between a Detroit factory and a Kuwaiti Dinar.

Checking in from Nova Scotia - ive had the pleasure of going for a ride in one of these back in the day.. can confirm the A/C was really really really good lol. Every time i see an old G Body Malibu i try to get up close to see if it has the 3 speed on the floor.

I went to college in North Dakota...close to the Canadian border. I recall seeing one of these Malibus parked by the student union. I thought it was a former police car but it certainly looked like one of these Malibus...because of the 3 speed on the floor and the tweed interior.

PSA: Carisma will be back next week! Going forward we'll be alternating weeks with that and these new storytelling episodes. I hope you like it-and if not, let me know how we can make better videos for you. -- KC

I live in Canada. My dad had one of these Malibus when I was a kid. It was known as the Iraqi Malibu. The 3 speed manual was finicky and made the cars distinctive.

I like this. I enjoy these short format, informative, deep dives. Good stuff, I will continue to watch!

Not even gonna talk about how SH worked for CIA

These vehicles have a complete GM engineered manual transmission clutch assembly & all small parts necessary to swap a monty- Carlo . Cutlass , Grand-Prix. All in one neat package. Clutch linkage ,pedal, driveshaft shifter mount for floor Camaro 4 speed in a cutlass anyone ? They are getting harder to find as complete cars look carefully before buying

Boy if Saddam Hussein had brought a GM product today he would really know what a lemon is

Them: My hellcat overheats in the desert! Me: Tell me more!😂

"The Middle east didn't have a car industry" Iran did , they built the Paykan , millions of them !

This is before my time. I currently work at the Halifax facility where these were stored and shipped from. In the 90's, there was also a export program for Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciara and Chevy S10 pickups. They provided good work for us at the port.

We should have sent him 25,000 Ford Pintos (AKA the original “Chariot of Fire”) instead!

Every one I saw was green. And a 4 speed manual

Cool story, weird set.

"Smallest engine" still like 2.5x of my car's engine xD

My father in law worked at Borg Warner and bought one of these straight from work...cheap too. I was impressed by the power and speed of these V6 motors with the floor mounted 3 speed. The car was VERY dependable! I have some great memories of this Malibu!

GM does this today in Mexico. They send over all there Lemons to Mexico. Here in Mexico 2023 Yukon Denali I got the engine seized not even 500 Kms on it.

Over the years, I've owned 3 of these cars. Cheap, yes, but I found them to be reliable. Eventually they're overcome by rust.

Hay everyone, I'm from Baghdad and I remember this car very well as 2 of my uncles had one. It was not a bad vehicle after they worked out the bugs. We actually liked it. Iraqi people and all people in the gulf countries in general loved gm cars, especially the 1960 to the 1990. I'm surprised you called them Iraqi taxi as they were never used as a taxi. They were sold by the government to the public (specially veterans) with very affordable price. They were subsidies by the government like every thing else. The competition from Japan is what ended the deal. Toyota sent a team to study the streets in Baghdad. They designed what called crown with ac freezer cold and a bench seat in the front like a sofa. That car was a huge success and extremely reliable. It was the official taxi in Iraq for many years. Love the Malibu 1980...so many memories.

I'm old and clearly remember when they rejected the Iraqi taxis. I personally remember friends buying them. They were mostly trouble free most going hundreds of thousands of miles. Several were modified and drag raced. But lemons... Hardly.

You guys do understand that the truth of the matter is that the cars were largely fine. Saddam just did not have the money to pay for the rest of the order.

Come on the man is dead leave him alone I have one with 3 speed manual still in orginal paint

The best part of this video for me was to see that clip of Knowlton Nash. Now there's a flashback. Makes me remember simpler times.

Great story dude. I love simple machines or objects that just do the job, nothing fancy.

That's why I only buy Toyota in United States. Because Toyota doesn't pull bullshit like this. Every manufacturer plays politics like lgbt, diversity etc ... However, Toyota never play politics when it comes to "building a car" ...