Indie Auto

Is David Kiley right that Ford should replace Lincoln with a new brand?

by Steve in Current Events 1

David Kiley (2026) recently argued in The Car Collective’s Substack newsletter that Lincoln should be killed. His opinion piece shows a lot more spunk than what one might find in the vapid pages of Automotive News, but I would question his conclusion. After running through all of the money that Ford has spent trying to revive Lincoln, Kiley concludes that [...]

1972 Buick Skylark Custom represented the end of an era

September 1, 2026 0

The 1972 Buick Skylark Custom represented the end of an era in a number of ways. This was the last year that the brand’s mid-sized cars were called Skylarks. This was also the end for hardtops. Perhaps most importantly, 1972 marked [...]

1959 Ford Thunderbird was a gimmicky but hugely important car

August 26, 2026 11

(EXPANDED FROM 8/16/2024) I have never been very attracted to the 1958-60 Ford Thunderbird’s gimmicky styling. However, I still must admit that this is one of the most important cars of the postwar era. And while the T-Bird’s design was heavily [...]

Compact cars became the neglected stepchildren of U.S. automakers

August 21, 2026 21

(EXPANDED FROM 6/26/2024) Compact cars represented a dramatic change for U.S. automakers when they were introduced in the early-1960s. After spending the previous decade making its “standard-sized” cars bigger, glitzier [...]

AMC’s Roy D. Chapin Jr. succumbed to the illusion of bigness

August 19, 2026 2

(EXPANDED FROM 1/8/2021) When writing a story about the 1974 AMC Ambassador, I came across American Motors car brochures for 1979 and 1980 that took the unusual step of picturing the company’s headquarters in [...]

Ford’s design talent in the 1970s wasn’t enough to halt a dramatic slide in sales

August 14, 2026 13

Recently a retired Ford designer stopped by to offer a response to our story, “How 1960s car design reflected the good old (boy) days.” “I started my career at Ford styling in 1960. Retired in 1998. I have lots and lots of true stories about the real world [...]

Why wasn’t the 1971 ‘boat-tail’ Buick Riviera shrunk to compact size?

by Steve in Links 24

(UPDATED FROM 6/16/2024) David Burrell has written what may be the most detailed account of how William Mitchell vainly tried to shift the “boat-tail” 1971 Buick Riviera to a mid-sized platform. Burrell’s story in Retro Autos (2021) even compares a rejected A-body proposal and the production model. The latter was placed on the full-sized B-body. You [...]