Indie Auto

The bogus ad Roger slipped into his drawer and forgot for a number of years

by Steve in Ad Nauseam 3

(EXPANDED FROM 3/22/2024) Roger Sizemore had the feeling that Chrysler was going in the wrong direction. The product planners talked excitedly about selling at least 200,000 Plymouth Barracudas and Dodge Challengers annually. Yet the all-new 1970 pony cars had gotten awfully big and expensive. Meanwhile, the economy was cooling just as [...]

Why did the 1968 Imperial sell so poorly in a booming market?

November 11, 2026 37

(EXPANDED FROM 10/4/2024) In a way the 1968 Imperial was anti-climatic. By the time the new models were introduced in the fall of 1967, the Chrysler Corporation had presumably already decided to downgrade the brand in a major [...]

The Tesla Cybertruck could have been a contender

November 6, 2026 20

The announcement today that the Tesla Cybertruck was ending production next year has been met with much derision. For example, one wag cracked, “One of the lessons here is to never allow ketamine to do your product [...]

Auto media’s takes on mid-term elections vary in quality — if they cover it at all

November 4, 2026 7

How did the automotive media cover the 2026 mid-term election results? At least as I write this, the major car-buff websites have ignored the topic. Apparently they see their role as helping you to escape reality — particularly by [...]

The future of auto production capacity, affordable sedans and the Buzz 2.0

October 27, 2026 13

Audi recently announced that it would invest $4 billion in a new assembly plant in Georgia. Joe White (2026) of the High Speed Rodeo noted that this would be only one of 14 new U.S. assembly plants that automakers plan to build [...]

Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?

by Steve in Data Dive 37

(EXPANDED FROM 7/30/2024) Aaron Severson (2009) has argued that when Ford added the Falcon and Fairlane in the early-60s, they did well initially but “total sales during that period remained almost flat.” In other words, the brand suffered from cannibalization, whereby new models didn’t attract many new buyers but instead divided “existing customers into [...]