Indie Auto

New Yorker story shows difficulties of an outsider reporting on auto industry

by Steve in Links 0

Industry coverage by journalists from outside the automotive media can be a mixed bag. They are less likely to succumb to the groupthink that can undercut reporting from the likes of Automotive News or a buff magazine, but outsiders are also more likely to miss factual nuances that a beat reporter would get. An example of this is a 1980 New [...]

Could U.S. auto history field benefit by following in the footsteps of the British?

April 23, 2024 2

In 2020 Indie Auto posted a story about how to purchase back issues of Automobile Quarterly. All of the links I included are now dead, so yesterday a reader inquired: “Looking to buy prints from Automobile Quarterly if these are still [...]

Road rage is on the increase — and some states are worse that others

April 22, 2024 2

Today as I was merging onto Interstate 5, a Jeep Cherokee honked while roaring around me into the fast lane. I had been doing the speed limit through an interchange that is regularly tracked by highway patrol. I would like to [...]

What if the 1970 Lincoln Continental hadn’t slavishly copied Cadillac?

by Steve in Fake Design 18

J. P. Cavanaugh’s (2024) recent ode to the 1969 Lincoln Continental got me thinking: What if the 1970 redesign returned to the more compact size of the groundbreaking 1961-63 models? What might that have looked like? And how might a downsized Continental have done in the marketplace? Before getting into the particulars I should add that the [...]

J. ‘Kelly’ Flory Jr.’s American Cars series is pricey but valuable

April 18, 2024 0

The most valuable books I have bought of late have been J. “Kelly” Flory Jr.’s American Cars reference guides. This multi-volume set provides wide-ranging information on U.S.-made cars during the postwar era. Flory’s series [...]

Genesis GV60 is relatively understated but still a quirky electric SUV

April 15, 2024 0

We’ve taken to task Hyundai for the gratuitously industrial styling of its Ioniq 5 (go here), so let’s take a look at its Genesis counterpart. The GV60 is based on the same platform as the Ioniq 5 and its brother the Kia EV6 [...]

The 1965-73 Ford LTD may not have impacted Mercury very much

by Steve in Data Dive 8

(EXPANDED FROM 1/28/2022) Indie Auto commentator Geeber recently discussed how premium-priced big cars did better than their lower-priced brethren as the 1970s progressed. His comment, which is worth reading in full (go here), spurred me to do more data diving. I thought I would start by expanding upon a story I wrote two years ago. As [...]

Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories

October 14, 2022 68

This is a centralized place for readers to offer specific story ideas to Indie Auto. Any ideas are welcome, from potential feature stories to book reviews. I have started off by posting suggestions from readers [...]