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Month: December 2024
Design Notes
Richard Teague’s styling helped to kill American Motors
(EXPANDED FROM 3/19/2021) This story has received more reader pushback than almost any other single piece that I have published in Indie Auto. Even so, I think that it epitomizes what this blog is all […]
Satire
Auto blinders (or peepers): How they improve the human condition
(EXPANDED FROM 5/26/2021) Automotive blinders, also known as auto peepers, are the narrowing of windows between the C- and D-pillars of vehicles. This design feature blocks a driver’s rearward vision, which assists in human population […]
Links
Jean Jennings’ death reminds us of Automobile magazine’s greatest legacy
(EXPANDED FROM 7/9/2021) The recent death of Jean Jennings is a useful reminder that Automobile magazine’s biggest journalistic legacy was arguably that it elevated an unusually large number of women into senior editorial roles. This […]
Media Analysis
Did Oldsmobile revolutionize the car industry?
(EXPANDED FROM 10/31/2022) The automotive media tends to treat orphaned American brands with extra enthusiastic pom-pom waving. An example of the genre is Mark J. McCourt’s (2020) Hemmings article about Oldsmobile. He breathlessly insisted that […]
History
How often did renaming a car fail to help it sell better?
(EXPANDED FROM 6/8/2022) A few years ago Karl Ludvigsen (2022) wondered whether some cars that were renamed should not have been. For example, he noted that Ford might have benefitted by keeping the Cortina name […]
Gallery
1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda had a jump-the-shark quality
I just finished transferring my photo collection to a new program, so I thought I would play around with the controls. What better way to do it than by editing pictures of a 1970 Plymouth […]
Random Shots
Editor's Note
What software would you use if you were launching an automotive website?
George Denzinger recently asked what software Indie Auto was considering switching to. This is pretty inside baseball, so thought it could be most useful to answer that question within the context of a larger discussion: […]
Design Notes
Ford did better than Chrysler in differentiating its 1970s mid-sized coupes
(EXPANDED FROM 5/14/2021) A few years ago CJ and Geeber commented that the 1975 Dodge Charger would have worked better if it had been given the more distinctive design of the 1978 Magnum XE. That’s […]