(EXPANDED FROM 3/31/2023) Compacts and personal coupes generated an outsized amount of media attention during the 1960s, but the most important emerging market segment turned out to be mid-sized cars. Sales rose steadily to the […]
Indie Auto has previously explored this question, but I would like to offer some updated and expanded thoughts. The basic problem is that the U.S. auto history field all too often feels like it was […]
Top General Motors’ designers William Mitchell and Chuck Jordan showed glimmers of adaptiveness in an interview with Motor Trend (1971) magazine. However, the luxury of hindsight allows us to see some of the blinders that […]
(EXPANDED FROM 1/15/2021) The 1953 Hudson Hornet’s styling strikes me as being peak “step down.” As a case in point, this was the last year for the rounded rear end. It looked dated compared to […]
It’s been fascinating to watch the auto industry and media react to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. To the degree that this topic has broken through the usual phantasmagoria of new-product launches and nostalgic musings about […]
Last week we talked about how cars are for going places. Remember the slogan Chevrolet used in its advertising: “See the USA in your Chevrolet”? National parks were sometimes shown because they are as American […]
A good way to test the journalistic independence of an auto history writer is to see how he or she addresses a problematic product. So when I recently bought Patrick Foster’s book, Ford Tough: 100 […]
(EXPANDED FROM 1/23/2023) This post’s comment thread has received a burst of new attention, so I thought it would be worth expanding upon my original argument. I wrote this article in response to debates about […]
An Indie Auto reader kindly pointed out a series of first-person accounts by John Manoogian II about his tenure as a designer at General Motors. The series, which is entitled “Never a Dull Moment,” has […]
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