“Moving Imperial production away from the Chrysler Jefferson Avenue plant made sense for three reasons: surging sales would require mixing too many Imperials with Chryslers on the assembly line; Imperial quality could be upgraded in […]
“(T)he standard brakes on Cadillac’s spiffy new Eldorado are a treacherous, unsafe Achilles heel on an otherwise pleasant luxury vehicle. Even though the Eldorado is nearly identical to the Toronado in technical detail, we had […]
“The hubris of its executives related to consumer needs, an obsession with big cars, garish designs coming from its studios, the neglect of safety and air pollution matters, and rising prices all played into the […]
“Before 1955 the compact cars, which had then included Rambler, Hudson Jet, and Volkswagen, were not outstanding sales successes. Their suggested list prices, and their actual retail prices, were comparatively high in relation to those […]
“The small cars that Detroit had produced, [Hal Sperlich] believed, had been bad ones, reluctant efforts at best. If anything the companies had brought out inferior, unappealing small cars to prove their own thesis that […]
“GM’s old critics were sharpening their knives. In January [1992] David E. Davis, editor and publication director of Automobile magazine, gave a biting speech to the Washington Auto Press Association in which he blasted past […]
“Fred Hooven was a very good friend of mine and had a much bigger job at Ford than I did. He worked for Mike Ference. Henry Ford asked Ference — this was in 1960. He […]
“I despair, too, at the increasingly fortress mentality that many drivers seem to have. The depressing rise of SUVs is probably responsible for this. Drivers feel safe and cocooned from the world around them, and […]
“The problem in the 1970s was not really the arrival of better, smaller, lighter Japanese cars; it was GM’s failure to respond in kind. Rather than hitting back with superior products, the company hid behind […]
In the comment thread of a recent story about the Cord 810/812, we debated why this iconic car was not successful in the marketplace (go here). To add to that discussion, below is a quote […]
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