Indie Auto
header-advert
  • Home
  • About
    • Introduction
    • Editor’s Notes
    • Story Ideas Bank
    • Why All The Data?
    • Fake Stuff
    • About Those Photos
    • Talk Legal To Me
    • Privacy Policy
  • All Our Features
    • Ad Nauseam
    • Bird Chatter
    • Calendar
    • Current Events
    • Data Dives
    • Design Notes
    • Drive-By Musings
    • Fake Designs
    • Gallery
    • Histories
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Links
    • Literature
    • Media Analysis
    • Multimedia
    • Our Sponsors
    • Photo Essays
    • Quotes
    • Random Shots
    • Satire
  • Look It Up
    • In Auto Paedia
    • By author
    • By automaker or brand
    • By time period
    • By topic
    • By vehicle type
  • Readings
    • General Reference
    • Specific Brands & Automakers
    • Auto Culture, Policy & Business Strategy
    • Bibliography
    • Where To Buy Your Books
    • Recently-Posted Readings
  • Links
    • Bibliography of Links
  • Contact
    • Emails & Newsletter
    • Rejected Comments
  • Donate
Home1940s

1940s

1966 Studebaker brochure cover
Editor's Note

Reader says design critique of 1966 Studebaker is ‘simplistic’ and ‘unkind’

October 17, 2022 Steve 3

Readers can communicate with Indie Auto either by submitting a comment or sending a message to the editor (go here). The other day I received a message from a displeased reader. What follows is his […]

Readings

Charles Hyde’s AMC book doesn’t get why automaker failed

July 8, 2022 Steve 6

(UPDATED FROM 10/16/2020) Charles K. Hyde’s history of American Motors and its constituent companies is a valuable scholarly addition to the literature. His book, Storied Independent Automakers: Nash, Hudson and American Motors, offers considerably more […]

Letters to the Editor

Interstate highways were a product of new technologies and ‘urban renewal’

March 17, 2022 Steve 5

I was pleasantly surprised that so many Indie Auto readers have offered comments about our post, “Negative aspects of interstate highways received little initial attention.” Geeber took the time to write a lengthy and thoughtful […]

Jaguar XKE rear
Links

‘Driven To Write’ offers European take on a noncommercial auto website

February 28, 2022 Steve 2

I have mentioned before that monitoring the American automotive media reminds me of the Bruce Springsteen song, “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On).” The buff magazines and websites spend so much time trying to mimic each […]

Quotes

Virgil Exner Jr. on his father’s approach to tailfins

December 28, 2021 Steve 0

“He liked the cleanliness of the idea. He liked the aerodyna­mics of the idea, and in his mind they were genuinely aerodynamic. Later on, Chrysler proved that in wind tunnel tests. They ran cross-wind tests […]

Thomas Bonsall's Studebaker book
Readings

Thomas Bonsall’s Studebaker book is useful but flawed

December 27, 2021 Steve 0

(EXPANDED FROM 11/13/2020) Thomas E. Bonsall wrote one of the better Studebaker histories, but it suffers from flaws that undercut the book’s usefulness. More Than They Promised, which was published in 2000, is a refreshing […]

1959 Cadillac front end
Design Notes

What’s the most excessive American car design of all time?

October 18, 2021 Steve 6

(UPDATED FROM 5/1/2020) American automakers have always had a penchant for extravagant designs that can look overwrought compared to imports. Of course, this has been changing of late as foreign automakers — particularly the Japanese […]

1959 Lincoln Continental
Auto Paedia

‘Lower! Longer! Wider!’ fixation of US automakers left opening for imports

September 22, 2021 Steve 13

(EXPANDED 10/24/2022) “Lower, longer, wider” was the domestic automakers’ dominant design approach until they were forced to downsize their fleet in the late-1970s due to federal fuel-economy standards. Since that time automakers have at least […]

1959 and 1955 Studebaker rooflines
Fake Design

1959 Studebaker: Throwing the baby out with the bath water

September 10, 2021 Steve 14

(EXPANDED FROM 5/22/2015) The 1959 Studebaker Lark’s design was initially so successful that it was described by historian Robert Ebert as a “miracle” (2013, p. 55). Studebaker-Packard Corporation, which was on the verge of liquidating […]

1965 AMC Ambassador sketch
Multimedia

Joe Ligo is overly kind in Nash/AMC Ambassador film

September 9, 2021 Steve 3

(UPDATED FROM 7/3/2020) Joe Ligo’s (2020) film about the Nash/AMC Ambassador is well-researched but overly kind in discussing the car’s dying decade. The “History of the Nash/AMC Ambassador” walks viewers through the unusually long life […]

Posts pagination

« 1 … 7 8 9 … 13 »
  • 1950 Nash Rambler hood ornament
    Speedreaders.info is a rare source of book reviews, but quality varies
    June 3, 2026 0
  • 1958 Lincoln
    1958-60 Lincoln: Failing to beat GM at its own game
    June 2, 2026 12
  • 1957 Nash Ambassador
    Three videos: The death of car culture, rich people’s cars and the 1957 Nash
    May 29, 2026 6
  • 1963 Mercury Marauder
    1963 Mercury Marauder: Ford tries to do a premium-priced car on the cheap
    May 27, 2026 11
  • Did 1964 Ramblers share more parts between size classes than competitors?
    May 26, 2026 1
  • 1976 Tatra T-613
    Tatra was yet another automaker that deemphasized aerodynamics by 1970s
    May 22, 2026 12
  • Patrick Foster shows how International Harvester failed to adapt
    May 13, 2026 5
  • Internet problems reminded me of U.S. automakers in the 1970s
    May 2, 2026 1
  • 1956 Buick hood scoop
    Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
    October 14, 2022 141
Society of Automotive Historian award to Indie Auto

Recent Comments

  • Scampman on 1958-60 Lincoln: Failing to beat GM at its own game
  • Don on 1958-60 Lincoln: Failing to beat GM at its own game
  • stewdi on Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
  • Randerson on Did 1964 Ramblers share more parts between size classes than competitors?
  • Steve on Three videos: The death of car culture, rich people’s cars and the 1957 Nash
  • Randerson on Three videos: The death of car culture, rich people’s cars and the 1957 Nash
  • Steve on 1950-51 Studebaker was ‘pinnacle of postwar styling’ that could have saved automaker
  • stewdi on 1950-51 Studebaker was ‘pinnacle of postwar styling’ that could have saved automaker
  • Steve on Three videos: The death of car culture, rich people’s cars and the 1957 Nash
  • Lori H. on Three videos: The death of car culture, rich people’s cars and the 1957 Nash
  • kim in lanark on How far should AMC have gone to save the Hudson, Nash and Rambler brands?
  • Steve on Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
  • Jeff Kennedy on Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
  • Steve on Three videos: The death of car culture, rich people’s cars and the 1957 Nash
  • Steve on Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories

Archives

Categories

Tags

1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s American Motors Auto culture Auto history media Auto media Automotive News Automotive Views Business strategies Chevrolet Compact cars Curbside Classic Design Design excesses Dodge Electric vehicles Engineering Fake advertising Ford Ford Motor Co. Full-sized cars General Motors Journalism standards Luxury cars Management culture Marketing Mid-sized cars Parody Patrick R. Foster Plymouth Premium-priced cars Public policies Rambler Reader comments Richard M. Langworth Stellantis Studebaker
Follow Us
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feed
Search
Archives
Categories
Help keep the lights on
Quinault at night

Copyright © 2022 Olympia, Earth Media, LLC | All rights reserved