1990s
1956 Ford Country Sedan wagon: The once and future Explorer
(EXPANDED FROM 1/25/2022) Nineteen-fifty-six was a pivotal year for Ford station wagons. This was essentially the last time that the brand would offer an old-fashioned, utilitarian wagon for more than three decades. When the Ford […]
Why did Mitsubishi fail in the United States?
(EXPANDED FROM 11/3/2022) Mitsubishi’s U.S. sales have somewhat stabilized in recent years, but they are still well below seven other entry-level Asian brands. That’s quite a fall for a brand that in the year 2000 […]
Peter DeLorenzo launches a lazy attack against decarbonization mandates
Peter DeLorenzo has finally acknowledged that the decarbonization of the automotive fleet could be significantly driven by public-sector actions. However, he does so by spewing a bunch of lazy anti-government insults. Does this represent his […]
The question of whether size matters when it comes to auto safety has a long history
The argument that big vehicles are safer than small ones has been floating around since imports first made inroads in the U.S. during the late-1950s. For example, in 1958 Road & Track magazine quoted the […]
What were Detroit’s top-five most iconic vehicle designs from 1980-2000?
Michael Karesh (2023) of TrueDelta recently asked, “Which cars (model and year) from the Detroit Three since 1980 do you feel qualify as design icons?” I would invite you to check out the ensuing debate […]
Why General Motors didn’t realize that Oldsmobile was in trouble
Our “Story Ideas Bank” sometimes morphs into debates about specific historical events. George Denzinger recently weighed in on the death of Oldsmobile. This is a thoughtful analysis so I am elevating it to the front page. […]
If you could have foreseen the future in high school, would today’s cars surprise you?
This is a question that may be most interesting to older Indie Auto readers. What brings it up for me is a fictional story in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, which is a humor magazine. Alex Baze […]