Ad Nauseam
American Motors
Readings
Revealing photos of AMC Javelins that didn’t make it
The most poignant part of Javelin Photo Archive is a set of proposals for a lovely Gremlin-based hatchback intended for introduction in 1973 or 1974. The designs look like they could have sold quite well. […]
Fake Design
1974 AMC Ambassador: GM envy to the ZiL degree
The 1974 Ambassador’s ZiL-like styling shows how AMC had succumbed to “GM envy” in the 1970s. This car was so big and ugly that it was doomed to failure. Yet American Motors wasted scarce resources […]
Readings
Mister Javelin: Guy Hadsall Jr. at American Motors
First-person accounts by lesser-known auto industry leaders can add to the historical record in surprising ways. This is why the SAH Press, which is an arm of the Society of Automotive Historians, should be lauded […]
History
George Romney made eight big mistakes at AMC
George Romney may have been one of the U.S. auto industry’s best post-war leaders, but he made eight big mistakes while leading AMC from 1954-62. Some of his bad moves were costly enough to almost […]
Quotes
Should Richard Teague have walked away from American Motors?
“I went to American Motors as assistant director of styling in September 1959. I saw the ’60 Rambler, and I almost walked out the front door. It looked like it was chiseled out of marble […]
Current Events
AMC Javelins look better without badly redone stripes
Hemmings’ current “Find of the Day” (2020) is a 1968 AMC Javelin in a lovely metallic blue. Unfortunately, this car — like all too many surviving sporty coupes from the 1960s and 1970s — does […]
Multimedia
Joe Ligo drives a Kaiser and plans an AMC film
Joe Ligo shows the value of auto history films in a 10-minute piece about the 1954 Kaiser Special. He mixes historical footage and scenes from a test-drive of a restored Kaiser as the visual backdrop […]
History
How American Motors abandoned its uniqueness in the second half of the 1960s
The most strikingly quality of American Motors’ car designs developed in the mid-60s was how quickly the automaker ditched the Rambler look in favor of styling mostly indistinguishable from the Big Three. This was a […]
Auto Paedia
Groupthink
A tendency toward groupthink has been a chronic problem in the American automobile industry since the mid-50s. This was a key driver of the domestic automakers’ dramatic decline from the late-60s onward. More recently, foreign […]