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
HomeAmerican Motors

American Motors

1965 Pontiac Grand Prix
Links

Road Test columnist attacks Motor Trend for Car of Year awards to Pontiac

February 6, 2025 Steve 16

(EXPANDED FROM 6/26/2023) The June 1968 issue of Road Test magazine took its rival, Motor Trend, to task for anointing the Pontiac GTO as Car of the Year. Columnist Byron Bloch argued that the award […]

1957 Oldsmobile
Auto Paedia

How the greenhouse on US cars has evolved from the late-40s to present

January 28, 2025 Steve 0

(EXPANDED FROM 10/27/2021) Greenhouses have not typically changed as frequently as other parts of the American automobile’s external styling, but they go a long way toward summing up the dominant design approach of a given […]

1969 Pontiac Firebird fake ad
Drive-By Musings

How typical was car snobbery in postwar high schools?

January 27, 2025 Steve 23

(EXPANDED FROM 2/6/2023) A few years ago Curbside Classic reposted a comment from a guy named Rob who had a “soul-crushing experience” driving a 1959 Rambler American to high school hangouts (Niedermeyer, 2023). In 1968 […]

Satire

Hotcars.com offers brilliant assessment of why the AMX didn’t sell very well

January 6, 2025 Steve 1

Us boomers can wax nostalgic about the great automotive journalists of the past. However, right under our noses a new generation is coming into its own that — truth be told — is even better […]

1969ish AMC AMX front quarter
Letters to the Editor

Reader argues that ‘AMX was not a sectioned Javelin’

January 2, 2025 Steve 5

SG stopped by to comment on our story, “1968-70 AMX was American Motors’ answer to a question nobody asked.” AMX was not a sectioned Javelin. It was designed first and was supposed to be a […]

1957 Packard proposa
Multimedia

Film shows Fred Hudson’s design talent — and groupthink

January 2, 2025 Steve 9

(EXPANDED FROM 1/25/2023) When rechecking links I was disappointed to see that Hemmings has apparently deleted one of the better comment-thread discussions about late-50s American car design. This illustrates a downside of the digitization of […]

1956 Ugly Car of Year Award
Design Notes

1956 Ugly Car of the Year Award: Indies get desperate

December 31, 2024 Steve 17

(EXPANDED FROM 11/25/2022) For 1956 the Big Three were on relatively good behavior. Only two of their products was outrageous enough to be nominated for Indie Auto’s Ugly Car of the Year Award. All the […]

1965 Ford Mustang
History

Lee Iacocca got lucky with the 1964-66 Ford Mustang

December 27, 2024 Steve 13

(UPDATED FROM 11/18/2022) The original Ford Mustang was the automotive equivalent of The Beatles rock band. The U.S. auto industry had never seen anything like it — a small sporty car that proved so popular […]

1974 AMC Matador coupes
Media Analysis

Bob Nixon interview left questions about 1974 AMC Matador and 1965 Marlin

December 26, 2024 Steve 0

(EXPANDED FROM 10/4/2014) We have previously critiqued American Motors designer Bob Nixon’s recollections about the Pacer (go here). Now let’s discuss his take on the 1974 Matador and 1965 Marlin. This portion of his Collectible […]

1971 AMC Gremlin and VW Beetle front
Design Notes

Richard Teague’s styling helped to kill American Motors

December 20, 2024 Steve 28

(EXPANDED FROM 3/19/2021) This story has received more reader pushback than almost any other single piece that I have published in Indie Auto. Even so, I think that it epitomizes what this blog is all […]

Posts pagination

« 1 … 5 6 7 … 17 »
  • Why did American Motors fire Wells Rich and Greene in 1972?
    March 6, 2026 6
  • 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
    Was the 1966 Olds Cutlass Supreme the first mid-sized brougham model?
    March 5, 2026 21
  • 1976 Plymouth Volare 2-door coupe
    Splashy new cars often were the biggest disasters during the postwar period
    March 3, 2026 1
  • Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
    March 2, 2026 13
  • 1968 Chevrolet C10 pickup
    Was the 1967-68 Chevrolet C10 the ‘first modern pickup’?
    February 27, 2026 7
  • 1941 Studebaker Commander 2-door coupe
    1941 Studebaker Commander: Ending its big cars on a high note
    February 26, 2026 11
  • 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk front with hood open
    Four lingering questions about Aaron Severson’s take on the 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk
    February 20, 2026 6
  • Thank yous, power outages and format changes
    October 31, 2025 0
  • 1956 Buick hood scoop
    Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
    October 14, 2022 134
Society of Automotive Historian award to Indie Auto

Recent Comments

  • stewdi on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • Scampman on Splashy new cars often were the biggest disasters during the postwar period
  • Steve on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • kim in lanark on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • Lori H. on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • kim in lanark on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • Don on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • Steve on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • Troy on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • Steve on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • Philco Ford on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • Hondadriver on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • stewdi on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • kim in lanark on Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
  • Scampman on Was the 1967-68 Chevrolet C10 the ‘first modern pickup’?

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