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The 1975-79 Cadillac Seville was a confused young sedan
(EXPANDED FROM 3/25/2025) The Cadillac Seville has come up in our recent debate about whether William Mitchell stayed too long as head designer at General Motors (go here). Thus, I thought I would expand on […]
Photo Essay
Why don’t more people customize the paint schemes on their vehicles?
(UPDATED FROM 8/22/2023) This BMW reminded me of how rarely automobiles in the United States display customized paint schemes (or vinyl wraps). Note that I am talking about mass-market vehicles rather than custom jobs for […]
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How long will automotive styling be dominated by brutalism?
Question-of-the-day features tend to be vapid, so I usually ignore them. However, I must admit to getting drawn into a Jalopnik query about what are the ugliest cars on the market today (Bellwood, 2025). The […]
History
1981-82 DeLorean illustrates Detroit’s failure to understand the rise of imports
(UPDATED FROM 9/23/2022) The easiest way to sum up the spectacular failure of the DeLorean Motor Company is to say that its founder was exceptionally unlucky. I am hard pressed to think of a worse […]
Satire
Auto blinders (or peepers): How they improve the human condition
(EXPANDED FROM 5/26/2021) Automotive blinders, also known as auto peepers, are the narrowing of windows between the C- and D-pillars of vehicles. This design feature blocks a driver’s rearward vision, which assists in human population […]
Design Notes
BMW’s 7 Series ‘Bangle butt’ helped legitimize weird styling
(EXPANDED FROM 3/5/2021) In the comments we’ve recently talked about Chris Bangle, so I thought I would expand a story I had written a few years ago about one of the most controversial designs that […]
Readings
Richard Johnson showed what can happen when a journalist does auto history
(UPDATED FROM 2/19/2021) Histories written by practicing automotive journalists are usually engaging reads with lots of behind-the-scenes anecdotes. However, they can also be analytically superficial and grounded more in access than accountability journalism. In other […]
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Quotes
Sir Alex Moulton blasted the BMW Mini as too big and heavy
“It’s enormous. The (original] Mini was the best-packaged car of all time(; the BMW Mini) is an example of how not to do it. The interior space is not much bigger than the old Mini, […]