Harry Waltz knew that, as the lowest guy on the totem poll, he would get stuck having to write the 1982 Cadillac Cimarron ads. He tried every trick in the book to avoid the inevitable, […]
The Chrysler Corporation took some unusual steps in 1962-64 to rebuild its declining sales in the premium-priced and luxury-car fields. That included getting rid of the New Yorker two-door hardtop in 1962, downsizing senior Chryslers […]
David Burrell has written what may be the most detailed account of how William Mitchell vainly tried to shift the “boat-tail” 1971 Buick Riviera to a mid-sized platform. Burrell’s story in Retro Autos (2021) even […]
The 1971 Oldsmobile Toronado arguably represented the first time that General Motors executives panicked in response to weak sales from a car styled under head designer William Mitchell. Whereas the first-generation Toronado was a remarkably […]
Motor Trend was hardly known as the toughest of the car-buff magazines, but it nevertheless complained about inadequate brakes on the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado. A road test found that the Eldorado’s stopping distances from 60 […]
(EXPANDED FROM 8/23/2021) Over more than a century General Motors has produced a broad range of cars and trucks. However, if I had to pick one single vehicle that best summed up GM’s design approach, […]
Over the last few days we’ve had a mini-seminar on Packard’s decline in the comment thread of the story, “1956 Packard booklet hints at how James Nance got too big for his britches.” Geeber took […]
(EXPANDED FROM 6/18/2021) In selecting the 1966 Oldmobile Toronado as its Car of the Year, Motor Trend (2005) took out its pom-poms and gushed that “never in the 14-year history of this award has the […]
(EXPANDED FROM 3/19/2021) Virgil Exner was a champion of neo-classical styling throughout his career. His best designs were arguably a handful of 1950s Chrysler show cars but his most influential work didn’t come until later. […]
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