(EXPANDED FROM 12/8/2023) One of my lingering questions from a Collectible Automobile story about the Mercury Park Lane was why it didn’t sell better in 1968 (Biel, 2021). This was arguably the first year that […]
An Indie Auto reader asked me to explain what I mean when referring to the premium-priced field. More specifically, how do I rank General Motors’ brand hierarchy — and where do I put Pontiac, Olds […]
(EXPANDED FROM 1/1/2020) The Tacoma, Washington area has two car museums that are often confused. America’s Car Museum is located downtown in a fairly new building whereas the LeMay Collections at Marymount is eight miles […]
One of the qualities that distinguished the 2001-to-2010 Chrysler PT Cruiser from most other retro designs was that it wasn’t an homage to a specific car. That presumably gave designers more flexibility to improvise. However, […]
(EXPANDED FROM 7/21/2023) General Motors had one of those “be careful what you ask for” problems. In 1962 the automaker captured three-fourths of the premium-priced, big-car market. This was a key reason why GM sold […]
(EXPANDED FROM 12/30/2022) This story operates on two levels. The first one is how the car-buff media could be wrong in its predictions about future products. The second level looks at how slow the Chrysler […]
I am ambivalent about Charles K. Hyde’s book, Riding the Roller Coaster: A History of the Chrysler Corporation. The American automotive history field desperately needs more scholarly books, and Hyde is a relatively rare academic […]
(EXPANDED FROM 6/23/2023) A while back Indie Auto reader Geeber asked about what happened to Chrysler Corporation’s market share in the premium-priced field after Dodge went downmarket in 1960. He was referring to a major […]
(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 […]
(EXPANDED FROM 3/15/2023) The Chrysler brand during the second half of the 1960s was one of that automaker’s biggest success stories. We have discussed the design of its cars (e.g., go here and here), so […]
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