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Design
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Was the 2002-5 Ford Thunderbird two-seater inspired or stupid?
I have mixed feelings about the 2002-5 Ford Thunderbird. I am glad the automaker brought back the storied nameplate and think that this generation had a few interesting design touches. That said, the car strikes […]
Photo Essay
Old-fashioned Skamania may have anticipated the automobile’s future
How small is the hamlet of Skamania? So small that its focal point appears to be a general store that doesn’t have much food, there is only one gas pump, and the restroom consists of […]
Quotes
Commentators explain how a fat Corvette stops space aliens
Some of the web’s most important writing is buried in auto blog comment sections. One of my all-time favorites is a soliloquy by Truth About Cars commentator Petezeiss (2014). In response to criticisms of the 2015 Corvette Z06’s weight gain, […]
Links
Knudsen’s favored 1972 Mark IV design borrowed from the Eldorado
(EXPANDED FROM 8/5/2022) A few years ago Dean’s Garage posted a fascinating story about the battle over the 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV’s styling. Jim and Cheryl Farrell (2022) described how a design proposal championed […]
Data Dive
Implosion of early-1950s compacts hints at product-proliferation dangers
The most significant postwar trend among independent automakers was a rush to compact cars. Between 1950 and 1953 four automakers came out with new entries. This would prove to be a double-edged sword. On the […]
Gallery
Why didn’t the Saab 93 catch on like the Volkswagen Beetle?
The Volkswagen Beetle was so popular in the United States during the 1960s that it can be viewed with an aura of inevitability. Even so, one could argue that the VW benefitted by being in […]
History
1954 Packard Clipper: The car that ended the automaker’s independence
(EXPANDED FROM 7/15/2022) I can’t usually tell in advance whether an article will hit a nerve. As a case in point, I didn’t think this one about the 1954 Packard Clipper would generate much notice. […]
Multimedia
Richard Teague interview hints at why he needed stronger oversight at AMC
Lately I have been listening to an interview David Crippen did with Richard Teague in 1985. This was a few years after Teague retired from leading the design staff of American Motors (Wikipedia, 2025). The […]
Quotes
Henry Ford II driven ‘crazy’ by call for smaller cars
“. . . Henry was himself growing a little dizzy with everything happening around him. And the more disoriented he became, the angrier he got. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ford sat through […]