(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 […]
(UPDATED FROM 1/16/2024) The Chrysler Corporation’s decision to shrink its big Plymouth and Dodge for 1962 occurred at a tumultuous time — the U.S. auto industry was reportedly considering even more dramatic changes due to […]
One of the biggest assumptions of U.S. automakers in the postwar period was that they desperately needed splashy new cars. Yet when I think about the biggest disasters of that era, they often involved expensive […]
Recently Aaron Severson (2026) raised questions about whether the 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk weighed more due to its Packard drivetrain. As usual, he offered a thoughtful analysis, but I still come away with four lingering […]
(EXPANDED FROM 12/19/2023) The November 1959 issue of Road & Track made bold predictions about what would come next after a wave of new compact cars. “Detroit Beat” writer Don Mac Donald stated that “Detroit, […]
(UPDATED FROM 10/30/2023) Popular Science had a mixed record in making predictions about the auto industry during the postwar period. We have already discussed the magazine’s misfires in 1967 and 1970. Now let’s take a […]
(EXPANDED FROM 8/15/2023) I wanted to more significantly expand on my discussion about two articles posted at the Automotive History Preservation Society’s virtual library. Alas, I can no longer access either story. I can still […]
(EXPANDED FROM 9/6/2023) The Studebaker pictured above was a mid-year redesign intended to catch up with the Big Three, which at the beginning of the 1955 model year had largely switched to so-called “dog leg” […]
(EXPANDED FROM 6/1/2023) The November 1940 issue of Popular Mechanics included an article about the just-introduced 1941 car models. However, curiously enough, Detroit’s latest wares were overshadowed by a cover story about the “automobiles of […]
(EXPANDED FROM 7/18/2023) Our discussion about the Ford Maverick got me thinking about Lee Iacocca. More than any other car, the Maverick reflected how Iacocca’s sensibility differed from that of Robert McNamara, the father of […]
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