Flush with enthusiasm about the Big Three’s new compacts, the November 1959 issue of Road & Track made some bold predictions about what was next. “Detroit Beat” writer Don Mac Donald stated that “Detroit, stung […]
(EXPANDED FROM 8/20/2021) One of my lingering questions from a Collectible Automobile story on the Mercury Park Lane was why it didn’t sell better in 1968 (Biel, 2021). This was arguably the first year that […]
Paul Niedermeyer stopped by Indie Auto to share his current thinking about the downsizing of the 1962 Plymouth and Dodge. This is a response to a story we ran almost two years ago entitled, “Did […]
(EXPANDED FROM 1/21/2022) The introduction of compacts for Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick represented a major change for these General Motors’ premium-priced brands. Did they help sales grow in a changing marketplace? Or did smaller cars […]
We haven’t checked in with our friends at Over-Drive Magazine lately, so what’s up? Welp, they’ve got a third “issue” that doesn’t appear to be a magazine anymore — just stories posted on their website. […]
(EXPANDED FROM 10/22/2021) One of the most pervasive myths in US automotive history is that a V8 engine became essential to an automaker’s success in the first half of the 1950s. This narrative is summed […]
Patrick Foster (2023) recently suggested that a merger of Hudson and Willys could have made sense — and he devoted a Hemmings column to explaining why. This is an intriguing scenario, but I have a […]
The 1965 Newport is an important car for Chrysler because it propelled the brand to record-breaking sales. That, in turn, made Chrysler a force to be reckoned with in the premium-priced, big-car field for the […]
The shift to smaller cars was happening before the first oil embargo, which stretched from October 1973 through March 174 (Wikipedia, 2023). In an October 1972 column, Popular Science Automotive Editor Jan P. Norbye walked […]
(EXPANDED FROM 9/9/2022) The 1975-80 AMC Pacer may have been a memorable car, but it was also a key factor in American Motors’ demise as an independent automaker. What’s particularly tragic is that the Pacer’s […]
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