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HomeGeneral Motors

General Motors

History

1954 Chevrolet was beginning of the end for GM’s brand hierarchy

April 21, 2026 Steve 21

(EXPANDED FROM 3/1/2024) This article’s comment thread has had a recent uptick in discussion, so let’s add a bit more analysis. The 1954 Chevrolet’s greatest claim to fame — or, more accurately, infamy — was […]

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Collectible Cars: Is a strippo Chevy cool or uncool?

April 17, 2026 Steve 2
1980 Pontiac Phoenix 5-door hatch
Data Dive

Bigger didn’t prove to be better for General Motors in late-70s and 80s

April 17, 2026 Steve 44

(UPDATED FROM 12/30/2022) A few years ago we had a debate in a comment thread about the importance of scale in the U.S. auto industry (go here). I thought I would add another layer to […]

1981 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Letters to the Editor

The sad story about buying a 1981 Monte Carlo right out of college

April 9, 2026 Steve 2

Captain My Captain followed up a lengthy comment with a story about buying a 1981 Chevrolet Monte Carlo right out of college. At the end of his missive I learned that he publishes captainmycaptain.blog, whose […]

1966 Beaumont
Letters to the Editor

Reader argues that success of GM’s hierarchy of brands was ‘dumb luck’

March 30, 2026 Steve 20

Indie Auto reader Captain My Captain recently weighed in on our story, “How might GM have better adapted its hierarchy of brands to changing times?” He offers an unusually in-depth and colorful assessment, so I […]

1982 Cadillac Cimarron
Drive-By Musings

How might GM have better adapted its hierarchy of brands to changing times?

March 25, 2026 Steve 15

Michael Karesh (2026) stopped by to comment on our review of Thomas Bonsall’s book about the Edsel. I think that Karesh makes an important point about General Motors’ handling of its passenger-car brands. Thus, I […]

1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
History

Was the 1966 Olds Cutlass Supreme the first mid-sized brougham model?

March 5, 2026 Steve 23

(EXPANDED FROM 2/14/2024) This is one of Indie Auto’s more hotly debated stories. Here I question Paul Niedermeyer’s (2024) contention that the 1966-67 Cutlass Supreme brought the “Great Brougham Epoch” to the mid-sized field. “With […]

1976 Plymouth Volare 2-door coupe
Drive-By Musings

Splashy new cars often were the biggest disasters during the postwar period

March 3, 2026 Steve 5

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 […]

1968 Chevrolet C10 pickup
Gallery

Was the 1967-68 Chevrolet C10 the ‘first modern pickup’?

February 27, 2026 Steve 8

Indie Auto doesn’t focus a whole lot on trucks, but I recently photographed a 1968 Chevrolet C10. When researching this article, I came across the argument from Aldan American (2026) that this was the “first […]

1969 Ford LTD
Literature

1969 Ford LTD attacked GM’s hierarchy of brands in multiple ways

February 12, 2026 Steve 10

(EXPANDED FROM 7/5/2023) The LTD was one of the Ford Motor Company’s biggest successes in the 1970s because it attacked General Motors’ hierarchy of brands in multiple ways. After failing to beat the popular Impala […]

Posts pagination

« 1 2 3 … 29 »
  • 1950 Nash Rambler hood ornament
    Speedreaders.info is a rare source of book reviews, but quality varies
    June 3, 2026 0
  • 1958 Lincoln
    1958-60 Lincoln: Failing to beat GM at its own game
    June 2, 2026 12
  • 1957 Nash Ambassador
    Three videos: The death of car culture, rich people’s cars and the 1957 Nash
    May 29, 2026 6
  • 1963 Mercury Marauder
    1963 Mercury Marauder: Ford tries to do a premium-priced car on the cheap
    May 27, 2026 11
  • Did 1964 Ramblers share more parts between size classes than competitors?
    May 26, 2026 1
  • 1976 Tatra T-613
    Tatra was yet another automaker that deemphasized aerodynamics by 1970s
    May 22, 2026 12
  • Patrick Foster shows how International Harvester failed to adapt
    May 13, 2026 5
  • Internet problems reminded me of U.S. automakers in the 1970s
    May 2, 2026 1
  • 1956 Buick hood scoop
    Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
    October 14, 2022 141
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