Jack Mueller’s book on Kaiser-Frazer weighrd in on the question of why General Motors did not end up selling the automaker its Rocket V8 engine. He pointed to evidence that the Oldsmobile Division initially showed […]
(EXPANDED FROM 10/13/2021) A decade ago Curbside Classic commentator Steve (2014) offered one of the more thoughtful merger scenarios for Packard: He concluded that Hudson would have been the best choice. I think that Steve’s […]
The late-40s and early-50s arguably had more design and engineering variety among U.S automakers than we would ever see again. That strikes me as a mostly good thing for consumers, but there were two downsides. […]
(EXPANDED FROM 1/22/2021) The 1933-42 Willys gets far less attention than it deserves. The model 77 and its successors were important because they anticipated the American compacts of the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, the […]
The 1951 Kaiser was trumpeted as having “anatomic design” — that is, it was made to fit the needs of the human anatomy. Although the car’s unusually taunt body had some aesthetic appeal, it didn’t […]
Kaiser-Frazer deserves credit for experimenting with offbeat ideas. Unfortunately, most of them didn’t work very well. This is why the fledgling automaker is a useful case study of how trying to be “innovative” can backfire […]
I have spent a goodly chunk of this week taking care of a family member who has been in and out of the hospital, so our lead story is a very mildly updated piece from […]
I only needed to quickly doublecheck a fact when I recently reached for Richard Langworth’s book, Kaiser-Frazer: The Last Onslaught on Detroit. A few hours later I finally pulled myself away from it. The book […]
(EXPANDED 10/28/2022) A few years ago Richard M. Langworth argued that Ford’s aggressive attempt to overtake Chevrolet in 1954 received more blame “than it deserved” in undercutting the viability of independent automakers (2019, p. 16). […]
Joe Ligo shows the value of auto history films in a 10-minute piece about the 1954 Kaiser Special. He mixes historical footage and scenes from a test-drive of a restored Kaiser as the visual backdrop […]
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