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HomeMid-sized cars

Mid-sized cars

1975 AMC Pacer
History

Six mistakes that killed the AMC Pacer — and American Motors

September 8, 2023 Steve 44

(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 […]

1962 Plymouth
History

1962-64 Plymouth: The odd case of prescience interruptus

August 25, 2023 Steve 9

(EXPANDED FROM 8/28/2020) The 1962-64 Plymouth is one of the most prescient U.S. cars of the 1960s. Aside from the 1953 Plymouth, the 1962 redesign represented the first serious effort by a Big Three automaker […]

Design Notes

1968-69 Oldsmobile Cutlass: Was this a peak moment for GM styling?

August 4, 2023 Steve 7

(EXPANDED FROM 7/16/2021) The Oldsmobile Cutlass tends to receive less attention than General Motors’ other three 1968-69 mid-sized cars. This is unfortunate because the Cutlass was arguably the cleanest of the bunch. Let’s go a step […]

Budd XR-400
Fake Design

The XR-400 wouldn’t have ‘saved’ AMC but it pointed in a useful direction

July 7, 2023 Steve 6

(EXPANDED FROM 7/7/2021) A few years ago Stéphane Dumas quite rightly noted that another alternative to the 1964 Rambler Tarpon concept car was the XR-400. This was a 2+2 convertible proposed to American Motors in […]

1965 Rambler American 440H 2-door hardtop
Quotes

1964-65 Rambler American paid a price for using Classic body parts

June 19, 2023 Steve 2

A key way that American Motors was able to afford fielding both a compact and mid-sized platform in the mid-1960s was by sharing an unusual number of body parts. However, as Car Life noted below, […]

Late-60s Ford designers look at T-Bird proposal
History

Late-1960s Ford car design film shows US automakers losing it

April 28, 2023 Steve 6

(EXPANDED FROM 10/8/2021) A late-1960s Ford promotional film offers a fascinating glimpse into the car and truck designs being worked on at the time. Perhaps more than intended, The Design Makers — Inside Ford Design, […]

1951 Ford convertible
Design Notes

Was the 1951 Ford the end of the sensibly-sized ‘standard’ American car?

April 26, 2023 Steve 1

Reasonable people can debate when the Big Three automakers stopped building sensibly-sized cars during the postwar period. For example, one might point to the 1956 Ford because it was only slightly larger than its postwar […]

1951 Kaiser hood ornament
Design Notes

The redesigned 1951 Kaiser was not quite anatomically correct

April 20, 2023 Steve 12

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 […]

1967 Ramber Rebel SST two-door hardtop
Media Analysis

Five questions about Aaron Severson’s take on American Motors

April 7, 2023 Steve 3

Ate Up With Motor’s Aaron Severson (2023) stopped by Curbside Classic last week to post an epic series of comments about American Motors. The thing that most struck me about his 11 comments — which […]

1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Custom
Data Dive

Langworth and Norbye made excuses for General Motors’ big-car fixation

February 27, 2023 Steve 4

While updating our 1971-78 Cadillac Eldorado story, I pulled down from my bookshelf The Complete History of General Motors: 1908-1986. This Consumer Guide book written by Richard M. Langworth and Jan P. Norbye (1986) threw […]

Posts pagination

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  • A sad reason bridges aren’t just used for driving over
    June 15, 2025 0
  • 1964 Studebaker Challenger
    Brooks Stevens’s rejection of brand continuity was bad for small automakers
    June 14, 2025 0
  • EVs need a George Romney to champion them in the next few years
    June 13, 2025 16
  • Citroen SM
    Citroen SM: A surprisingly conventional next step
    June 12, 2025 5
  • 1936-37 Cord 810/812 tried to do too much at once
    June 11, 2025 10
  • 1963 Studebaker Daytona convertible
    Classic film shows human side of Studebaker’s end
    June 10, 2025 15
  • Once upon a time, car wheels were 36-to-42 inches in diameter
    June 9, 2025 5
  • Brooks Stevens’s 1965 Studebaker Lark concept: Almost a baby Continental
    June 6, 2025 5
  • 1949 Packard Super Eight
    Packard kept a bigger foothold in the luxury-car field than commonly assumed
    June 5, 2025 9
  • Exner bio offers mostly positive take on controversial car designer
    Peter Grist views car designer Virgil Exner through rose-tinted glasses
    June 3, 2025 9
  • 1970 Mercury Cyclone
    1970 Mercury Montego had a last-of-the-wine quality
    June 2, 2025 2
  • A query, a thank you and an update on miscellaneous stuff
    April 4, 2025 0
  • 1956 Buick hood scoop
    Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
    October 14, 2022 124
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