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HomeOral history

Oral history

1965 Ford Mustang
Quotes

Donald Frey tells how he knew the 1965 Ford Mustang would be approved

October 16, 2025 Steve 6

Ford executive Donald N. Frey shared with David Crippen (1986) how he found out from Henry Ford II that the 1965 Mustang would be approved. “I remember one day I was in the styling studio, we […]

1971 Cadillac Eldorado
Quotes

Did 1971 Cadillac Eldorado get opera windows due to UAW strike against GM?

July 26, 2025 Steve 1

When Irv Rybicki was interviewed by Dave Crippen (1985) about his design career at General Motors, he told a story about how the 1971 Cadillac Eldorado supposedly got opera windows. The Monte Carlo was initially […]

Circa 1958 Rambler American 2-door sedan
Multimedia

Could Joe Ligo’s American Motors TV series expand the audience for auto history?

May 5, 2025 Steve 10

I first wrote about Joe Ligo’s idea of making an American Motors film in early 2020. Two years later he announced that he was retooling the project and would do a six-part series for the […]

Multimedia

Richard Teague interview hints at why he needed stronger oversight at AMC

April 8, 2025 Steve 12

Lately I have been listening to an interview David Crippen did with Richard Teague in 1985. This was a few years after Teague retired from leading the design staff of American Motors (Wikipedia, 2025). The […]

1957 Ford Skyliner
Quotes

How a ‘cockamamie’ corporate structure resulted in the 1957 Ford

February 22, 2025 Steve 11

Former Ford Motor Company executive Donald Frey explained to David Crippen (1986) why he thought that the automaker’s “cockamamie” decision-making structure led to major quality-control problems with the 1957 Ford. “As it turned out, preceding […]

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Auto Nostalgist: About that first time I experienced horsepower

January 16, 2025 Steve 0
1951 Studebaker nose
Quotes

Imagine the 1951 Studebaker with a lighted nose

January 4, 2025 Steve 1

“. . . We (started facelifting) the ’51, which was a terrible looking spinner job. It had a transparent, plastic spinner inside, and, God, they were terrible looking cars. . . . I remember how that […]

1976 AMC Pacer X
Media Analysis

Designer Bob Nixon distanced himself from the ill-fated AMC Pacer

December 2, 2024 Steve 7

(UPDATED FROM 10/4/2014) Collectible Automobile’s interviews can be a valuable means of documenting automotive history, but they can also lead us astray due to inaccuracies. For one thing, the memories of key participants can fade […]

1960 Ford Falcon 4-door sedan and wagon
Quotes

Eugene Bordinat: Robert McNamara was too logical

July 12, 2022 Steve 6

“[P]robably the guy that was most admired [by Ford Motor Company executive Lewis Crusoe] was [Robert] McNamara. He was a very concise speaker, he was a logician and prided himself that he was. He knew how […]

Quotes

What Bill Mitchell didn’t like about John Z. DeLorean

April 6, 2022 Steve 5

“I didn’t like his aloof egotism. He’d sit in a meeting and open his briefcase and brush his hair, and he’d dress floozy, you know, and he called us the establishment. He was a queer […]

Posts pagination

1 2 »
  • 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV
    Is David Kiley right that Ford should replace Lincoln with a new brand?
    September 2, 2026 15
  • 1972 Buick Skylark Custom grille
    1972 Buick Skylark Custom represented the end of an era
    September 1, 2026 4
  • 1959 Ford Thunderbird
    1959 Ford Thunderbird was a gimmicky but hugely important car
    August 26, 2026 11
  • Compact cars became the neglected stepchildren of U.S. automakers
    August 21, 2026 21
  • 1980 AMC brochure cover with picture of American Center building
    AMC’s Roy D. Chapin Jr. succumbed to the illusion of bigness
    August 19, 2026 2
  • 1980 Ford Thunderbird and 1956 model
    Ford’s design talent in the 1970s wasn’t enough to halt a dramatic slide in sales
    August 14, 2026 13
  • 1973 Buick Riviera
    Why wasn’t the 1971 ‘boat-tail’ Buick Riviera shrunk to compact size?
    August 14, 2026 24
  • 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
Society of Automotive Historian award to Indie Auto

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