(UPDATED FROM 6/26/2020) The Saab 99/900 proved to be the box that crushed the tiny Swedish carmaker. I grant you that this platform was hardly an immediate failure. Even so, the design of the 99 […]
(UPDATED FROM 5/1/2020) American automakers have always had a penchant for extravagant designs that can look overwrought compared to imports. Of course, this has been changing of late as foreign automakers — particularly the Japanese […]
(EXPANDED 10/24/2022) “Lower, longer, wider” was the domestic automakers’ dominant design approach until they were forced to downsize their fleet in the late-1970s due to federal fuel-economy standards. Since that time automakers have at least […]
(UPDATED ON 10/14/22) The second-generation Chevrolet Corvair was one of the best cars General Motors has ever built. Its styling was exceptionally clean for the mid-60s, which were dominated by fussy gingerbread designs. Meanwhile, the […]
As I was reading Paul Niedermeyer’s critique of Kenneth Whyte’s new anti-Nader book, I found myself wondering how the auto buff press would have responded if the book had been published in the early-70s. In […]
The following letter is from rivguy: This is a response to a four-year-old post (go here), and happily the Curbside Classic site is still alive and well. I discovered CC over six years ago. At […]
A few years ago Paul Niedermeyer (2017a) questioned the conventional wisdom that the downsized 1962 Plymouth and Dodge were an 11th-hour accident of history. In an epic essay, the Curbside Classic publisher poked holes in […]
The first-generation Marlin gets no respect, particularly compared to the two-seater AMX. The Marlin tends to be treated as one of American Motors’ biggest flops. Meanwhile, the AMX has been lauded as a valuable halo […]
(UPDATED FROM 7/31/2020) A few years ago Curbside Classic commentator Team Obsolete complained that stories written by Paul Niedermeyer “drift over like a cold dark cloud, displacing people’s sunny enthusiasm and dumps freezing rain and […]
Curbside Classic is a fascinating case study of the difficulties of sustaining a financially viable independent media outlet. For example, last year Niedermeyer announced that ad revenue was down 15-20 percent because of increased use of […]
Copyright © 2022 Olympia, Earth Media, LLC | All rights reserved