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HomeRalph Nader

Ralph Nader

1965 Chevrolet Corvair
Media Analysis

Why hasn’t Consumer Guide Automotive fixed a discredited anti-Nader rant?

February 4, 2025 Steve 4

(EXPANDED FROM 11/1/2019) One way auto history websites can squeeze more profits from their content is to endlessly repost stories. That’s not a bad thing if the information is accurate, but it strikes me as […]

Media Analysis

Auto buff media are rarely renegades anymore

June 28, 2024 Steve 12

(UPDATED 6/26/2024) If you subscribed to car buff magazines back when you were a kid, do you do so anymore? As a young lad I subscribed to up to five different magazines, but I wouldn’t […]

Six Men Who Built the Modern Auto Industry
Readings

Richard Johnson showed what can happen when a journalist does auto history

May 18, 2023 Steve 2

(UPDATED FROM 2/19/2021) Histories written by practicing automotive journalists are usually engaging reads with lots of behind-the-scenes anecdotes. However, they can also be analytically superficial and grounded more in access than accountability journalism. In other […]

Media Analysis

Road & Track magazine’s 1972 Nader attack was disingenuous propaganda

April 24, 2023 Steve 2

(EXPANDED FROM 10/30/2020) When Road & Track decided to go after Ralph Nader in 1972, the magazine took unusual measures. Even before an “evaluation” of a Nader report hit the newsstands, Road & Track held […]

1946 Hudson
History

1946 Hudson shows what made automaker so important — and vulnerable

April 11, 2023 Steve 9

Here’s an idea I would invite Indie Auto readers to test drive: Hudson’s demise had the biggest long-term impact on the U.S. auto industry of any independent automaker that merged or died in the 1950s. […]

1962 Chevrolet Corvair front
Media Analysis

Larry Printz’s anti-Ralph Nader rant hurts reputation of The Detroit Bureau

June 6, 2022 Steve 8

A recent feature story by The Detroit Bureau illustrates the dangers of a current events website trying to get into the automotive history business. Executive Editor Larry Printz’s (2022) ode to the Chevrolet Corvair included […]

1966 Chevrolet Corvair
Fake Design

1965-69 Chevrolet Corvair: What if it had a front-engined companion?

September 3, 2021 Steve 16

(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 […]

Readings

Ed Cray’s ‘Chrome Colossus’ offers a masterful history of General Motors

January 2, 2021 Steve 0

Chrome Colossus: General Motors and its Times, is one of the best automotive history books in my library. Author Ed Cray eschewed the usual focus on product minutiae and instead focused on how GM’s growth in […]

Quotes
Quotes

Ralph Nader on Car and Driver magazine vilifying him

October 17, 2020 Steve 0

“Some of the commentary (in the 1960s and early ’70s) was so absurd as to invite permanent satire. Whoever writes the history of this will, I’m sure, be able to comment on how the automotive […]

Quotes
Quotes

Ralph Nader: How ‘people of conscience’ have an impact

August 2, 2016 Steve 0

“‘People of conscience inside the industry, they take their conscience to work. They’re up against the bean counters, the shut-up-and-work conformists, the bureaucrats,’ he said. Those people see a problem and then, after bumping against […]

Posts pagination

1 2 »
  • 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
  • Ram customized pickup
    What would you think if it was 1965 and you could magically see this truck?
    June 8, 2025 1
  • 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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