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HomeRebel

Rebel

1957 Packard proposa
Multimedia

Film shows Fred Hudson’s design talent — and groupthink

January 2, 2025 Steve 9

(EXPANDED FROM 1/25/2023) When rechecking links I was disappointed to see that Hemmings has apparently deleted one of the better comment-thread discussions about late-50s American car design. This illustrates a downside of the digitization of […]

2006 Ford Five Hundred
History

How often did renaming a car fail to help it sell better?

December 16, 2024 Steve 21

(EXPANDED FROM 6/8/2022) A few years ago Karl Ludvigsen (2022) wondered whether some cars that were renamed should not have been. For example, he noted that Ford might have benefitted by keeping the Cortina name […]

1957 Rambler Rebel
Letters to the Editor

Reader chimes in about the 1957 Rambler Rebel

October 25, 2024 Steve 4

Indie Auto reader FF stopped by to respond to our story, “1957 Rambler Rebel was so close yet so far from legendary.” The idea that the Rebel was more expensive or costly in relation to […]

1967 Rambler Rebel SST 2-door hardtop white
Letters to the Editor

Reader offers alternative take on the redesigned 1967 Rambler Rebel

March 19, 2024 Steve 6

MC stopped by to respond to our story, “Collectible Automobile’s 1967 Rambler Rebel SST feature is pretty but vapid.” A few points on this article and comments. First, about the platform of the 1967 Rambler […]

1967 Rambler Rebel SST 2-door hardtop white
Media Analysis

Collectible Automobile’s 1967 Rambler Rebel SST feature is pretty but vapid

September 23, 2023 Steve 2

The December 2023 issue of Collectible Automobile has a photo feature of a 1967 Rambler Rebel SST hardtop. As usual, the images are first rate and the accompanying text give a nuts-and-bolts overview of the […]

1957 Rambler Rebel
History

1957 Rambler Rebel was so close yet so far from legendary

June 27, 2022 Steve 15

American Motors head George Romney didn’t realize it at the time, but he was onto something when he okayed the production of the 1957 Rambler Rebel. This was intended as a limited-production model, perhaps primarily […]

1965 Rambler American 440H
Letters to the Editor

AMC’s Roy Abernethy should have invested more in mid-sized cars

January 12, 2022 Steve 13

CJ recently wrote an exceptionally thoughtful comment that I would like to highlight on the front page as a letter to the editor. This missive was in response to the story, “Historians differ on origins […]

1966 AMC Marlin
Fake Design

1965-66 AMC Marlin: How to fix beginner’s mistakes

October 30, 2020 Steve 5

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 […]

1967 Rambler Rebel 550 2-door coupe
History

How American Motors abandoned its uniqueness in the second half of the 1960s

January 1, 2020 Steve 0

The most strikingly quality of American Motors’ car designs developed in the mid-60s was how quickly the automaker ditched the Rambler look in favor of styling mostly indistinguishable from the Big Three. This was a […]

  • 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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