I have mixed reactions to Joe Ligo’s (2025) fourth episode of his six-part television series on American Motors. This 30-minute program focuses on the automaker’s two final big-ticket redesigns before losing its independence: the 1974 […]
(EXPANDED FROM 7/15/2021) A few years ago Curbside Classic commentator Chris Cieslak (2021) noted that American Motors toyed with the idea of hiring John Z. DeLorean after he left General Motors. This brings up an […]
Once upon a time the Henry Ford museum sponsored an automotive design oral history project. Among the people interviewed was Roy D. Chapin Jr., who led American Motors from 1967-77. The Automobile in American Life […]
(EXPANDED FROM 3/19/2021) This story has received more reader pushback than almost any other single piece that I have published in Indie Auto. Even so, I think that it epitomizes what this blog is all […]
(EXPANDED FROM 3/24/2023) Our recent discussion about a smaller, more internationally-flavored Ford Mustang led me to expand on a previously-posted story about the 1968-70 AMX. American Motors was arguably in a better position than Ford […]
The January 1975 issue of Popular Mechanics offered a breathless peek at a new generation of smaller cars that would supposedly be “big on the inside but small outside.” Although the story included sketches of […]
Car and Driver under David E. Davis gave the royal treatment to American Motors’ head Roy D. Chapin Jr. A case in point was a story about the 1970 AMC Hornet, which treated Chapin’s marketing […]
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 […]
(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 […]
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