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History
Lee Iacocca got lucky with the 1964-66 Ford Mustang
(UPDATED FROM 11/18/2022) The original Ford Mustang was the automotive equivalent of The Beatles rock band. The U.S. auto industry had never seen anything like it — a small sporty car that proved so popular […]
Gallery
1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda had a jump-the-shark quality
I just finished transferring my photo collection to a new program, so I thought I would play around with the controls. What better way to do it than by editing pictures of a 1970 Plymouth […]
Design Notes
Ford did better than Chrysler in differentiating its 1970s mid-sized coupes
(EXPANDED FROM 5/14/2021) A few years ago CJ and Geeber commented that the 1975 Dodge Charger would have worked better if it had been given the more distinctive design of the 1978 Magnum XE. That’s […]
Data Dive
In 1960 Lincoln moved upmarket despite struggling sales
(EXPANDED FROM 8/9/2022) A few years ago Corey Lewis (2022) wrote that the 1960 Lincoln’s entry-level model was “rebranded as simply ‘Lincoln,’ to compete with the new base model Chrysler New Yorker (1960-1962) and Series […]
Fake Design
1957-58 Plymouth: Suddenly it could have been 1962!
(EXPANDED FROM 1/7/2022) When writing about the 1953-54 Plymouth, I wondered whether there could have been a compromise between the practicality of Chrysler head K. T. Keller and the trendiness of his successor, Tex Colbert. Let’s apply that question to […]
Data Dive
1971-74 Dodge Charger: Making the most of a questionable idea
(EXPANDED FROM 5/16/2023) In response to the interesting conversation in the comment thread about Chrysler’s early-70s compacts, I thought it could be useful to expand on a data dive I did a while back on […]
Drive-By Musings
Chrysler’s Lynn Townsend in 1973: Even a compact is too small
CEO Lynn Townsend hinted at why the Chrysler Corporation arguably neglected its aging line of compacts in the first half of the 1970s. Townsend told Forbes in 1973, “The subcompacts are just too small. The […]
Data Dive
Which high-performance pony cars sold best in the early-1970s?
(EXPANDED FROM 5/2/2023) When car enthusiasts talk about high-end pony cars, they tend to focus on which ones were the fastest or won the most races. I would like to focus on a nerdier question: […]
History
A deeper dive into why Chrysler’s 1962 B-body wasn’t a stretched compact
Our recent story on the 1962 Chrysler B-body (go here) has generated a debate among auto history writers. In the article, I sided with those who had argued that the downsized Plymouth and Dodge were […]