Our “Story Ideas Bank” sometimes morphs into debates about specific historical events. George Denzinger recently weighed in on the death of Oldsmobile. This is a thoughtful analysis so I am elevating it to the front page. […]
“During the 1960s and 1970s GM was lulled into a false sense of security by its dominance of the market. There was certainly a bottom-line mentality, but this mentality dictated that additional costs be passed […]
Peter Wilding offered a detailed comment about our our post, “The switch to smaller cars began before the first oil embargo in late-1973.” I don’t agree with everything that he says, but he makes some […]
The shift to smaller cars was happening before the first oil embargo, which stretched from October 1973 through March 174 (Wikipedia, 2023). In an October 1972 column, Popular Science Automotive Editor Jan P. Norbye walked […]
Automotive News’ obituary of Gerald C. Meyer treated his tenure at American Motors with kid gloves. Meyers died on June 19 at the age of 94. Presenting a largely upbeat narrative would make sense if […]
Automotive pundit Peter DeLorenzo (2023a) likes to needle industry executives such as Ford’s Jim Farley, whom he has dubbed the “I’m a genius just ask me” CEO. Thus, I was struck by how he presented […]
“The hubris of its executives related to consumer needs, an obsession with big cars, garish designs coming from its studios, the neglect of safety and air pollution matters, and rising prices all played into the […]
“The small cars that Detroit had produced, [Hal Sperlich] believed, had been bad ones, reluctant efforts at best. If anything the companies had brought out inferior, unappealing small cars to prove their own thesis that […]
“GM’s old critics were sharpening their knives. In January [1992] David E. Davis, editor and publication director of Automobile magazine, gave a biting speech to the Washington Auto Press Association in which he blasted past […]
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