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HomeDesign Notes

Design Notes

1969 International pickup
Design Notes

1969 International was too little, too late to save brand’s big-truck ambitions

June 24, 2025 Steve 4

(EXPANDED FROM 5/12/2023) This post has received a burst of new attention, so I thought it would be a good time to expand it. I have argued what may not be very popular with fans […]

Citroen SM
Design Notes

Citroen SM: A surprisingly conventional next step

June 12, 2025 Steve 8

(EXPANDED FROM 12/4/2020) In a post on the Saab 99, we mentioned how in the late-60s and early-70s a handful of iconoclastic automakers tried to mainstream their basic designs. A case in point was Citroën. […]

1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser C-pillar
Design Notes

1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser is a monument to Ford’s failed ambitions

May 27, 2025 Steve 12

(EXPANDED FROM 4/8/2022) The Edsel and Lincoln were the Ford Motor Company’s most visible failures of the late-50s, but the Mercury was also an embarrassment. The ill-fated Turnpike Cruiser epitomized both the promise and futility […]

1972 Buick Riviera
Design Notes

1971-73 Buick Riviera: The last stand against the broughamization of Detroit

May 15, 2025 Steve 24

(EXPANDED FROM 5/2/2022) Whatever else one might say about the 1971-73 Buick Riviera, its styling did represent a heroic level of resistance to the brougham look then sweeping through the U.S. auto industry. Instead of […]

1958 Packard left headlight pod
Design Notes

The 1958 Packard went too far in styling, size and pricing

May 6, 2025 Steve 17

(EXPANDED ON 9/30/2022) Indie Auto doesn’t generally dwell on collectible cars, but a restoration of a 1958 Packard shed light on what I have found to be one of the bigger peculiarities of the postwar […]

Willys and Brooks Stevens 1947
Design Notes

How Brooks Stevens’s designs for a postwar compact Willys evolved

April 24, 2025 Steve 8

(EXPANDED FROM 4/15/2022) Lately we have been talking about early-50s compacts, so I thought it was a good time to expand on aborted proposals from Willys. Prior to World War II this automaker had the […]

Second-generation Toyota Sienna minivan
Design Notes

Early indications of Toyota embracing its inner Virgil Exner

April 14, 2025 Steve 6

(EXPANDED FROM 10/25/2021) The above photograph shows the beginning of Toyota’s embrace of sci-fi styling. In the foreground, the second-generation Sienna minivan (which was produced from 2003 to 2009) had simple but attractive styling (Wikipedia, […]

1965 Plymouth Valiant
Design Notes

1963-66 Plymouth Valiant inched away from Virgil Exner’s styling quirks

April 2, 2025 Steve 8

(EXPANDED FROM 5/4/2022) One of my stylistic pet peeves is the 1963-65 Plymouth Valiant’s front fenders, which had weird, hairpin-shaped character lines. They undercut what in many respects was one of the cleaner compact designs […]

Design Notes

1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme: Monument to a fading dream

March 17, 2025 Steve 15

(EXPANDED FROM 15/8/2023) General Motors’ 1973 mid-sized cars were a major focus of our discussion about William Mitchell’s tenure as head of design. Thus, I thought it would be a good time to expand on […]

1972 Stutz Blackhawk
Design Notes

Which looked better: Exner’s 1966 Duesenberg or 1971-87 Stutz Blackhawk?

March 11, 2025 Steve 8

(UPDATED FROM 9/20/2021) A few years back Hemmings published a for-sale ad about a 1966 Duesenberg prototype designed by Virgil Exner (Stohl, 2017). The car shared major styling themes with another one Exner subsequently designed — […]

Posts pagination

« 1 … 3 4 5 … 9 »
  • Is Jaguar smart to run away from its design heritage?
    October 8, 2026 20
  • AMC Pacer clay model
    Why does Joe Ligo’s PBS series sanewash AMC’s mid-70s recklessness?
    October 6, 2026 20
  • 2026 Ram pickups
    A pyrrhic regulatory rollback and how poorly the 1978 Matador coupe sold
    October 2, 2026 12
  • 1962 Chrysler 300
    Did the 1962-65 Chrysler 300 ‘dilute’ the letter series?
    September 29, 2026 7
  • 1968 Ford Mustang
    Three rules led to a stultifying level of conformity in 1960s U.S. car design
    September 24, 2026 12
  • 1976ish Toyota Corolla
    Data on imports sheds light on their dramatic gains from 1964-80
    September 18, 2026 5
  • 1974 Chrysler New Yorker
    1974 Chrysler New Yorker was a tragedy that played out on four levels
    September 16, 2026 16
  • Internet problems reminded me of U.S. automakers in the 1970s
    May 2, 2026 1
  • 1956 Buick hood scoop
    Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
    October 14, 2022 141
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