Business strategies
Was AMC seriously considering a late-70s Gremlin wagon?
Dan Strohl (2022) has posted a photograph of what could have been a Gremlin wagon prototype. His story and comment thread offer a number of plausible ideas about what AMC had in mind, but I […]
Eugene Bordinat: Robert McNamara was too logical
“[P]robably the guy that was most admired [by Ford Motor Company executive Lewis Crusoe] was [Robert] McNamara. He was a very concise speaker, he was a logician and prided himself that he was. He knew how […]
Auto industry analyst Maryann Keller was a key critic of ‘Detroit Mind’
I think it is important to acknowledge the death of automotive analyst Maryann Keller for two reasons. First, because she offered one of the most prescient perspectives on the U.S. auto industry’s decline. Second, because […]
Car and Driver declares the 1971 Dodge Charger artsy fartsy
“A Dodge Charger? A piece of sculpture? What the hell kind of individual artistic statement can that be when 50,000 people a year make the same statement? Besides, you’ve got to admit that an objet d’art created […]
Did 1963 ‘size shakeout’ really return US automakers to normalcy?
“For the past three model years, the industry has been tossing trial balloons at the American car buyer in an effort to determine ‘how small is compact?’ or, in other terms, what sizes of automobiles […]
Video by Joe Ligo offers good overview of the AMC Pacer’s demise
(UPDATED FROM 1/25/2014) Joe Ligo has produced a well-rounded overview of the AMC Pacer’s short and mostly unhappy life. The almost 35-minute documentary is posted on YouTube. “I’m impressed with the film,” wrote Truth About […]
1955-56 DeSoto Flight Sweep could have challenged the Studebaker Hawk
Dean’s Garage has a new post that displays a variety of Virgil Exner’s concept cars (Exner, 2022). The design I am most drawn to is the 1955-56 DeSoto Flight Sweep I and II. These are […]
1964 Imperial could have been a better Lincoln Continental
(EXPANDED FROM 10/2/2020) Indie Auto has previously mentioned that the 1961-63 Lincoln Continental represented a partial and short-lived deviation from Detroit groupthink. Let’s flesh out that argument with a fake 1964 Imperial. Yes, folks, lowly Chrysler could have outdone the Continental. […]
