Ford Motor Co.
Ford should not have killed the Thunderbird nameplate
“The Thunderbird is a storied Franchise with more equity than many other old nameplates. Why Ford allows T-Bird awareness to seep away from American consciousness while Chevy introduces its 8th Corvette is beyond me. By […]
Acknowledging the politics of auto history
The auto buff media tends to avoid discussing the political dimensions of the industry for good reason. Readers can have strong views, so why risk antagonizing anyone? Indie Auto doesn’t want to make anyone mad, […]
Robert McNamara was involved in the Ford Mustang?
Retired Ford engineer Ben J. Smith said that he “wrote some very very strong letters to the product planning people and to Bob McNamara” when his manually-retractable roof design for the original Ford Mustang was rejected. […]
CO2 emissions: Automakers still partying like it’s 1975
The U.S. automobile industry has shown admirable ingenuity in developing new technologies to reduce the greenhouse gases produced by its cars and trucks. The problem is that a religious devotion to bigger, glitzier and more […]
Beltline hasn’t always given cars character in obvious ways
The beltline is the transition area between the bottom of a vehicle’s side windows and its body panels. It might have a piece of chrome or a crease, but until recently you were unlikely to […]
Groupthink
A tendency toward groupthink has been a chronic problem in the American automobile industry since the mid-50s. This was a key driver of the domestic automakers’ dramatic decline from the late-60s onward. More recently, foreign […]
Pillar (A-D)
Some of the American automobile’s more significant design changes have been reflected in the pillars of a greenhouse. For ease of discussion, pillars have been alphabetized. An A-pillar is on each side of a windshield. […]
