Luxury cars
Did African-American car buyers save Cadillac in the 1930s?
(EXPANDED FROM 4/18/2023) According to Ed Cray’s (1980) Chrome Colossus, in 1932 Cadillac was in danger of being discontinued when a young service manager named Nicholas Dreystadt crashed a General Motors’ executive committee meeting to […]
Why did the 1968 Imperial sell so poorly in a booming market?
The domestic luxury-car field saw output rise by a healthy 11 percent in 1968, but the Imperial went in the opposite direction — down by almost 13 points. At least on paper, the Imperial should […]
What if the 1962 Cadillac had been similar in size to the 1949 models?
At this year’s LeMay car show I photographed a 1949 and a 1962 Cadillac. They struck me as bookends for what I have dubbed the “sci-fi” era of this brand. Designers started off with tailfins […]
Was 1969 the beginning of the end for the Ford Thunderbird four-door Landau?
When I decided to write about the 1969 Ford Thunderbird four-door Landau, I suspected that Indie Auto readers would find my resulting article controversial. That’s because this body style has sustained a fair amount of […]
Lincoln-Zephyr was a first step in Ford surpassing Chrysler
(EXPANDED FROM 4/11/2022) The 1936-42 Lincoln-Zephyr is a more important car than is commonly assumed. Not only did it offer notably advanced styling and engineering, but it also represented the Ford Motor Company’s first meaningful […]
1963-64 New Yorker Salon was more ‘continental’ than the 1961-63 Lincoln
The Chrysler Corporation took some unusual steps in 1962-64 to rebuild its declining sales in the premium-priced and luxury-car fields. That included getting rid of the New Yorker two-door hardtop in 1962, downsizing senior Chryslers […]
Would Hudson have been Packard’s best merger partner?
(EXPANDED FROM 10/13/2021) A decade ago Curbside Classic commentator Steve (2014) offered one of the more thoughtful merger scenarios for Packard: He concluded that Hudson would have been the best choice. I think that Steve’s […]
What if the 1970 Lincoln Continental hadn’t slavishly copied Cadillac?
J. P. Cavanaugh’s (2024) recent ode to the 1969 Lincoln Continental got me thinking: What if the 1970 redesign returned to the more compact size of the groundbreaking 1961-63 models? What might that have looked […]
Genesis GV60 is relatively understated but still a quirky electric SUV
We’ve taken to task Hyundai for the gratuitously industrial styling of its Ioniq 5 (go here), so let’s take a look at its Genesis counterpart. The GV60 is based on the same platform as the […]
