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HomeStellantis

Stellantis

1957 Packard proposa
Multimedia

Film shows Fred Hudson’s design talent — and groupthink

January 2, 2025 Steve 9

(EXPANDED FROM 1/25/2023) When rechecking links I was disappointed to see that Hemmings has apparently deleted one of the better comment-thread discussions about late-50s American car design. This illustrates a downside of the digitization of […]

1956 Ugly Car of Year Award
Design Notes

1956 Ugly Car of the Year Award: Indies get desperate

December 31, 2024 Steve 17

(EXPANDED FROM 11/25/2022) For 1956 the Big Three were on relatively good behavior. Only two of their products was outrageous enough to be nominated for Indie Auto’s Ugly Car of the Year Award. All the […]

Parody ads about the auto industry and media
Our Sponsors

Automotive Views: The otherworldly truth about Virgil Exner

December 29, 2024 Steve 0
1965 Ford Mustang
History

Lee Iacocca got lucky with the 1964-66 Ford Mustang

December 27, 2024 Steve 13

(UPDATED FROM 11/18/2022) The original Ford Mustang was the automotive equivalent of The Beatles rock band. The U.S. auto industry had never seen anything like it — a small sporty car that proved so popular […]

1970 Plymouth 'Cuda rear quarter
Gallery

1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda had a jump-the-shark quality

December 14, 2024 Steve 4

I just finished transferring my photo collection to a new program, so I thought I would play around with the controls. What better way to do it than by editing pictures of a 1970 Plymouth […]

Design Notes

Ford did better than Chrysler in differentiating its 1970s mid-sized coupes

December 13, 2024 Steve 13

(EXPANDED FROM 5/14/2021) A few years ago CJ and Geeber commented that the 1975 Dodge Charger would have worked better if it had been given the more distinctive design of the 1978 Magnum XE. That’s […]

1960 Lincoln Premiere 4-door hardtop
Data Dive

In 1960 Lincoln moved upmarket despite struggling sales

December 10, 2024 Steve 14

(EXPANDED FROM 8/9/2022) A few years ago Corey Lewis (2022) wrote that the 1960 Lincoln’s entry-level model was “rebranded as simply ‘Lincoln,’ to compete with the new base model Chrysler New Yorker (1960-1962) and Series […]

Fake Design

1957-58 Plymouth: Suddenly it could have been 1962!

December 6, 2024 Steve 17

(EXPANDED FROM 1/7/2022) When writing about the 1953-54 Plymouth, I wondered whether there could have been a compromise between the practicality of Chrysler head K. T. Keller and the trendiness of his successor, Tex Colbert. Let’s apply that question to […]

1971 Dodge Charger RT
Data Dive

1971-74 Dodge Charger: Making the most of a questionable idea

November 4, 2024 Steve 15

(EXPANDED FROM 5/16/2023) In response to the interesting conversation in the comment thread about Chrysler’s early-70s compacts, I thought it could be useful to expand on a data dive I did a while back on […]

1973 Dodge Dart
Drive-By Musings

Chrysler’s Lynn Townsend in 1973: Even a compact is too small

November 1, 2024 Steve 18

CEO Lynn Townsend hinted at why the Chrysler Corporation arguably neglected its aging line of compacts in the first half of the 1970s. Townsend told Forbes in 1973, “The subcompacts are just too small. The […]

Posts pagination

« 1 … 10 11 12 … 23 »
  • Is Jaguar smart to run away from its design heritage?
    October 8, 2026 21
  • 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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