Maryann Keller was one of the most astute automotive analysts of the last half century. A short passage in her 1993 book, Collision, arguably sums up as well as anyone the primary reason why General […]
(UPDATED FROM 9/23/2022) The easiest way to sum up the spectacular failure of the DeLorean Motor Company is to say that its founder was exceptionally unlucky. I am hard pressed to think of a worse […]
(EXPANDED FROM 11/1/2018) “Grosse Pointe myopians” is a pejorative term that automotive journalist Brock Yates (2018) gave to the management class of U.S. automakers in an essay published in the April 1968 issue of Car […]
(EXPANDED FROM 8/19/2022) The topic that has elicited the greatest blowback from Indie Auto readers has been my argument that the U.S. auto industry was less able to respond to a rising tide of imports […]
A few days ago Aaron Severson (2024) posted an epic story about the aborted Ford Cardinal. His 22,000-word piece deepens the dialogue about this important car. In a moment we will debate some of his […]
John Beltz has been pointed to as one of the more forward-looking General Motors’ executives of the early-70s, but he came across as rather cautious in a lengthy Motor Trend (1970) interview. He was the […]
Roger Sizemore had the feeling that Chrysler was going in the wrong direction. The product planners talked excitedly about selling at least 200,000 Plymouth Barracudas and Dodge Challengers annually. Yet the all-new 1970 pony cars […]
Recently published figures from Automotive News suggest that the dealership networks for U.S. automakers have changed dramatically since the early-1960s. For one thing, the Big Three’s total number of franchises — 19,249 as of January […]
Henry Goverti was a huge fan of the Thunderbird. He had owned three of them — and still drove a 1966 convertible to work in the summer. It had a certain flair that epitomized the […]
(EXPANDED FROM 6/18/2021) In selecting the 1966 Oldmobile Toronado as its Car of the Year, Motor Trend (2005) took out its pom-poms and gushed that “never in the 14-year history of this award has the […]
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