Indie Auto

Follow-up thoughts on the future of the Chrysler brand

by Steve in Letters to the Editor 4

Indie Auto reader George Denzinger submitted a follow-up letter to a previous one concerning the 100th anniversary of the Chrysler brand (go here). First, thanks to Steve for posting my letter. I wanted to address a couple of things that people in the comments have noted my letter. Hondadriver (and others) noted that Stellantis has several vehicles that [...]

Ford gets back into the mid-sized game with redesigned 1966 Fairlane

March 13, 2026 9

(EXPANDED FROM 11/15/2023) Even though Ford came out with one of the first mid-sized cars in 1962, only three years later it was pummeled by General Motors and Chrysler. In 1965 even American Motors’ mid-sized lineup outsold Ford’s [...]

Adam Wade’s top-10 ugliest ‘classic’ cars list is decidedly quirky

March 11, 2026 19

Top-10 lists are inherently subjective, but Adam Wade’s (2026) ugliest “classic” cars strikes me as being particularly quirky. On his YouTube channel called Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History, Wade focuses on American cars from 1957-90. [...]

Could Iran war show that Detroit is too dependent on gas-guzzling vehicles?

March 9, 2026 26

As I write this, Automotive News has not yet posted a full news story on how a protracted war in Iran could impact U.S. car sales. The industry’s leading trade journal has only parenthetically made reference to the conflict as [...]

Why did American Motors fire Wells Rich and Greene in 1972?

March 6, 2026 6

(EXPANDED FROM 5/14/2024) American Motors and the ad agency Wells Rich and Greene would seem to have been a match made in heaven when they started to work together in 1967. After all, both had a penchant for unorthodox [...]

Was the 1966 Olds Cutlass Supreme the first mid-sized brougham model?

March 5, 2026 23

(EXPANDED FROM 2/14/2024) This is one of Indie Auto’s more hotly debated stories. Here I question Paul Niedermeyer’s (2024) contention that the 1966-67 Cutlass Supreme brought the “Great Brougham Epoch” to the mid-sized field. “With [...]

Splashy new cars often were the biggest disasters during the postwar period

by Steve in Drive-By Musings 5

One of the biggest assumptions of U.S. automakers in the postwar period was that they desperately needed splashy new cars. Yet when I think about the biggest disasters of that era, they often involved expensive product launches. Here I am not just talking about immediate flops such as the 1958 Edsel, 1962 downsized Plymouth/Dodge, 1971 Buick Riviera and [...]