Indie Auto

1959 Ford Thunderbird was a gimmicky but hugely important car

by Steve in Gallery 10

(EXPANDED FROM 8/16/2024) I have never been very attracted to the 1958-60 Ford Thunderbird’s gimmicky styling. However, I still must admit that this is one of the most important cars of the postwar era. And while the T-Bird’s design was heavily informed by the sci-fi exuberance of the late-50s, it wasn’t nearly as overdone as a 1958 Edsel or Lincoln. So [...]

Compact cars became the neglected stepchildren of U.S. automakers

August 21, 2026 21

(EXPANDED FROM 6/26/2024) Compact cars represented a dramatic change for U.S. automakers when they were introduced in the early-1960s. After spending the previous decade making its “standard-sized” cars bigger, glitzier [...]

AMC’s Roy D. Chapin Jr. succumbed to the illusion of bigness

August 19, 2026 2

(EXPANDED FROM 1/8/2021) When writing a story about the 1974 AMC Ambassador, I came across American Motors car brochures for 1979 and 1980 that took the unusual step of picturing the company’s headquarters in [...]

Ford’s design talent in the 1970s wasn’t enough to halt a dramatic slide in sales

August 14, 2026 13

Recently a retired Ford designer stopped by to offer a response to our story, “How 1960s car design reflected the good old (boy) days.” “I started my career at Ford styling in 1960. Retired in 1998. I have lots and lots of true stories about the real world [...]

Why wasn’t the 1971 ‘boat-tail’ Buick Riviera shrunk to compact size?

August 14, 2026 24

(UPDATED FROM 6/16/2024) David Burrell has written what may be the most detailed account of how William Mitchell vainly tried to shift the “boat-tail” 1971 Buick Riviera to a mid-sized platform. Burrell’s story in Retro Autos (2021) [...]

Patrick Foster’s Hudson book emphasized pictures and boosterism

August 14, 2026 3

(EXPANDED FROM 3/5/2021) Patrick R. Foster’s Hudson Automobiles: An Illustrated History lives up to its title. If you are mainly interested in pictures, this is your book. The 128-page paperback is dominated by photographs, artist [...]

Would the 1969 Ford Mustang have sold better if it had been smaller?

by Steve in Fake Design 23

(EXPANDED FROM 8/27/2024) A major goal of Indie Auto is to question conventional wisdom — which will all but inevitably generate controversy. That was certainly the case with the following story, which argued that the 1969 Ford Mustang might have sold better if it had been trimmed in size and price. Ford had instead increased the size of the Mustang, [...]