Indie Auto

What do automakers refuse to offer that car buyers actually want?

by Steve in Drive-By Musings 3

Larry Printz (2026) recently posted a particularly useful article that deserves wider distribution. The title sums up his beef: “Five Things Automakers Won’t Do That Car Buyers Actually Want.” Printz’s (2026) list is so obvious that you may very well be able to brainstorm most of his items before reading on: 1) stop putting everything on a screen, 2) build [...]

Did the 1960-64 big Ford sell so poorly because of cannibalization?

October 16, 2026 37

(EXPANDED FROM 7/30/2024) Aaron Severson (2009) has argued that when Ford added the Falcon and Fairlane in the early-60s, they did well initially but “total sales during that period remained almost flat.” In other words, the [...]

Was 1969 the beginning of the end for the Ford Thunderbird four-door Landau?

October 14, 2026 7

(EXPANDED FROM 5/6/2024) Some have argued that the 1967-71 Thunderbird four-door Landau was a strategic error. For example, James E. Duvall (2024) wrote that the new body style played a major role in “forever” changing “what [...]

Is Jaguar smart to run away from its design heritage?

October 8, 2026 21

Larry Printz (2026) recently declared that the new Jaguar Type 01 was on the right track because it stopped trying to update the design DNA that had made the brand so iconic. In a way he has a point. The retro styling movement has been littered [...]

Why does Joe Ligo’s PBS series sanewash AMC’s mid-70s recklessness?

October 6, 2026 21

(EXPANDED FROM 5/28/2025) The Society of Automotive Historians (2026) recently gave the 2026 E. P. Ingersoll Award to The Last Independent American Automaker. This television documentary about American Motors strikes me as an [...]

A pyrrhic regulatory rollback and how poorly the 1978 Matador coupe sold

October 2, 2026 12

The American car-buff media has struck me as rather stale lately, but one relative newcomer has offered a ray of hope. The Car Collective’s Substack is a “newsletter” (re: a website with email distribution) that is a shared venue for 11 automotive [...]

Three rules led to a stultifying level of conformity in 1960s U.S. car design

by Steve in Design Notes 12

The 1960s are often described as a golden age for U.S. car design, but they still suffered from a stultifying level of conformity. To give you a sense of what I mean, let’s take a look at the three rules Detroit largely followed with the front-end design of passenger cars. Before proceeding, I should note that one can point to occasional exceptions to these rules — [...]