Indie Auto

Car and Driver says Ford Mustang will ‘murder’ the 1964 Plymouth Barracuda

by Steve in Links 9

(EXPANDED FROM 4/10/2024) A Car and Driver article on the just-introduced 1964 Plymouth Barracuda adopted an unusual format — a transcript of a conversation with a Chrysler official. When a road tester complained that the car’s underpinnings didn’t match its sporty styling, the Chrysler official insisted that he “had the wrong idea about the car in the [...]

Is David Kiley right that Ford should replace Lincoln with a new brand?

September 2, 2026 19

David Kiley (2026) recently argued in The Car Collective’s Substack newsletter that Lincoln should be killed. His opinion piece shows a lot more spunk than what one might find in the vapid pages of Automotive News, but I would question [...]

1972 Buick Skylark Custom represented the end of an era

September 1, 2026 5

The 1972 Buick Skylark Custom represented the end of an era in a number of ways. This was the last year that the brand’s mid-sized cars were called Skylarks. This was also the end for hardtops. Perhaps most importantly, 1972 marked [...]

1959 Ford Thunderbird was a gimmicky but hugely important car

August 26, 2026 12

(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 [...]

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

by Steve in Drive-By Musings 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 at the Ford styling studios. So much baloney has been written that just wasn’t true. Being surrounded every day in [...]