Wayne Kady comments about the bustleback Buick:
The April 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile has a letter from retired General Motors’ designer Wayne Kady. He described how GM’s head designer William Mitchell ordered him to get rid of the 1971-73 Buick Riviera’s boattail by grafting on a semi-bustleback from a rejected small Cadillac proposal. This was in response to pressure from Buick management.
“My personal feeling was that I accomplished what was asked of me, but took no satisfaction in making the [1974-76] Riviera more conventional and taking away its unique look,” Kady wrote, adding that sales did not improve.
This is a useful update to our story, “Did Wayne Kady screw up the 1974-76 Buick Riviera?” I had speculated that Mitchell may have been a bigger player than Kady on the partial — and not very successful — redesign.
A reason why the Grand Wagoneer is so generic?
Daniel Strohl (2021) of Hemmings recently asked whether the 2021 Jeep Grand Wagoneer owes more to Brooks Stevens’s original or to other Jeeps. He proceeded to offer a useful overview of Jeeps that could have influenced the forthcoming top-end sport-utility vehicle.
Strohl (2021) paid particular attention to the 2006-2010 Commander, which sold so poorly that it was trenchantly criticized by Fiat Chrysler head Sergio Marchionne. Less than 112,000 Commanders left the factory before the plug was mercifully pulled (Wikipedia, 2021). Strohl speculated that this may have influenced designers and product planners of the Grand Wagoneer to avoid the Commander’s approach.
That may well be the case. The Commander’s wheelbase was apparently too short to adequately fit a third row of seats. However, its styling arguably expressed the Jeep’s rugged persona much better than the Grand Wagoneer, which is surprisingly generic. Go here for further discussion.
RE:SOURCES
- Kady, Wayne; 2021. “Those Smaller Cadillacs.” Collectible Automobile. April issue: p. 5.
- Strohl, Daniel; 2021. “Does the new Jeep Grand Wagoneer owe more to the Brooks Stevens original or to other Jeeps along the way?” Hemmings. Posted Jan. 26; accessed Jan. 28.
- Wikipedia; 2021. “Jeep Commander (XK).” Page last modified Jan. 25; accessed Jan. 28.
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