Gallery
Year: 2021
Data Dive
1955-56 Chryslers: ‘Forward Look’ wasn’t as successful as sometimes assumed
A fairly common narrative in U.S. automotive history is how Virgil Exner saved Chrysler in the mid-50s. Some historians tell a dramatic tale of how he pulled the automaker out of a tailspin caused by […]
Quotes
Automotive News: Late-50s one of the best eras for U.S. car design
“But it was after he joined Chrysler in 1949 that (Virgil) Exner made his most lasting impression, with Chrysler’s ‘Forward Look.’ Exner couldn’t change Chrysler’s upright, dowdy cars fast enough. Featuring bodacious, streamlined bodies and tail fins, the ‘Forward Look’ […]
Gallery
Current Events
How would you save the Chrysler brand?
Jalopnik recently took a walk on the clickbaity side by asking readers how they would save Chrysler: The brand. The post by Rory Carroll (2021) elicited the usual range of responses, from earnestly mundane to […]
Readings
Patrick Foster’s George Romney bio is rose-tinted but valuable
Patrick Foster (2005) once lamented that he couldn’t find a publisher for a book on George Romney. “A typical rejection goes something like this: George Romney led an exemplary life, was honest in business, never […]
Random Shots
A road sign with a sense of humor?
Was this sign on a highway in Maui, Hawaii turned upside down — and put unusually low on its post — to humorously emphasize the size of an impending dip? Or was the sign’s installer […]
Quotes
‘Doling out progress at the minimum possible rate’
“The US auto industry has been perhaps the best example of a sector falling into a rut and doling out progress at the minimum possible rate for at least 30 years. It’s criminal IMO that […]
Quotes
Keith Bradsher: ‘Extreme users’ in auto media have driven SUV design
“Even some auto executives and engineers complain that media comparisons of off-road driving capabilities have put pressure on them to design ever taller vehicles with ever more expensive four-wheel-drive systems that almost nobody needs. In […]
Media Analysis
Automotive News stops dragging its knuckles on climate change
A recent Automotive News editorial (2020) flatly declared that the planet “is warming at a dangerous rate, and the global auto industry has a major role to play in fixing the problem.” Another unsigned editorial […]