American Motors head George Romney didn’t realize it at the time, but he was onto something when he okayed the production of the 1957 Rambler Rebel. This was intended as a limited-production model, perhaps primarily […]
I think it is important to acknowledge the death of automotive analyst Maryann Keller for two reasons. First, because she offered one of the most prescient perspectives on the U.S. auto industry’s decline. Second, because […]
(UPDATED FROM 8/7/2020) I enjoy reading automotive designers talk about what it was like to back in the 1960s. A part of me is interested purely for the nostalgia of it all. But another part […]
“A Dodge Charger? A piece of sculpture? What the hell kind of individual artistic statement can that be when 50,000 people a year make the same statement? Besides, you’ve got to admit that an objet d’art created […]
(UPDATED FROM 1/29/2021) Documentary films contribute to automotive history in a different way than words on a page (either paper or electronic). In general, film can capture much better the human elements of a situation, […]
“For the past three model years, the industry has been tossing trial balloons at the American car buyer in an effort to determine ‘how small is compact?’ or, in other terms, what sizes of automobiles […]
While the 1961 Chrysler was hardly a stylistic masterpiece, it strikes me as being the least weird of the automaker’s lineup in that model year. The Plymouth suffered from a bizarre shark-faced fascia, the Imperial’s […]
(EXPANDED FROM 2/26/2021) A few years ago John E. Mohr assessed how advertising for the Chevrolet Corvair reflected the “gendered nature of automobility in 1960s America” (2020, p. 24). In an essay published in the […]
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