Quotes
Gordon Buehrig on Ford’s attitude about small cars circa 1960
“Fred Hooven was a very good friend of mine and had a much bigger job at Ford than I did. He worked for Mike Ference. Henry Ford asked Ference — this was in 1960. He […]
Year: 2023
History
1971 Plymouth Valiant sedan impressed media more than buying public
A Popular Science road test ranked the 1971 Plymouth Valiant four-door sedan above two of its newest rivals — the Ford Maverick and AMC Hornet (Norbye and Dunne, 1971). That wasn’t a fluke — the […]
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Links
Auto history web page leads me to new sources of information
A staff member from the Hampton Public Library in Iowa asked if I would give visibility to an auto history web page dug up by a student assistant named Katrina. The page includes an article […]
Current Events
U.S. auto media still downplay or even ignore the biggest story of our era
Yesterday the automotive headlines were dominated by such important stories as the “grand debut” of a Dodge Challenger with 1,025 horsepower. Yet almost entirely absent from the trade journals and buff magazines was coverage of […]
Comment Highlights
1971 Cadillac Eldorado comment thread has a new round of discussions
Those who are interested in the origins of the 1971 Cadillac Eldorado might wish to check out a new round of discussions that have occurred over the last few days. Michael Karesh stopped by to […]
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Editor's Note
Thank you to fund-drive participants and a note on broken links
Over the last week we have had an encouraging number of readers participate in Indie Auto’s fundraising drive. These have included previous donors as well as new ones. Some donors offered comments. For example, DC […]
Media Analysis
How accurate were Popular Mechanics’ predictions about 1980s cars?
For its September 1975 issue, Popular Mechanics’ Detroit Editor Robert Lund asked executives from each of the Big Four U.S. automakers to predict what cars would be like in the decade ahead. Lund started off […]
Design Notes
The 1949 Kaiser-Frazer’s new body styles showed the limits to innovation
Kaiser-Frazer deserves credit for experimenting with offbeat ideas. Unfortunately, most of them didn’t work very well. This is why the fledgling automaker is a useful case study of how trying to be “innovative” can backfire […]