The most valuable books I have bought of late have been J. “Kelly” Flory Jr.’s American Cars reference guides. This multi-volume set provides wide-ranging information on U.S.-made cars during the postwar era.
Flory’s series has some advantages over the Standard Catalog of American Cars. Perhaps most importantly, he came up with a format that is much easier to read because he doesn’t try to squeeze so many years into a single volume. The American Cars series has been packaged in a variety of ways (go here), but I ended up buying three books focusing on 1946-59, 1960-72 and 1973-80 passenger cars. These books collectively total more than 1,900 pages.
The price tag can add up. As I write this, used copies are available through Amazon.com in at least “good” condition for around $270 plus tax and handling.
Meanwhile, John Gunnell’s Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-75 (2002) spans 976 pages — and sells for around $48 on Amazon.com.
Is the added cost worth it? For me it is, but I’m not a casual reader — my books are basic tools of the trade.
One reason I like American Cars is that they are easier to use than the Standard catalogs. With more than twice as much page space to work with, Flory was able to use much larger text. He also includes more information, such as both exterior and interior dimensions of a given car. I appreciate that the books are hard backed, so they don’t flop around on my shelf like the paper-backed Standard catalogs.
American Cars are also organized differently. Whereas the Standard catalogs order content by brand name alphabetically, Flory does so by year. This can be a pain when I am researching a brand over multiple years, but this format did allow Flory to include an article that summarizes highlights from each model year. His analysis is fairly basic and I could quibble with a few details, such as that the facelifted 1974 AMC Matador/Ambassador “sold well” (see third quote below).
The volumes that I bought were published between 2004 and 2012. Books that cover a smaller number of years, such as 1953-59, 1960-65 and 1966-72, have been published more recently. That makes the series more current than the Standard catalogs devoted to postwar American cars, which were last published from 1999 to 2002. Is it naive for me to hope that American Cars has a greater likelihood of being updated than the Standard catalogs, which have suffered from neglect due to an ownership change (go here for further discussion)?
Mixed reviews point to the challenges of this genre
The Library Journal lauded American Cars as an “exhaustive store of information not easily located on the web” (Connolly, 2013). That would sum up my perspective as well. However, the books have not received universal praise.
An Amazon.com reviewer complained that nearly “every make contains assorted mistakes in specifications or other data.” These errors make “all the reference data untrustworthy. I was hoping this book would be my go-to guide but cross checking other publications is necessary to settle an argument with confidence” (themattmobile, 2024).
I get the frustration but take a more philosophical stance. This is a huge body of work — and I would guess that Flory may not have had access as much fact checking support as, say, the auto editors of Consumer Guide when they produced the Encyclopedia of American Cars (1993, 2006).
At any rate, auto history publishing tends to operate on such a shoestring that it makes sense to routinely cross check information. I usually compare what I read in American Cars with a Standard Catalog and the Encyclopedia.
Other Amazon.com reviewers complained that American Cars lacked large color photos. Those who want lots of pictures might prefer Consumer Guide’s books covering the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. I don’t find them very useful except to identify the year of a car.
It’s impossible for a reference book to be all things to all people, but American Cars strikes me as being a worthy effort that I hope will be updated — particularly by fixing any errors discovered by readers. That would give this book series a big leg up on those which are not updated.
American Cars, 1946 to 1959 (2008)
American Cars, 1960 to 1972 (2004)
American Cars, 1973 to 1980 (2013)
- J. Kelly” Flory Jr.
- McFarland & Company, Inc. Jefferson, North Carolina
“The new-for-1957 Chrysler Corporation cars returned for ’58 with trim changes and the new quad headlights. Chrysler divisions were plagued by quality issues that came to light on the 1957 models, such as rusting body panels, breaking torsion bars, and rare instances of transmission failures. These issues coupled with the recession harmed Chrysler more than Ford and General Motors, with a resulting 47 percent drop in model year production. To put that dramatic decrease into perspective there were over 50,000 more 1957 Plymouths built than the total production of all five Chrysler divisions combined in 1958.” (1946-59, p. 855)
“Chevrolet marketers had what they thought could be competition [for the Ford Mustang] if only temporarily, in the Corvair, but it took a direct hit from outside sources that would destroy its value in the marketplace. Realistically, a rear-engined economy car could not compete with the Mustang in most arenas. Chevrolet’s only front-engine, rear-wheel drive offering that could come close to the Mustang was the Chevy II with a V8 engine, but in reality, it was not a sporty car and wound up being the traditional Falcon competitor. The second factor in the loss of Corvair sales was the recently published book Unsafe at Any Speed by attorney Ralph Nader.” (1960-72, p. 428)
“The Matador sedan and wagon were facelifted this year, along with the ‘full-sized’ Ambassador. While the main body was mostly carried over from the 1967 structure, the front and rear styling was completely changed, more in an effort to meet federal safety requirements than for the sake of creating a new look. At the front, a new ‘coffin nose’ grille and bumper theme was apparent with a full-width grille and single headlamps on Matadors and dual headlamps for the Ambassador. The new front-end look, although a ‘love it or hate it’ style, was definitely unique and sold quite well.” (1973-80, p. 124)
OTHER REVIEWS:
Speedreaders | Library Journal | Amazon.com
RE:SOURCES
- Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 1993, 2006. Encyclopedia of American Cars. Publications International, Lincolnwood, IL.
- Connolly, Christina; 2013. “American Cars, 1973–1980: Every Model, Year by Year.” Library Journal. Posted April 1.
- Gunnell, John; 2002. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975. Revised Fourth Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- themattmobile, 2020. “Poor print quality and more.” Amazon.com review. Posted June 4.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcaradvertising.com: Ambassador (1974)
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