Encyclopedia of American Cars is a useful but sometimes inaccurate reference book

(EXPANDED FROM 4/26/2013)

Last weekend I made the trek to my favorite bookstore — Powell’s in Portland, Oregon. There I found a 1993 edition of the Encyclopedia of American Cars for $25. That struck me as a good deal because this is one of the reference books I have used most regularly — and my now-decades-old copy is falling apart.

Why did I buy a 1993 edition rather than the newer one, which came out in 2006? The latter covered cars produced from 1930 to 2006 whereas the earlier one only went up to 1990. However, the earlier edition included model-year production totals for brands. That was a handy feature deleted in the latter edition.

Both editions are oversized, hardback books that are upwards of 800 pages in length. Their formats are almost identical, although the latter edition has much smaller type in product-specification tables.

*An example of a 1993 (top image) and 2006 product-specification table.*

Encyclopedia has advantages over other reference books

I consider the Encyclopedia to be a decent alternative to the Standard Catalog of American Cars series (e.g., Gunnell, 2002; Flamming and Kowalke, 1999) as well as J. ‘Kelly’ Flory Jr.’s American Cars series (2004, 2009 2013).

Although the Standard catalogs and the American Cars series contain more detailed product data, the Encyclopedia has much more extensive text that provides a more complete historical overview of individual brands. In addition, I have found the Encyclopedia’s production figures to be somewhat more accurate.

That said, if you add up production figures for individual models, they may not necessarily total the figures shown in the table of total brand production. In addition, both the text and the tables can sometimes present data of questionable accuracy.

For example, the quote below about 1955 Plymouth production is, at best, confusing when compared to data from other sources (for further discussion go here; see Notes section).

This is why I routinely compare the production data in the Encyclopedia with the Standard catalogs and the American Cars series. When I find discrepancies, I may need to make an educated guess as to whose data is more accurate.

1962 Dodge ad — Most histories conclude that Chrysler design head Virgil Exner was opposed to an 11th-hour downsizing of the 1962 Dodge and Plymouth, yet the Encyclopedia stated the opposite. Click on image to enlarge (Old Car Brochures).

Newer edition recycles some questionable narratives

Although the newer edition of the Encyclopedia has added text for the years 1991 to 2006, the editors do not appear to have updated their analysis of the years 1930-90. As a result, the newer edition can recycle some questionable narratives.

As a case in point, both editions make the debatable argument that Plymouth’s “worst mistake of the ’60s” was the 1962 downsized big cars (p. 689; p. 694). The Encyclopedia’s editors go on to blame the Plymouth and corporate sibling Dodge on Chrysler design chief Virgil Exner, who “thought that if Americans liked compacts, they’d go for ‘downsized’ standard cars, too.” (p. 318; p. 326).

As we discuss further here, that narrative goes against most other histories. In addition, the Encyclopedia inaccurately stated that a restyled Plymouth in 1963-64 “didn’t help much” when they outsold the full-sized 1960-61 models (p. 689; p. 694). The data shown in the graph below is drawn from the Encyclopedia.

The editors of the Encyclopedia can’t argue that different takes weren’t available when the 2006 edition was updated. As a case in point, Collectible Automobile published stories by Jeffery Godshall about the Dodge in 1992 and John Katz about the Plymouth in 1995 that provide credible evidence that Exner was not the driver behind the downsizing.

The sense that I get is that the Encyclopedia’s editors — the auto editors of Consumer Guide — would rather save a buck than advance our collective understanding of American automobile history. If that is indeed true, that’s a terrible attitude to have when publishing an important reference book. So perhaps it is a good thing that a newer edition has not been published.

Let’s hope that the American Cars series — which is the newest of the major reference books — will take more seriously the need to update incorrect or obsolete information if newer editions are ever published.