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Month: April 2025
Fake Design
Was the 2002-5 Ford Thunderbird two-seater inspired or stupid?
I have mixed feelings about the 2002-5 Ford Thunderbird. I am glad the automaker brought back the storied nameplate and think that this generation had a few interesting design touches. That said, the car strikes […]
History
It’s too bad that the late-70s big Chrysler didn’t become a stretched Volare
(EXPANDED FROM 12/30/2022) This story operates on two levels. The first one is how the car-buff media could be wrong in its predictions about future products. The second level looks at how slow the Chrysler […]
Photo Essay
Old-fashioned Skamania may have anticipated the automobile’s future
How small is the hamlet of Skamania? So small that its focal point appears to be a general store that doesn’t have much food, there is only one gas pump, and the restroom consists of […]
Quotes
Commentators explain how a fat Corvette stops space aliens
Some of the web’s most important writing is buried in auto blog comment sections. One of my all-time favorites is a soliloquy by Truth About Cars commentator Petezeiss (2014). In response to criticisms of the 2015 Corvette Z06’s weight gain, […]
Drive-By Musings
How might John Z. DeLorean have done as head of AMC?
(EXPANDED FROM 7/15/2021) A few years ago Curbside Classic commentator Chris Cieslak (2021) noted that American Motors toyed with the idea of hiring John Z. DeLorean after he left General Motors. This brings up an […]
Media Analysis
Does Automotive News have a realistic plan for fighting Trump’s tariffs?
Automotive News (2025) recently displayed an eye-opening strategy when endorsing a U.S. Senate bill that would strengthen Congress’s role in overseeing the president’s tariff policies. For one thing, the unsigned editorial emphasized in the headline […]
Links
Knudsen’s favored 1972 Mark IV design borrowed from the Eldorado
(EXPANDED FROM 8/5/2022) A few years ago Dean’s Garage posted a fascinating story about the battle over the 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV’s styling. Jim and Cheryl Farrell (2022) described how a design proposal championed […]
Data Dive
Implosion of early-1950s compacts hints at product-proliferation dangers
The most significant postwar trend among independent automakers was a rush to compact cars. Between 1950 and 1953 four automakers came out with new entries. This would prove to be a double-edged sword. On the […]
Design Notes
Early indications of Toyota embracing its inner Virgil Exner
(EXPANDED FROM 10/25/2021) The above photograph shows the beginning of Toyota’s embrace of sci-fi styling. In the foreground, the second-generation Sienna minivan (which was produced from 2003 to 2009) had simple but attractive styling (Wikipedia, […]