Indie Auto

Early indications of Toyota embracing its inner Virgil Exner

by Steve in Design Notes 1

(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, 20121a). In the background was a Venza, which was produced for the U.S. market from the 2008 to 2015 model years (Wikipedia, 2025b). Even from afar you can see such a sharp stylistic shift that one might initially wonder if these cars were from different automakers. Yet this change in design philosophy occurred [...]

Despite its beauty, Humboldt may not be a good place to spend your sunset years

April 13, 2025 2

Humboldt County, California is so beautiful that I have thought about retiring there. However, I haven’t for one big reason: You tend to have to do a lot of long-distance driving to get your basic needs met, but I am moving into an age group where [...]

How could mighty General Motors collapse in such a spectacular fashion?

April 12, 2025 4

Business reporters for national newspapers tend to be at their best when they provide detailed, play-by-play coverage of major events in the U.S. auto industry. Unfortunately, they haven’t been as good in analyzing why things happened [...]

Why didn’t the Saab 93 catch on like the Volkswagen Beetle?

by Steve in Gallery 6

The Volkswagen Beetle was so popular in the United States during the 1960s that it can be viewed with an aura of inevitability. Even so, one could argue that the VW benefitted by being in the right place at the right time. Up through the late-60s, no other foreign automaker managed to so effectively cater to the American public’s demand for an economical small [...]

Automotive News does a poor job of assessing U.S. traffic death growth

April 10, 2025 0

In celebration of its 100-year anniversary, Automotive News has been running a series of news articles that “honor our legacy by connecting topics of today with our historical coverage as we look ahead to the next 100 years.” This [...]

1954 Packard Clipper: The car that ended the automaker’s independence

April 9, 2025 69

(EXPANDED FROM 7/15/2022) I can’t usually tell in advance whether an article will hit a nerve. As a case in point, I didn’t think this one about the 1954 Packard Clipper would generate much notice. Perhaps the biggest reason why it did [...]

Richard Teague interview hints at why he needed stronger oversight at AMC

by Steve in Multimedia 10

Lately I have been listening to an interview David Crippen did with Richard Teague in 1985. This was a few years after Teague retired from leading the design staff of American Motors (Wikipedia, 2025). The interview was frustrating because there was no written transcript posted and the audio recordings have inaudible passages. In addition, the conversation [...]

The 1967-74 AMC Ambassador didn’t measure up in roominess or quality

April 7, 2025 3

(EXPANDED FROM 10/15/2021) A lingering point of contention in the auto history media has been whether the last-generation AMC Ambassador had as much interior room as the Big Three’s full-sized cars. The short answer: Not quite. [...]

Motor Trend coverage shows rise of imported cars in the late-1950s

April 4, 2025 2

Car-buff magazines have tended to focus primarily on entertaining their readers. Thus, they have mostly avoided serious topics until they become too pressing to ignore. That’s why I find interesting how Motor Trend magazine [...]

Would U.S. automakers have done better if high tariffs had always been in place?

April 3, 2025 4

Automotive News has been celebrating its 100-year anniversary by running articles that offer historical context about current events. The Trump administration’s “Liberation Day” tariffs would be a particularly valuable topic for [...]

Richard Langworth’s death raises questions about auto history’s future

by Steve in Readings 0

Indie Auto reader Zachary Morecraft suggested in the “Story Idea Bank” that we do a piece on Richard M. Langworth, who died February 20 at the age of 83. Langworth was such a towering presence within the American auto history field that I am surprised his passing has not generated more attention. Wikipedia (2025) lists three-dozen auto history books that [...]