The 1958 Buick represented the swan song of head stylist Harley Earl’s drive to turn General Motors cars into chrome-ladden rolling sculpture. The public massively rejected the Buick’s toothy look; production fell to less than a third of […]
Curbside Classic recently posted an unusually detailed discussion in a comment thread about why a merger did not occur between Hudson, Nash, Packard and Studebaker (Shafer, 2015). While the speculation is interesting, I’d question the underlying assumption […]
Keith Crain’s prevously-mentioned Automotive News column illustrates how dramatically expectations have changed about industry volume. In 2014 sales hit 16.5 million units. That was only good for ninth place in the record books. Crain (2014) noted that […]
In a vague sense this book is an update of The Story of Jeep (Foster, 1998). However, like Patrick R. Foster’s other recent books, Jeep: America’s Greatest Vehicle, is much more graphically oriented. While not quite as large […]
(UPDATED 12/15/2022) Volkswagen Group’s global design chief Walter de Silva is worried that optimizing aerodynamics in order to meet tightening emissions standards could hurt aesthetics and branding. In an Automotive News question-and-answer piece, he complained […]
“Consumer Reports‘ attitude toward cars, in general, can perhaps best be divined by its conclusion on the 1959 Cadillac Sixty Special in its 1959 new car issue: ‘An expenditure sufficient to buy this Cadillac will […]
Information is hard to find for minor imported brands such as Saab. Thus, any book on this automaker is helpful. Saab Cars is an oversized hard-cover book with a nice balance between text and large, full-color […]
This is another oversized coffee table book by Consumer Guide that emphasizes color photos and brief analysis. The editorial tone can at times be quite critical of the American automakers, as the quote below about […]
As the title suggests, this is essentially a picture book. The photographs are large but all black and white. The captions offer a mix of product information and a brief analysis about why Kaiser-Frazer failed. Kaiser-Frazer: […]
This a visually appealing and well-balanced Studebaker history for those who don’t already have one on their shelf. For those who do, the main appeal of Studebaker: The Complete History may be its generous supply of large […]
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