Ad Nauseam
1960s
Quotes
Ford should not have killed the Thunderbird nameplate
“The Thunderbird is a storied Franchise with more equity than many other old nameplates. Why Ford allows T-Bird awareness to seep away from American consciousness while Chevy introduces its 8th Corvette is beyond me. By […]
Fake Design
1974 AMC Ambassador: GM envy to the ZiL degree
The 1974 Ambassador’s ZiL-like styling shows how AMC had succumbed to “GM envy” in the 1970s. This car was so big and ugly that it was doomed to failure. Yet American Motors wasted scarce resources […]
Readings
Standard Catalog about muscle cars screwed up its photos
The Standard Catalog folks offer a nice-looking book about muscle cars. Alas, the reference guide’s credibility is hurt by incorrect photos. The format for the Standard Catalog of American Muscle Cars: 1960-1972 has a lot […]
Readings
Champion of the Lark: Harold Churchill and the Presidency of Studebaker-Packard, 1956-1961
This is a scholarly book with a bit more product information than typical of the genre. Robert R. Ebert’s prose can be stilted but offers nuances not found elsewhere due to his careful parsing of corporate documents […]
Readings
Mister Javelin: Guy Hadsall Jr. at American Motors
First-person accounts by lesser-known auto industry leaders can add to the historical record in surprising ways. This is why the SAH Press, which is an arm of the Society of Automotive Historians, should be lauded […]
History
George Romney made eight big mistakes at AMC
George Romney may have been one of the U.S. auto industry’s best post-war leaders, but he made eight big mistakes while leading AMC from 1954-62. Some of his bad moves were costly enough to almost […]
Gallery
Media Analysis
Did Oldsmobile revolutionize the car industry?
(EXPANDED 10/31/2022) Did Oldsmobile revolutionize the car industry, as Mark J. McCourt (2020) has suggested? In a Hemmings article he described how Oldsmobile had been a leader in technological advancements such as high-compression V8s, turbocharged […]
Readings
“Remember those great Volkswagen ads?”
This oversized hardback book is a compendium of Volkswagen advertisements produced by Doyle Dane Bernbach. The format is quite simple: The 364-page book consists almost entirely of ads — 500 in all. Content is grouped […]