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1980s
Letters to the Editor
Reader offers additional reasons for ‘lower, longer and wider’ trend
Our “Auto Paedia” article about Detroit’s tendency to make its cars “lower, longer and wider” during the post-war period continues to generate an interesting discussion in the comment thread. One comment I would like to […]
Satire
A story about George Romney’s family that draws upon all of AMC’s nameplates
The other day a commentator on a political blog joked that Mitt Romney’s parents “did a lot of rambling in those days, but oddly enough none ever served as an ambassador.” That led me to […]
Readings
Charles Hyde’s AMC book doesn’t get why automaker failed
(UPDATED FROM 10/16/2020) Charles K. Hyde’s history of American Motors and its constituent companies is a valuable scholarly addition to the literature. His book, Storied Independent Automakers: Nash, Hudson and American Motors, offers considerably more […]
Current Events
Auto industry analyst Maryann Keller was a key critic of ‘Detroit Mind’
I think it is important to acknowledge the death of automotive analyst Maryann Keller for two reasons. First, because she offered one of the most prescient perspectives on the U.S. auto industry’s decline. Second, because […]
Auto Paedia
‘Detroit Mind’ led to collapse of U.S. automakers
(EXPANDED FROM 9/18/2020) “Detroit Mind” is the label Brock Yates gave to the worldview of U.S. automakers from the 1950s into the 1980s. This was epitomized by a focus on cars that were “too large, […]
Quotes
Negative aspects of interstate highways received little initial attention
“The widespread support for the construction of the interstate highway system reflected an era when few questioned the benefits of automobile-based mobility. Even urban officials welcomed the penetration of the interstates into their cities, assuming […]
Links
‘Driven To Write’ offers European take on a noncommercial auto website
I have mentioned before that monitoring the American automotive media reminds me of the Bruce Springsteen song, “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On).” The buff magazines and websites spend so much time trying to mimic each […]
Current Events
How come a car that goes 0-60 in 9.7 seconds is now so terrible?
Last summer a Jalopnik review of the Mazda MX-30 led to a debate in the comment thread about what is adequate acceleration. Writer Ken Saito (2021) had just concluded that the electric crossover’s 0-60 time […]
Quotes
Retired GM designer mused about gender and penny-pinching
“What distressed most of us was that we could never be identified as just designers. We were always the ‘la femmes,’ or we were the female designers, and that — we were designers, and men […]