Our Sponsors
2000s
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 […]
Fake Design
1964 Imperial could have been a better Lincoln Continental
(EXPANDED FROM 10/2/2020) Indie Auto has previously mentioned that the 1961-63 Lincoln Continental represented a partial and short-lived deviation from Detroit groupthink. Let’s flesh out that argument with a fake 1964 Imperial. Yes, folks, lowly Chrysler could have outdone the Continental. […]
Quotes
Is Teutonic car design obsolete?
“Maybe. Then again . . . maybe not. Perhaps this is all just temporary. Consider what happened to American car design in the wake of the 1958 recession. Suddenly, all the jet-aged, tail-finned, twin-turbined, dynaflowed […]
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 […]
History
What is the right size for a Ford Mustang?
(UPDATED FROM 10/9/2020) Did Ford deviate too much from the original Ford Mustang’s size before finally getting it right once again in 2005? That year was pivotal because it was the first time in a quarter […]
Quotes
Sir Alex Moulton blasted the BMW Mini as too big and heavy
“It’s enormous. The (original] Mini was the best-packaged car of all time(; the BMW Mini) is an example of how not to do it. The interior space is not much bigger than the old Mini, […]
Quotes
Detroit automakers created an exciting but insular realm
“Cars and the car business infect some people’s blood, which is why that agglomeration of machinery and brains and money we call Detroit functions as a state of mind as much as an industry, not […]
Media Analysis
Automotive News takes the cheap way out by discontinuing comments
In a way I get Automotive News’ decision to stop accepting comments on its website. As we have previously discussed (go here), the quality of the discussions has tended to be depressingly poor. Alas, the […]
Media Analysis
Older Ford Mustangs got too big but not the newer ones?
(EXPANDED FROM 5/11/2020) Automobile magazine is dead but its Facebook page continues to recycle old articles. Yesterday the one million followers of this page were blessed with a reposted history of the Ford Mustang. Aaron […]