Random Shots
A road sign with a sense of humor?
Was this sign on a highway in Maui, Hawaii turned upside down — and put unusually low on its post — to humorously emphasize the size of an impending dip? Or was the sign’s installer […]
2010s
Quotes
‘Doling out progress at the minimum possible rate’
“The US auto industry has been perhaps the best example of a sector falling into a rut and doling out progress at the minimum possible rate for at least 30 years. It’s criminal IMO that […]
Media Analysis
Automotive News stops dragging its knuckles on climate change
A recent Automotive News editorial (2020) flatly declared that the planet “is warming at a dangerous rate, and the global auto industry has a major role to play in fixing the problem.” Another unsigned editorial […]
Links
On the origins of the 1974 Riviera and 2021 Grand Wagoneer
Wayne Kady comments about the bustleback Buick: The April 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile has a letter from retired General Motors’ designer Wayne Kady. He described how GM’s head designer William Mitchell ordered him to […]
Design Notes
How Toyota ruined the Scion xB
When the Scion xB was redesigned for the 2008 model year, it was upsized from a subcompact to a compact. That added a foot in length, almost three inches in width and more than 600 […]
Auto Paedia
Halo cars are popular but not always a good idea
Halo cars tend to quite popular — even wetness inducing — among auto enthusiasts. That’s because the mission of halo cars is mostly to generate a positive buzz about a brand rather than high sales. So […]
Editor's Note
Indie Auto wins 2020 E. P. Ingersoll Award
The Society of Automotive Historians has given the 2020 E. P. Ingersoll Award to Indie Auto. The award is named after Edward Platt Ingersoll (1861-1920), who was the editor of Horseless Age. This was the […]
Quotes
The future of auto blogging after the fall of Rome
“I think we’re kind of in a postmodern, ‘Fall of Rome’ era of blogging. The golden age is well behind us, and there’s a glut of content and channels, a few barons and a lot […]
Media Analysis
Elon Musk’s infamous interview: What the auto media missed
Joe Rogan’s (2018) podcast with Elon Musk may very well be the most infamous — and high-visibility — interview of an automotive executive ever conducted. Alas, the event received so much attention for the wrong […]
Random Shots
Homeless campers forced to go somewhere else
The growth in homelessness in the Pacific Northwest has resulted in increasingly large numbers of people living in their cars, campers and trailers. The above photograph from a year ago shows an encampment along a […]