Ad Nauseam
Business strategies
Quotes
Peter DeLorenzo: Auto journalism is a pay-to-play-for-access game
“I believe that the glaring sameness of the so-called ‘enthusiast’ car mags is still there and it’s still highly annoying. And there’s no denying that the days for the hard-copy print mags are severely numbered, and when […]
Readings
Revealing photos of AMC Javelins that didn’t make it
The most poignant part of Javelin Photo Archive is a set of proposals for a lovely Gremlin-based hatchback intended for introduction in 1973 or 1974. The designs look like they could have sold quite well. […]
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 […]
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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 […]
Quotes
Should Richard Teague have walked away from American Motors?
“I went to American Motors as assistant director of styling in September 1959. I saw the ’60 Rambler, and I almost walked out the front door. It looked like it was chiseled out of marble […]
Quotes
Peter DeLorenzo: Stop 84-month auto financing
“I would like to see the end of usurious financing in the auto industry. I know, good luck with that. Every time this business faces a crisis, the auto manufacturers somehow deem that the return of […]
Readings
Studebaker: The Life and Death of an American Corporation
This is one of the better scholarly books about an auto company. Donald T. Critchlow achieves the rare feat of crafting a narrative that is engaging, analytically sophisticated and challenges industry groupthink in key respects. […]