
Business strategies


K. T. Keller predicted the end of late-50s styling excesses
K. T. Keller stepped down as Chrysler Corporation’s board chair in 1956 but he still weighed in on auto industry matters. For example, in a 1958 interview he made a rather pointed prediction that implied […]

Automotive News gets surprisingly negative on Tesla Cybertruck
Automotive News isn’t noted for tough-minded journalism, so I was surprised by the negative tone of a recent Tesla Cybertruck story. It started with the provocative headline: “Cyberflop? Tesla discounts Cybertruck as demand cools for […]

Brock Yates called postwar U.S. auto leaders ‘Grosse Pointe myopians’
(EXPANDED FROM 11/1/2018) “Grosse Pointe myopians” is a pejorative term that automotive journalist Brock Yates (2018) gave to the management class of domestic automakers in a groundbreaking essay published in the April 1968 issue of […]

The 1964-65 Lincoln Continental was a step backward rather than forward
(EXPANDED FROM 4/13/2022) A brochure for the 1964 Lincoln Continental was almost apologetic in describing “significant improvements” to the car. “You will appreciate greater leg room, knee room and head room. In the rear compartment, […]


Why did Mitsubishi fail in the United States?
(EXPANDED FROM 2/9/2024) There was good news and bad news about Mitsubishi’s U.S. sales in 2024. The good news: Sales were up 25 percent, led by its Mirage economy cars. The bad news: This was […]

Hotcars.com offers brilliant assessment of why the AMX didn’t sell very well
Us boomers can wax nostalgic about the great automotive journalists of the past. However, right under our noses a new generation is coming into its own that — truth be told — is even better […]

Imagine the 1951 Studebaker with a lighted nose
“. . . We (started facelifting) the ’51, which was a terrible looking spinner job. It had a transparent, plastic spinner inside, and, God, they were terrible looking cars. . . . I remember how that […]

What’s Collectible Automobile’s beef with the 1978-80 Pontiac Grand Prix?
(EXPANDED FROM 8/25/2022) One of the more curious aspects of the postwar U.S. auto industry is the way that dramatic change was often normalized by the media — as long as it went in the […]