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Design excesses
Quotes
Is the 2000 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am uglier than a Mitsuoka Orochi?
“I think this is a problem akin to ‘what’s the worst movie?’ Like, yes Plan 9 or Manos are both utterly incompetent pieces of filmmaking that fail at every level, but they were also independent releases […]
Design Notes
1955 Studebaker President hardtop hints at a road not taken
(EXPANDED FROM 12/1/2019) This may not be a very popular perspective, but I would suggest that the so-called Loewy coupes were at their best in 1955. Although the styling wasn’t nearly as clean as the […]
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Design Notes
Early indications of Toyota embracing its inner Virgil Exner
(EXPANDED FROM 4/11/2014) The above photograph shows the beginning of Toyota’s embrace of sci-fi styling. In the foreground, the second-generation Sienna minivan (which was produced from 2003 to 2009) has simple but attractive styling (Wikipedia, […]
Auto Paedia
‘Lower! Longer! Wider!’ fixation of US automakers left opening for imports
(EXPANDED 10/24/2022) “Lower, longer, wider” was the domestic automakers’ dominant design approach until they were forced to downsize their fleet in the late-1970s due to federal fuel-economy standards. Since that time automakers have at least […]
Design Notes
Obesity wins even when it loses with pony cars
(EXPANDED FROM 3/4/2015) The 1993-2003 Chevrolet Camaro is a paradox. It sold so poorly that it was discontinued. This was a doubly painful failure given that the fourth-generation Camaro had a more modern body than the Ford Mustang’s. […]
Quotes
Peter DeLorenzo: Automakers have gone overboard on ‘all-terrain’ vehicles
“As I’ve said repeatedly since founding this website, the automobile business is first and foremost a fashion business. It is consumed by trends, fads and what’s perceived as ‘hot’ at the moment. And before we’re […]
Media Analysis
The downside of auto historians writing about their friends
(EXPANDED FROM 7/17/2020) One of the hazards of any kind of writing is that you can get too close to your subjects. In anthropology this has been called “going native.” Because we are human, we […]
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