Our Sponsors
Design
Media Analysis
Designer Bob Nixon distanced himself from the ill-fated AMC Pacer
(UPDATED FROM 10/4/2014) Collectible Automobile’s interviews can be a valuable means of documenting automotive history, but they can also lead us astray due to inaccuracies. For one thing, the memories of key participants can fade […]
Photo Essay
Port Townsend: The American dream’s new — and old — end of the road
(EXPANDED FROM 5/28/2021) Some say that the American dream ends in the sun-drenched surf of California. That may have been the case in years gone by, but not anymore. In 2020 California recorded a net […]
Current Events
Why do Japanese automakers continue to make their vehicles look so scary?
My biggest takeaway from a trip to the 2024 Seattle auto show last week was how automakers continue to try to out outdo each other in making their cars and trucks looks scary. Why? Clotaire […]
History
Was GM’s approach to 1970s car design superior to Mercedes-Benz’s?
For its September 1973 issue, Motor Trend published a pro/con feature asking whether “romantic” styling was dead. In other words, did new considerations such as safety and pollution laws as well as more emphasis on […]
Gallery
1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk: A match made in hell
(EXPANDED FROM 4/2/2021) After Studebaker and Packard combined in 1954, Motor Trend anticipated the possibilities of the two automakers sharing resources. For example, the magazine imagined Studebaker’s lightweight cars getting Packard’s “monstrous new V8 engine, […]
Links
Motor Trend dares to complain that 1974 personal coupes had grown too big
Motor Trend magazine’s 1974 road test of seven personal coupes may have been rather vapid in many respects, but it did offer one useful critique. Writer Jim Brokaw complained that the largest models — the […]
History
Could Studebaker have come out of the 1970s as successful as Jeep?
(EXPANDED FROM 4/23/2021) A few years ago our story on Brooks Stevens’s redesign of the 1964 Studebaker generated enough debate that I decided to further flesh out an alternative scenario. To wit, Studebaker would have […]
Data Dive
Which high-performance pony cars sold best in the early-1970s?
(EXPANDED FROM 5/2/2023) When car enthusiasts talk about high-end pony cars, they tend to focus on which ones were the fastest or won the most races. I would like to focus on a nerdier question: […]
Design Notes
1968 Chevrolet Impala shows how much American cars changed in 10 years
We recently took a look at a 1958 Impala, so let’s fast forward 10 years. The 1968 Impala illustrates how much the U.S. auto industry had changed in one decade. The 1968 Impala was almost […]