Our story, “1967-73 Mercury Cougar: A classic goes to hell,” apparently took the smile off the face of (former?) reader SL. He flatly declared, “The 1971-73 Cougars are awesome cars. All this talk about them […]
(EXPANDED FROM 10/6/2021) The 1961-63 Lincoln has been lauded as one of the most iconic car designs of the postwar era. It’s true that the exceptionally clean styling of the so-called “Kennedy Continentals” represented a […]
(EXPANDED FROM 2/8/2022) Why was the futuristic-looking Studebaker Avanti given a tall, flat and small windshield? That windshield ranks with the 1964-66 Imperial in looking terribly mismatched with the rest of the car. The most […]
(UPDATED FROM 2/19/2021) Histories written by practicing automotive journalists are usually engaging reads with lots of behind-the-scenes anecdotes. However, they can also be analytically superficial and grounded more in access than accountability journalism. In other […]
(EXPANDED FROM 4/23/2021) International Harvester went a long way toward sealing its fate with the introduction of the redesigned D-Series pickup and Travelall in the 1969. Perhaps the biggest problem was that IH waited too […]
(EXPANDED FROM 3/26/2021) The 1958 Edsel was already an over-the-top design, but one owner wanted to take it to the next level. They gave their car a retractable roof. This was doable because entry-level Edsels […]
When a team of copywriters was assigned to produce the print advertising for the 1971 Ford Maverick they were told to be honest. Come up with an approach kind of like the Volkswagen Beetle’s refreshingly […]
“The small cars that Detroit had produced, [Hal Sperlich] believed, had been bad ones, reluctant efforts at best. If anything the companies had brought out inferior, unappealing small cars to prove their own thesis that […]
(EXPANDED FROM 10/8/2021) A late-1960s Ford promotional film offers a fascinating glimpse into the car and truck designs being worked on at the time. Perhaps more than intended, The Design Makers — Inside Ford Design, […]
(EXPANDED FROM 3/1/2020) Once upon a time a Truth About Cars commentator lauded the simplicity of the then-new Jeep Renegade. “Well, I for one am yearning for a simpler time, and this vehicle suggests that,” […]
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