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History
Defective 1977-79 Continental Mark V showed how Lincoln lost its way
(EXPANDED FROM 8/2/2021) Some buyers of the 1977-79 Lincoln Mark V waited up to eight weeks to receive exclusive designer-series models . . . that turned out to have defective paint. At least that’s Jack […]
Quotes
The Economist points to origins of ‘the biggest industrial collapse ever’
“The problem in the 1970s was not really the arrival of better, smaller, lighter Japanese cars; it was GM’s failure to respond in kind. Rather than hitting back with superior products, the company hid behind […]
Design Notes
U.S. cars often suffered from weak styling continuity and boxy shapes in 1970-80s
Our discussion about the Volkswagen Scirocco (go here) got me to thinking about my car design biases. Two of them heavily influence how I write about automotive history: My harshest criticisms have been leveled at […]
Auto Paedia
‘Detroit Mind’ led to collapse of U.S. automakers
(EXPANDED FROM 9/18/2020) “Detroit Mind” is the label Brock Yates gave to the worldview of U.S. automakers from the 1950s into the 1980s. This was epitomized by a focus on cars that were “too large, […]
History
Saab 99/900: The box that crushed a carmaker
(UPDATED FROM 6/26/2020) The Saab 99/900 proved to be the box that crushed the tiny Swedish carmaker. I grant you that this platform was hardly an immediate failure. Even so, the design of the 99 […]
Design Notes
Might the Rambler Tarpon have sold better than the Plymouth Barracuda?
In a recently published article about the Rambler Tarpon, Patrick Foster (2021) doubted that the show car would have sold better than the Plymouth Barracuda if it had reached production. His rationale was that neither […]
Quotes
Art Railton: 1960 compacts prove ‘vitality’ of U.S. automakers
“Proud, that’s what the industry is — proud of itself. And with reason. It proved its vitality, its flexibility. It proved that it responds to public demand, after all. Sure, there was a period of […]
Quotes
‘Doling out progress at the minimum possible rate’
“The US auto industry has been perhaps the best example of a sector falling into a rut and doling out progress at the minimum possible rate for at least 30 years. It’s criminal IMO that […]
Quotes
Bill Vlasic: A 2007 figure that summed up Detroit’s fall
“It was only a statistic, a number in an industry that churned out reams of facts and figures. But when Toyota announced on April 24 that it had sold 2.35 million automobiles around the world […]