The Ford Fairmont had sold well in its first two years of production but in 1980 was confronted by formidable new competition — Chevrolet’s Citation. If this were still the good old days we would […]
(EXPANDED FROM 6/3/2022) The 1970 Plymouth Barracuda and its sibling the Dodge Challenger proved to be a costly mistake that epitomized Detroit’s slowness in responding to changing times. Indeed, the Chrysler Corporation’s early-1970s pony cars […]
(EXPANDED FROM 11/1/2019) The dominant tendency of the U.S. auto industry has been to make its vehicles bigger, glitzier and more powerful. In recent decades both domestic and foreign automakers have embraced this practice. Indeed, […]
The shift to smaller cars was happening before the first oil embargo, which stretched from October 1973 through March 174 (Wikipedia, 2023). In an October 1972 column, Popular Science Automotive Editor Jan P. Norbye walked […]
Automotive News recently bemoaned how heavier electric vehicles “are causing safety and pollution problems.” The news report by Richard Truett (2023) pointed to heavy battery packs as the main “culprit” but also weight gains caused […]
I get most of my automotive photographs at an annual car show sponsored by the LeMay Collections in Marymount. One of my favorite cars at this year’s event, which was held last Saturday, was a […]
Predicting the future of the U.S. auto industry has always been fraught with peril. Popular Science’s Detroit Editor Jim Dunne got a lot of things right in his reporting during 1970, but a number of […]
Curbside Classic’s Paul Niedermeyer stopped by to offer his first-ever comment at Indie Auto. He raised some interesting points, so I am making them the focus of a data dive. He took issue with our […]
(EXPANDED FROM 11/26/2021) The 1971-73 Ford Mustang has been criticized for growing too big and fat (e.g., Mueller, 2010). However, Ford didn’t act in isolation. All of the pony cars bloated out when they were […]
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