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General Motors
Quotes
1970 Oldsmobile Toronado still suffered from handling and braking problems
“Here is a marvelous high-speed touring car. Its comfortable ride and straight-as-a-die tracking on straightaways make it a very attractive vehicle for long-distance driving. Its front-wheel drive is also a great asset on wet, icy, […]
Fake Design
1964 Imperial could have been a better Lincoln Continental
(EXPANDED FROM 10/2/2020) Indie Auto has previously mentioned that the 1961-63 Lincoln Continental represented a partial and short-lived deviation from Detroit groupthink. Let’s flesh out that argument with a fake 1964 Imperial. Yes, folks, lowly Chrysler could have outdone the Continental. […]
Design Notes
1971-73 Buick Riviera: The last stand against the broughamization of Detroit
(EXPANDED FROM 3/26/2021) Whatever else one might say about the 1971-73 Buick Riviera, its styling did represent a heroic level of resistance to the brougham look then sweeping through the U.S. auto industry. Instead of […]
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Fake Design
1963-64 Studebaker Avanti: A classic failure
(EXPANDED FROM 1/1/2020) The Studebaker Avanti is arguably one of the most important American automotive designs of the 1960s. It has quite rightly been described by historian Patrick Foster as “one of the most beautiful automobiles […]
Quotes
What Bill Mitchell didn’t like about John Z. DeLorean
“I didn’t like his aloof egotism. He’d sit in a meeting and open his briefcase and brush his hair, and he’d dress floozy, you know, and he called us the establishment. He was a queer […]
Media Analysis
Successful automotive journalists need to master these two rules
(ORIGINALLY POSTED 5/24/2014) Many are called but few are chosen to be professional automotive writers. Some things you can’t control, like technological change and media consolidation. However, aspiring writers can increase their odds of success by […]
Readings
DeLorean’s book is still one of best critiques of General Motors
(EXPANDED FROM 1/15/2021) On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors ranks right up there with Brock Yates’ The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry (1983) in articulating where Detroit went wrong. Although written by […]
Quotes
GM set its prices for a 25-percent return on investment in 1950s
“But if its return on investment averaged 25 percent for 1950 through 1955, well above the corporation’s target and the highest return in American industry, why couldn’t General Motors reduce the prices on its cars, […]