
Luxury cars


How did Bunkie Knudsen influence the 1972 Ford Thunderbird?
One lingering question I have about Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen’s short tenure as Ford Motor Company president is what influence he had on the 1972 Ford Thunderbird’s design. Jim and Cheryl Farrell (2022) have written that […]

Knudsen’s favored 1972 Mark IV design borrowed from the Eldorado
Dean’s Garage recently posted a fascinating story about the battle over the 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV’s styling. Jim and Cheryl Farrell (2022) describe how a design proposal championed by Ford President Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen […]

1955-56 DeSoto Flight Sweep could have challenged the Studebaker Hawk
Dean’s Garage has a new post that displays a variety of Virgil Exner’s concept cars (Exner, 2022). The design I am most drawn to is the 1955-56 DeSoto Flight Sweep I and II. These are […]

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. […]

Buick, Olds and Cadillac hurt the independents in the early-50s
Geeber offers valuable additional layers of analysis to our story, “Was the ‘Ford blitz’ to blame for the collapse of independent automakers?” Thus, I’m elevating this comment to the front page. While the focus has […]

Proposed 1972-73 design could have saved AMC from ill-fated 1974 Matador coupe
The above image apparently shows an early design proposal by Brooks Stevens for a reskinned AMC Ambassador planned for 1972-73. The design has a resemblance to mockups pictured in a Patrick Foster (2013) book. These […]

Did the 1956 Packard Executive represent a strategic shift?
(EXPANDED FROM 12/18/2020) The 1956 Packard Executive has received a recent boomlet of attention by automotive historians. In a Hemmings Classic Car column, Patrick Foster (2021) suggested that this model could have “saved Packard” if […]

Corey Lewis offers a questionable take on the 1961-63 Imperial
Corey Lewis may be The Truth About Cars’ best writer these days, but his piece on the 1961-63 Imperial offers a questionable take in some ways. The biggest eye-opener is Lewis’s (2021) contention that Chrysler […]
