Bird Chatter
Management culture
Fake Design
1951 Studebaker: Pointing in the wrong direction
When viewed from 1951, Studebaker was the independent automaker most likely to succeed. The South Bend, Indiana-based automaker generated unusually high sales by inventing the family-sized compact. This allowed Studebaker to invest in both a V8 engine and an automatic transmission well before […]
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 […]
Readings
Brock Yates brilliantly analyzed fall of U.S. auto industry
The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry is one of the most important automotive books of the last 50 years. That’s because Brock Yates presented what may very well be the best all-around critique […]
History
AMC’s Roy D. Chapin Jr. succumbed to the illusion of bigness
When writing a story about the 1974 AMC Ambassador, I came across American Motors car brochures for 1979 and 1980 that took the unusual step of picturing the company’s headquarters in Southfield, Michigan. In the 1979 […]
Media Analysis
Elon Musk’s infamous interview: What the auto media missed
Joe Rogan’s (2018) podcast with Elon Musk may very well be the most infamous — and high-visibility — interview of an automotive executive ever conducted. Alas, the event received so much attention for the wrong […]
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Quotes
Donald Trump took a shovel to John DeLorean’s estate
“DeLorean spends the rest of his life in and out of court. He declares bankruptcy in 1999. His Bedminster estate is purchased by a Connecticut-based golf-course development partnership, who within two years will sell it […]
Quotes
Vulpine: Detroit can force people to buy cars they don’t want
“Obviously you can, since the truck I’m driving is pretty close to 20% larger than I wanted, in overall dimensions. Nobody makes a proper ‘small’ truck for the US market as yet and hasn’t done […]
Quotes
In 2010 Jim Farley itched to beat up GM
“There was a saying going around Ford: GM was like the kid who was born on third base and yells out, ‘Hey, Ma, I hit a triple!’ Farley and his fellow Ford executives and workers […]