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 […]
Jim Dunne predicted in the January 1977 issue of Popular Science that the compact platform used for the Plymouth Volare and Dodge Aspen would be stretched for the Chrysler Corporation’s next-generation big cars: “At least […]
David Burrell of Retroautos has written one of the better overviews of the downsized 1962 Dodge and Plymouth, but he also displays some of the genre’s limitations. Unlike some other historical accounts, Burrell questioned the […]
A recent Curbside Classic article (Stern, 2022) about the Canadian 1964 Valiant reminded me of one of my stylistic pet peeves: The car’s front fender had a weird, hairpin-shaped character line. Jim Benjaminson (2020) of […]
(EXPANDED FROM 4/2/2017) Richard M. Langworth has authored more auto histories than just about anyone. Yet he was strikingly humble when beginning to discuss the controversial topic of who was responsible for the 1947 Studebaker’s styling. “I am […]
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 […]
“Don’t want to rain on the parade of a nice article, but reading about Duster 340’s always makes me sad. Back in 1970 a close friend skrimped and saved all his money from summer and […]
(EXPANDED FROM 11/13/2020) When writing about the 1953-54 Plymouth, I wondered whether there could have been a compromise between the practicality of Chrysler head K. T. Keller and the trendiness of his successor, Tex Colbert. Let’s apply that question to […]
Geeber recently wrote one of the best overviews I have ever seen about why Chrysler’s dealer networks became so dysfunctional. His comment (below) was in response to, “Lynn Townsend failed to solve Chrysler’s warfare between […]
Reader James E. Duvall offered a thoughtful take on our 1966-67 Chrysler B-Body story that deserves more prominence as a stand-alone letter. While I believe the Elwood Engel’s styling department was on-track and that Lynn […]
Copyright © 2022 Olympia, Earth Media, LLC | All rights reserved