The 1963 Mercury Marauder “fastback” two-door hardtop represented the beginning of a new era for the Ford Motor Company. The utilitarian sensibilities of its former leader, Robert McNamara, were eclipsed by an emphasis on sporty […]
(EXPANDED FROM 6/18/2021) In selecting the 1966 Oldmobile Toronado as its Car of the Year, Motor Trend (2005) took out its pom-poms and gushed that “never in the 14-year history of this award has the […]
The other day Paul Niedermeyer (2024a) of Curbside Classic discussed the decline of premium-priced big cars in the late-1950s. One of the points of contention in the comment thread was the degree to which these […]
(EXPANDED FROM 5/31/2021) A few years ago I stumbled across the Hudson Motor Car Fan Club. Its Facebook page didn’t offer much historical analysis but did have some cool photographs. I was particularly taken by […]
Working on the 1963-65 Buick Riviera story got me curious about the long-term trajectory of the brand’s high-end family cars. A low point was the 1958 recession, when the Roadmaster and Limited together garnered under […]
(EXPANDED FROM 8/20/2021) One of my lingering questions from a Collectible Automobile story on the Mercury Park Lane was why it didn’t sell better in 1968 (Biel, 2021). This was arguably the first year that […]
(EXPANDED FROM 1/21/2022) The introduction of compacts for Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick represented a major change for these General Motors’ premium-priced brands. Did they help sales grow in a changing marketplace? Or did smaller cars […]
Our “Story Ideas Bank” sometimes morphs into debates about specific historical events. George Denzinger recently weighed in on the death of Oldsmobile. This is a thoughtful analysis so I am elevating it to the front page. […]
(EXPANDED FROM 10/1/2021) The four-seater Thunderbird was a surprisingly pivotal car for the Ford Motor Company during the postwar period. The T-Bird showed that the No. 2 automaker could better compete against mighty General Motors if it pioneered new […]
(EXPANDED FROM 10/22/2021) One of the most pervasive myths in US automotive history is that a V8 engine became essential to an automaker’s success in the first half of the 1950s. This narrative is summed […]
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