Great Pumpkin Test Drive
In the Halloween Spirit, here's a look at The Great Pumpkin, plus a test drive! It is very patriarchical as well as heterosexual and profoundly unsafe. No air bags. Not even...
Doomed: Lincoln Blackwood (2002)
When something works once, it's reasonable to assume it might work again.
Then again, maybe not.
Back in the late '90s, Ford's Lincoln division managed to outsell crosstown rival Cadillac almost entirely on...
The K-Car Reconsidered
Lee Iaccoca gets blame - or credit - for the 1981-1989 Dodge Aires and Plymouth Reliant K-cars, but unlike the minivan, this one’s really not his fault.
He simply took the ball...
The Uncle-ized Car
What’s the cost of Uncle when it comes to our cars? How much have his various fatwas added to the MSRP?
One way to add it all up is to compare a...
Economic Obsolescence
Several of the most successful car (and engine) designs were successful because they were around for a long time. The original VW Beetle is an example and so is the small...
What’s Missing – and Why!
New cars have many features old cars never had - LCD touchscreens and WiFi, for instance. But new cars are missing some things, too.
Maybe you remember - and wonder why?
Bumpers that...
Features That Were Fun… But …
The other day, someone reminded me about T-tops. If you're younger than 30 or so, you probably don't remember T-tops. But if you're older, no doubt you do.
For about 10 years...
Retro Review: Plymouth GTX, 1967-1974
People who argue that it wasn't GM - well, Pontiac - that created the first muscle car (the 1964 GTO) arguably have history on their side. Because there were muscular cars...
Retro-review: 1974 Pontiac GTO
The original muscle car era lasted about a decade, from 1964 to 1974 - just before the industry-wide adoption of catalytic converters. After '74, power plummeted for a decade and even...
Latent Power
How good do we have it?
If the measure of that is the power and performance delivered by the average new car, the answer has to be: Pretty damned good.
Four cylinder-powered family-haulers...