Storied Independent Automakers
Nash, Hudson, and American Motors
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Storied Independent Automakers
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Narrated by:
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Mike McCartney
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By:
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Charles K. Hyde
About this listen
With roots extending back to the first decade of the twentieth century, Nash Motor Company and the Hudson Motor Car Company managed to compete and even prosper as independent producers until they merged in 1954 to form the American Motors Company, which itself remained independent until it was bought in 1987 by the Chrysler Corporation. In Storied Independent Automakers, renowned automotive scholar Charles K. Hyde argues that these companies, while so far neglected by auto history scholars, made notable contributions to automotive engineering and styling and were an important part of the American automobile industry.
Hyde investigates how the relatively small corporations struggled in a postwar marketplace increasingly dominated by the giant firms of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, which benefited from economies of scale in styling, engineering, tooling, marketing, and sales. He examines the innovations that kept the independents' products distinctive from those of the Big Three and allowed them to survive and sometimes prosper against their larger competitors. Finally, Hyde analyzes the ultimate failure of the American Motors Company and the legacy it left for carmakers and consumers today.
Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award and Society of Automotive Historians Award.
©2009 Wayne State University Press (P)2014 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 232
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 191
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 193
A shocking exposé of Volkswagen's fraud by the New York Times reporter who covered the scandal. In mid-2015 Volkswagen proudly reached its goal of surpassing Toyota as the world's largest automaker. A few months later, the EPA disclosed that Volkswagen had installed software in 11 million cars that deceived emissions-testing mechanisms. By early 2017 VW had settled with American regulators and car owners for $20 billion, with additional lawsuits still looming.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent recap of VW, its structure and culture
- By Northern IN Mark on 05-27-17
By: Jack Ewing
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Crash Course
- The American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster
- By: Paul Ingrassia
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 182
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 111
In Crash Course, Ingrassia answers the big questions: Was Detroit's self-destruction inevitable? What were the key turning points? Why did Japanese automakers manage American workers better than the American companies themselves? Ingrassia also describes dysfunctional corporate cultures (even as GM's market share plunged, the company continued business as usual) and Detroit's perverse system of "inverse layoffs" (which allowed union members to invoke seniority to avoid work).
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4 out of 5 stars
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Contemporary History at Its Best
- By Roy on 04-19-10
By: Paul Ingrassia
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The Tycoons
- How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 324
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 294
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Story4 out of 5 stars 292
The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings these men and their times to life. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined earlier.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book wrong title
- By Hectoris on 10-06-16
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Engines of Change
- A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars
- By: Paul Ingrassia
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 330
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 285
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 281
America was made manifest by its cars. From the assembly lines of Henry Ford to the open roads of Route 66 and Jack Kerouac, America's history is a vehicular history-an idea brought brilliantly to life in this major work by the acclaimed author of Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Cars, Computers, and "Engines of Change"
- By Joshua Kim on 06-17-12
By: Paul Ingrassia
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Fins
- Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors, and the Glory Days of Detroit
- By: William Knoedelseder
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
This audiobook chronicles the birth and rise to greatness of the American auto industry through the life of Harley Earl, an eccentric six-foot-five, stuttering visionary who dropped out of college and went on to invent the profession of automobile styling, thereby revolutionized the way cars were made, marketed, and even imagined. Harleys Earl’s story qualifies as a bona fide American family saga. It began in the Michigan pine forest in the years after the Civil War, traveled across the Great Plains on the wheels of a covered wagon, and eventually settled in Hollywood, California.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great report of amazing history but could do without the WOKE lean..
- By joshua Shaw on 07-02-22
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Driving Honda
- Inside the World’s Most Innovative Car Company
- By: Jeffrey Rothfeder
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 77
For decades there have been two iconic Japanese auto companies. One has been endlessly studied and written about. The other has been generally underappreciated and misunderstood. Until now. Since its birth as a motorcycle company in 1949, Honda has steadily grown into the world’s fifth largest automaker and top engine manufacturer, as well as one of the most beloved, most profitable, and most consistently innovative multinational corporations.
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3 out of 5 stars
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it was ok.
- By chris p on 11-16-18
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Car Guys vs. Bean Counters
- The Battle for the Soul of American Business
- By: Bob Lutz
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 258
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 221
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Story4 out of 5 stars 213
In 2001, General Motors hired Bob Lutz out of retirement with a mandate to save the company by making great cars again. He launched a war against penny pinching, office politics, turf wars, and risk avoidance. After declaring bankruptcy during the recession of 2008, GM is back on track thanks to its embrace of Lutz's philosophy. When Lutz got into the auto business in the early sixties, CEOs knew that if you captured the public's imagination with great cars, the money would follow.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Opinionated and one-sided
- By Michael Parks on 06-23-11
By: Bob Lutz
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Americana
- A 400-Year History of American Capitalism
- By: Bhu Srinivasan
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Bhu Srinivasan
- Length: 21 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 634
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 553
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Story5 out of 5 stars 544
From the days of the Mayflower and the Virginia Company, America has been a place for people to dream, invent, build, tinker, and bet the farm in pursuit of a better life. Americana takes us on a 400-year journey of this spirit of innovation and ambition through a series of Next Big Things - the inventions, techniques, and industries that drove American history forward: from the telegraph, the railroad, guns, radio, and banking, to flight, suburbia, and sneakers, culminating with the Internet and mobile technology at the turn of the 21st century.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent history!
- By L. Maranto on 10-14-17
By: Bhu Srinivasan
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Car Wars
- The Rise, the Fall, and the Resurgence of the Electric Car
- By: John Fialka
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
The resurgence of the electric car in modern life is a tale of adventurers, men and women who bucked the complete dominance of the fossil-fueled car to seek something cleaner, simpler and cheaper. Award-winning former Wall Street Journal reporter John Fialka documents the early days of the electric car, from the MIT/Caltech race between prototypes in the summer of 1968 to the 1987 victory of the Sunraycer in the world's first race featuring solar-powered cars.
By: John Fialka
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Drive!
- Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age
- By: Lawrence Goldstone
- Narrated by: Christopher Price
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
From the acclaimed author of Birdmen comes a revelatory new history of the birth of the automobile - an illuminating and entertaining true tale of invention, competition, and the visionaries, hustlers, and swindlers who came together to transform the world. With a narrative as propulsive as its subject, Drive! plunges us headlong into a time unlike any in history, when manic innovation and consumerist zeal coalesced to forever change the way people got from one place to another.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Ford Detractor.
- By Eric Johnston on 08-15-22
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The Dawn of Innovation
- The First American Industrial Revolution
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4 out of 5 stars 76
In the 30 years after the Civil War, the United States blew by Great Britain to become the greatest economic power in world history. That is a well-known period in history, when titans like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan walked the earth. But as Charles R. Morris shows us, the platform for that spectacular growth spurt was built in the first half of the century. By the 1820s, America was already the world's most productive manufacturer and the most intensely commercialized society in history.
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4 out of 5 stars
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How our industries started
- By Jean on 02-22-13
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Glory Lost and Found
- How Delta Climbed from Despair to Dominance in the Post-9/11 Era
- By: Seth Kaplan, Jay Shabat
- Narrated by: Joseph Durika
- Length: 25 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 103
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 101
Glory Lost and Found: How Delta Climbed from Despair to Dominance in the Post-9/11 Era tells the story of Delta's dramatic tumble into bankruptcy and how it climbed its way back to pre-eminence despite hurricane-force headwinds: high fuel prices, a hostile takeover bid, relentless competition, economic meltdowns, and geopolitical shocks.
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5 out of 5 stars
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For Aviation Enthusiasts & the Business Industry
- By Striker on 03-24-17
By: Seth Kaplan, and others
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American Icon
- Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company
- By: Bryce G. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,266
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,974
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,973
At the end of 2008, Ford Motor Company was just months away from running out of cash. With the auto industry careening toward ruin, Congress offered all three Detroit automakers a bailout. General Motors and Chrysler grabbed the taxpayer lifeline, but Ford decided to save itself. Under the leadership of charismatic CEO Alan Mulally, Ford had already put together a bold plan to unify its divided global operations, transform its lackluster product lineup, and overcome a dysfunctional culture of infighting, backstabbing, and excuses.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best business book I ever read
- By Michael on 10-07-12
By: Bryce G. Hoffman
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Divided Highways
- Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life
- By: Tom Lewis
- Narrated by: Jim D. Johnston
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
In Divided Highways, Tom Lewis offers an encompassing account of highway development in the United States. In the early twentieth century Congress created the Bureau of Public Roads to improve roads and the lives of rural Americans. The Bureau was the forerunner of the Interstate Highway System of 1956, which promoted a technocratic approach to modern road building sometimes at the expense of individual lives, regional characteristics, and the landscape.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Lots of interesting facts. Poor narration
- By Richard on 06-01-21
By: Tom Lewis
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Behemoth
- A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Joshua B. Freeman
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 246
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 209
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 207
We live in a factory-made world: modern life is built on three centuries of advances in factory production, efficiency, and technology. But giant factories have also fueled our fears about the future since their beginnings, when William Blake called them "dark Satanic mills". Many factories that operated over the last two centuries - such as Homestead, River Rouge, and Foxconn - were known for the labor exploitation and class warfare they engendered, not to mention the environmental devastation caused by factory production.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Get rid of the fake accents
- By J. R. Valery on 03-13-18
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The Big Roads
- The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways
- By: Earl Swift
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 172
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 153
From author Earl Swift comes the surprising history of the U.S. interstate system, a fascinating route through the dreams, discoveries, and protests that shaped these mighty roads.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Lessons from The Big Roads
- By Joshua Kim on 05-06-12
By: Earl Swift
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The Company
- A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea [Modern Library Chronicles]
- By: John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 149
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4 out of 5 stars 69
In The Company, the largely unknown history of the joint-stock company is presented by the editors of Economist. One of history's greatest catalysts, the joint-stock company has dramatically changed the way human beings live, work, and conduct business. With companies now affecting the world on a global scale, it is more pressing than ever before to understand this driving force.
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4 out of 5 stars
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unique history with a unique perspective
- By D. Littman on 10-31-05
By: John Micklethwait, and others
What listeners say about Storied Independent Automakers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- OneWorldGarage
- 06-27-17
Lots of good information, but pretty dry.
lots of good information for auto historians or those interested in independent American automakers. the reader and story are pretty monotone and can be a bit hard to get through at times presenting just facts without much of an actual story or theme based up on it.
if you can get through it I think you will enjoy it at the end however it may be a bit tough to get through at times .
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Starboarder
- 01-26-18
Ear candy for the auto enthusiast!
This book filled in a lot of information unavailable in other automotive histories. I especially liked all the information on the history of the Jeep plant. It was also a pleasure to get to histories on men whose names are mentioned in other books in a passing manor.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bob Molin
- 05-18-22
I really enjoyed this title
I listened to it twice do I could get it all in. it's very interesting to hear about the small car manufacturers.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Live for Music
- 01-22-15
Detailed and well researched, but dry.
Very detailed with lots of information, but very dry.
Recommended For serious fans of the history of the U.S. auto industry only.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Everett E. Morris
- 04-15-19
Love automotive history
Genius work, Mr. Hyde. Love your books. Great performance, as well, by the reader. Wouldn't listen to anything else until I was finished
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Grannan Family
- 06-20-17
If you like AMC or if you like cars, then buy it!
The narrator is a bit dry but I really enjoyed the book. It is very detailed, but it kept me interested the entire time.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 11-14-20
good book
interesting facts about the interaction between the companies using competitors engines send transmissions and other parts on there own vehicles
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