Cadillac is one of America’s oldest makes, and it has been mass-producing cars of quality ever since the company was founded in Detroit by Henry Leland in 1902. For more than 90 years, Cadillac has been at the core of General Motors (GM), and it...
Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) started life as an aero engine manufacturer in Munich, Germany in 1916, before diversifying into road vehicles. The company had a burst of glory in the 1930s, but it was only in 1961 that BMW really started its journey to become...
Premium saloons were offering all sorts of routes to performance and panache. The old-school method was to drop a big, lazy V8 into a medium-sized body. This was the path taken by Mercedes in Germany and Rover in the UK. Other car-makers went for smaller...
Mini is now a fully fledged car brand encompassing estates, coupes, sports, and racing models, but at its heart lies a revolutionary small car, based on a design conceived by Sir Alec Issigonis in the mid-1950s. Now owned by BMW, the firm continues to build...
Cars such as big Opels and Vauxhalls appealed to up-and-coming consumers, who were trading up from economy-minded small saloons, but there was also a breed of large car aimed at a wealthier clientele. Just as today’s Mercedes, Jaguar, and BMW models are considered a cut...
For a nation so recently devastated by wartime bombardment, Germany’s automotive resurgence in the 1950s was impressive. The resurrection of the Volkswagen project, and the methodical rebuilding of the Mercedes-Benz, Opel, and German Ford marques, laid the foundations for the mighty German car industry we...
Over three generations, the Zagato family has forged a coach-building dynasty with a century-long history. A Zagato design is utterly unmistakable, characterized by extremes of shape, construction, and performance. Today the Milanese company’s work—especially with prestige marques such as Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari, Aston Martin,...
As Swedish as Abba, despite being foreign-owned since 1999, Volvo has a reputation for safety. A century ago the original company made ball bearings and took its name from the Latin for “I roll”. Its first cars were not built until 1926, a series of...
With the motor industry hitting its stride again after the war, thoughts could turn to sports cars once again. Jaguar introduced the XK120, the fastest production car of the era, which went on to set speed records and sire successful racing machines....