Pontiac Trans Am

A 1982 Pontiac Trans Am that toured Europe with David Hasselhoff as KITT goes to auction in Zürich on November 7. Broad Arrow says it was stolen in Italy in the 1990s and recovered through Interpol, minus its original dashboard electronics.

The malaise era covers American cars from about 1973 to 1983, when the oil embargo, fuel economy rules, catalytic converters, and 5 mph bumpers cut power and reshaped styling. The base 1975 Corvette made 165 hp, and Jimmy Carter never actually said "malaise."

American car design peaked twice. The first peak was the 1950s, when post-war prosperity and genuine cultural euphoria produced colors, proportions, and detail work that no subsequent era has matched. The second peak was shorter, more aggressive, and in many ways more interesting: the roughly decade-long window from 1964 to 1974 when American muscle car design produced some of the most visually forceful objects ever put on public roads. Then four things happened simultaneously and it was over within eighteen months...

The 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 looks better today than it did when it was new. The 2002 Pontiac Aztek looks exactly as bad as it did in 2002, possibly worse now that the cultural context that produced it has faded. Both cars are over twenty years old. Only one of them aged. The question of why some cars improve with time and others calcify into their worst qualities is worth taking seriously because the answer tells you something about what good design actually is...