John DeLorean: 1925-2005

John DeLorean, who died recently, was a brilliant but somewhat quixotic innovator among American automobile executives, both as a GM execute and as the head of his own ill-fated company.  I will give him credit for innovations like recessed windshield wipers, though I balked at radio antennas embedded in windshields. I had a 1970 Chevrolet with that - the radio was AM only - and I had to buy an adaptor to listen to FM. Getting a different radio would have meant a new antenna, plus installation - not very cost-effective.

Interestingly, the innovations in his own DeLorean DMC-12 - the stainless-steel body, gullwing doors - lasted as long as the car itself, which wasn't very long. As I noted, a DeLorean sedan, similar to the two-passenger coupe, had been planned for a 1984 launch. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened in the automotive world if DeLorean's company had survived.