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Reference Link: Fox News Article
U.S. Automakers That Failed Without Being Bailed
By David Lee Miller
Fox News
Long before GM, Ford and Chrysler became the Big Three, there were hundreds of automobile manufacturers that went out of business without ever asking for a government bailout.
More than a century ago nearly every major city in America had a company building automobiles. In 1895 the Chicago Motor Corporation built what it called a motocycle. The term didn't last and neither did the manufacturer. According to automotive historian Kit Foster, “car companies sometime failed simply because they were under-capitalized.”
Companies like Brush Auto ran into another problem. At a cost of $550 they couldn't compete with the Ford Model T, which, during its nearly two-decade assembly-line production run sold for as little as $300.
Other manufacturers were simply victims of the Depression. Many specialized in upscale and luxury automobiles. The 1929 stock market crash brought down St. Louis-based Moon Auto and Buffalo’s Pierce Arrow. Also unable to ride out hard times: DuPont, the car of choice for film star Douglas Fairbanks, boxer Jack Dempsey and other celebrities. The “playboy car” of the era, an eight-cylinder DuPont cost over $4,000. Reputation alone was not enough to keep the car in production and in 1932 the last DuPont rolled out of the Wilmington, Delaware factory. (see burgundy 1930 DuPont Roadster)
Even cars offering some of the latest innovations couldn’t stay in business. Have you driven a Cord lately? No, not Ford—Cord. The company was one of the first to offer vehicles with front-wheel drive, but it closed its doors in 1937.
Automakers that survived the crash did so “by producing commercial vehicles and smaller economy vehicles” according to Jeff Bliemeister, curator of Hershey Pennsylvania’s Antique Automobile Club of America Museum. Bliemeister says the key to survival was producing cars within a budget that the average person could afford.
Following the Second World War, when auto factories were converted for military production, a few new car companies managed to open. But despite the booming economy and shortage of new vehicles, most didn't last long. While you probably never heard of a Kaiser automobile, (see Burgundy 1952 Kaiser Manhattan) the name Tucker lives on, thanks mostly to a Hollywood movie about the company's famous demise.
Despite joining forces, better-known auto makers Studebaker and Packard (see Blue 1952 Studebaker Convertible) also couldn't survive. After ceasing U.S. operations in 1963, the combined company struggled to stay in the automotive business at a plant in Hamilton, Ontario before shutting its doors for good in 1966.
Wisconsin-based American Motors was formed thanks to the merger of Hudson and Nash Kelvinator in the 1950s. The company, with quirky designs and models named Rebel, Gremlin, and Pacer, focused on making small, fuel-efficient cars. But by the 1980s AMC lost its way and became part of Chrysler.
As the surviving U.S. auto manufacturers struggle to stay in business, product lines are still being trimmed. Already gone are GM’s Oldsmobile and Chrysler’s Plymouth divisions. Even with a Washington bailout some analysts say the future for the U.S. auto industry will be tough.
“The American car-buying public is fickle, they can change their tastes much more rapidly than an automaker can retool with a new type of product,” Foster warns. The only expansion that seems certain is more museum space dedicated to cars no longer in production.
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My last word; I like Ford. I own 3 of them. From 1928, 1929 and 1999. Maybe the CEO of Ford needs to go back to the companies roots; Read the archives of Henry Ford and learn a thing or two. Obviously he did something right.
What do you think?
1 comment:
I came to your site through the HAMB I Dig the sounds especially The Glen Miller Orchaster found the Cadilac history interesting.
But the hit on the autoworkers, unions and the so called bail out is shortsighted at best..the USA has just about squandered its manufacturing base by sending everthing from autos to tv's to be made off shore, making us a consummer nation with a trade deficit, and inflation that has gone unchecked for the last 40 years, well the chikens are coming home to roost and there not cheap chickens and they always blame labor for their high cost, well this time it was bundeled sub prime mortgages and golden parachutes that took us down, to the toon of trillions of $$$$ Labor just wants a living wage for all workers. even Henery Ford realized it during the manufacture of the Model T giving his workers $5.00 a day was big money then.
When you look at the Auto industry that porpelled this country through the 20th century on its knees beging for a loan a couple weeks after Banks and Wall Street had the big Hank the head of the treasury duing their bidding on national tv . I find it hard to accept being a baby bommer whose father was at Pearl Harbor on 12-07-41 and taught our family to buy American...
Just to put in perspective ,about ten years ago I needed a new on-off-start control for my 89 FLHS and i got the part at the HD dealer and on the plastic package it said Genuine Harley Davidson Parts made in japan, I asked the counter guy is this the best HD can do? I was pissed but it wasn't the guy behind the counters fault he was doing his job and sold me the right part. So I know not all is made in the USA. Things started going bad about 40 years ago when a lot of US companies went Multi-National ,and it wasnt just to save money on Labor, it was to get a better profit share of the market for the shareholders, and how are a lot of CEO's paid there bonasses but through shares!!!
So should the Auto Companies get a Loan , I say a resounding Yes, These are the Last three major auto makes and god forbid we find ourselves in WWIII whos going to tool up and make the fighting equipment our armed forces would need, Japan, Germany,..
We can all see that the future is going to be to get away from fosil fuel , but this has to done gradually with Bio-Fuel hybrids , there are 50 million vehicles in the world running on Bio-fuel, so a Loan to the auto compinies that need the $$ and have a plan to head us there,will money well spent and on this note it should not be limited to just the big three...
Rebuild America and Buy American
Tom (08)
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