Okay, you've now heard a lot about the so-called big three in the American automobile beginning chapter, but what about the minor players, how much of a role did they play? Here are just a few a the ones who made an impact for their contributions to the scene.
Studebaker
Already a major player in the carriage market at the turn of the century, Studebaker decided to enter the automobile market with a gas powered car in 1904, which was produced in cooperation with a company named Garford. As Garford began to have problems honoring their agreement with Studebaker, the decision was made to replace Garford with a company named E-M-F. But this proved to be even worse as the E-M-F produced vehicles were less reliable which reflected badly on Studebaker. So in 1911, Studebaker took over operations at E-M-F and began producing their own automobiles. Although they were an innovative company, the hand writing was on the wall for the company even as early as 1954 when they were forced to merge with Packard in an attempt to cure their ailments. Other fixes were tried over the years, but nothing could save the company. The last Studebaker rolled off the assembly line in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on March 16, 1966. Although they had a pretty good run over the years, they finally could no longer compete with the big three.
Willys
This company in the early American auto scene was started by John Willys as the Willys-Overland Motor Company in 1912. It held it's own until the 1920 recession when Walter Chrysler was brought in by banking interests to fix the company. Changes were made and the company survived. A lot of changes came over the next years until more financial problems forced Willys to go in a different direction. Reorganized in 1936 as the Willys-Overland Motors, the company continued to struggle until the U.S. war effort chose them, along with Ford and American Bantam, to produce Jeeps. 359,851 units were produced before the end of WWII. After the war, Willys filed a successful trademark claim for the name and began producing a civilian version of the Jeep (CJ-2A). In the years since the war, the company has had many owners, Kaiser, AMC and finally Chrysler LLC which still produces Jeep vehicles.
Packard
Formed in October of 1902, this company was born out of a desire for a better automobile than had been previously made available. Started by brothers James and William Packard, along with their partner, George Weiss, the company was known for it's luxury automobiles almost from the start. From the beginning Packard automobiles introduced an number of innovations in designs, including the modern steering wheel and later on the first production 12 cylinder engine. Although it faired well for a number of years, the Great Depression in the 30's took it's toll and the company never really regained it's place in the market. Forced to produce cars in the medium price range and with no large corporation to absorb losses as Cadillac and Lincoln had, the company continued to struggle for survival. However, after the war, the company found itself in excellent financial condition, but unfortunately, management mistakes were apparent as time went on. Even after a major redesign in 1955, it was too late. Cadillac had already captured the luxury market, with Lincoln and Imperial close behind. Reliability problems caused further declines in sales and although it had merged with Studeaker in 1954, the last model, simply called a Packard, was produced for the 1958 model year.
Other minor players, such as Nash and Hudson, will be covered in the next installment of this series.
Did you know?
A Car Without A Name, was an automobile built in 1900. The idea was that you could name it whatever you wanted to.
The Checker Motors Corporation produced Checker automobiles (1922-1982). The vehicles were primarily sold to taxi cab companies.
American Chocolate was an American assembled car manufactured by a noted vending machine company (1903-1906). The car was built primarily from imported components.
The Playboy Motor Car Company (1947-1951) only produced 97 cars before going bankrupt in 1951.
No comments:
Post a Comment