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American Independents
How quickly old and venerable companies can disappear is well illustrated by the fate of American car factories.
In 1946, there remained six active American independent car manufacturers: Studebaker, Packard, Nash, Hudson, Kaiser-Frazer and Crosley.
Death of the Independents
Pictures top to bottom:
Hudson Hornet Six, 1951, 6-Cyl 5047 cc, 146 SAE HP Kaiser-Frazer Manhattan, 1955, 6-Cyl 3706 cc, 116 SAE HP Studebaker Golden Hawk, 1956, V8 5773 cc, 279 SAE HP Crosley folded in 1952, its small cars were no more in demand. In 1953, Kaiser-Frazer merged with Willys-Overland and sold its Willow Run plant to GM. Kayser ceased producing cars in 1955 to focus on Jeeps and trucks. Jeep was sold to American Motors in February 1970. With sales lagging und losses mounting to $19 million, Studebaker merged with Packard in 1954. Due to great losses in 1956 the company closed its Detroit operations, consolidating in South Bend, Indiana. Packard was dropped after 1958, in 1963 the remaining car production was moved to Canada. Finally, in March 1966, Studebaker ended auto production. Hudson and Nash merged in 1954 to create American Motors. In 1979 AMC formed a partnership with Renault. Because the Pentagon didn't want a French-controlled company making American military equipment, it forced AMC to sell its AM General division which produced, among others, the Humvee. AMC was bought by Chrysler in March 1987.
The Big Three
In her book from 2004, 'The End of Detroit', Micheline Maynard says of the Big Three: 'Detroit's long reign as the dominant force in the American car industry is over.
More than 100 years after Henry Ford sold his first automobile in 1903, imports have taken an unshakable hold on the American consumer and are leading to the demise of inarguably the most important industrial force that America has ever produced. Like the steel industry before it, like the airline industry to an increasing extent, as with retailers, the balance of power in the car industry has shifted away from Detroit's giant companies-General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp.-toward smaller, more nimble players that can react faster to the competitive landscape.'
Please consider
1) Who is to blame for Detroit's mounting problems?
2) What happened to the German camera industry and the British motorcycle industry in the sixties and seventies? 3) What happened to the Swiss watch industry in the eighties? 4) Name four former Swiss car/truck brands and two former Swiss motorcycle factories. 5) What would you suggest to keep companies from moving their production to East Europe or China? |
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