Alternate Route

Dec 11, 2008 - Interesting History

As those adage goes, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Consider this bit of an interesting article I ran across this morning about American Motors inthe mid '50's...

In 1957, the U.S. economy was in recession, the big three auto makers were losing millions (sound familiar) and Rambler sales were rising! (HUH?) That Time magazine article profiling Romney says that In 1958 American Motors netted a $26 million profit while Ford and Chrysler lost $61 million.   But here’s the rub, that same article talks about the rising demand for small cars!  American Motors Rambler had 1.6% of the US car market in 1957 by 1959 it captured 6.2% and was the fifth top selling car.  More troubling for GM, Ford and Chrysler, Imports in 1959 captured 10% of the market up from 0.8% in 1954.  (Chorus gasps in horror). That’s right, in six years imports went from 0.8% of the market to 10%. Romney’s so called dream, price and economy turned out to be the big three’s nightmare. This ability to dangerously ignore the market is nothing new for Ford, Chrysler and GM which had no small car offerings until 1960...

History remembers the Chevy Corvair, Ford Falcon and Dodge Dart as successful cars.  Ralph Nader would object to that last sentence, but those machines were the panicked production of industry leaders that were playing follow the leader and failed to see the future which was not just staring them in the face, it was clobbering them over the head!

History is important. Just because something didn't happen in your lifetime, doesn't mean it isn't relevant.

Read the entire article at FoxBusiness

6:09 am | Categories: automotive heritage, automotive news Permalink | Alert Administrator

Add to: