The Comeback of The American Automotive Industry

The American auto industry had its fare share of ups and downs, but still its influence on car culture is massive. American auto manufacturers approximately produce 10 million units annually, which mostly peaked during 1970s and 2000s. At present American automotive industry is well-known for their revolutionary vehicles and is loved by a lot of people, even outside America. All of this started with The Duryea Motor Wagon Company. Founded in 1895 by Charles Duryea and his brother, The Duryea Motor Wagon Company was the first American firm to build gasoline vehicles. Since than many other auto manufacturers were founded and defunct. Some of those manufacturers still exist and going strong.

From the early 1900s, there was the rise of three big automakers, Ford, GM and Chrysler. They were known as “The Big Three”. The Ford Motor Company, founded by Henry Ford found its early success through the production of Model T introduced in 1908. Ford sold 15 million Model Ts making Ford the biggest automobile manufacturer in the 30s. After the end of production of the Model T, GM became the top automaker in the US making Ford the second best. GM took the market but introducing upscaled cars with new styling. They also offered variations throughout their lineup which made their vehicles more appealing. 

GM or General Motors Corporation was founded in 1908 by William Durant. Within 1920 GM owned various brands like Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland (widely known as Pontiac), Cadillac and Chevrolet. GM advertised all of these brands in different price classes, enabling them to create a varied range of cars for people of every class. GM later bought Vauxhall Motors, Opel and Holden to spread their business abroad.

In the 1930s The Chrysler Corporation overtook Ford making them the second largest auto maker in the US. Walter Chrysler revitalized The Maxwell Motor Company into Chrysler Corporation in 1925. Chrysler then acquired Dodge and founded Plymouth and DeSoto. 

Due to the Great Depression many automakers went out of business, especially the luxury car manufacturers. Though throughout the Great Depression a lot of companies made a lot of innovations which paved the path for future car technologies. During the World War II all car manufacturer plants were turned off and converted to war production plants making jeeps, trucks and tanks. After the war a new vehicle became famous known as the jeep. It was mainly produced by Willy’s during the war to carry soldiers.

The auto production industry slowed down after the war due to material shortages and labor unrest. Although various issues, the car industry in the US kept on growing. Cars became bigger with powerful bigger engines like, GM’s Overhead V8 engine and Chrysler’s Hemi engine. American cars also became longer, lower and wider. The design of cars of that time also resembled spaceships and rocket covered with chrome plating.

Cars like Cadillac Eldorado, Chrysler Imperial, Lincoln Continental etc. There was also a rise of sports cars like Chevrolet Corvette, Ford Thunderbird, Pontiac GTO etc. During the 60s there was a new car category, pony cars, introduced with the release of the Ford Mustang. Muscle cars were also introduced at the same time with the release of cars like Pontiac GTO, Chevrolet Chevelle SS, Dodge Charger R/T, Plymouth Road Runner and AMC AMX.

In 1970s due to the oil crisis and strict safety regulations American auto makers faced great problems, this is known as the Malaise Era. During this time the import of cars from outside the US increased due to the problems faced by the local US manufacturers. Brands like Volkswagen, Toyota etc. sold more cars their local counterparts. As a result, the local brands started to lose their customers. In order to get their customers back they started to design cars based on fuel efficiency and compact size. Thus, cars like Ford Pinto, AMC Gremlin, Chevrolet Vega, Dodge Colt etc. were introduced. But the American auto makers were not used to making this sort of cars, resulting in issues in quality control, design and manufacturing problems. Moreover, the high fuel consumption of American cars didn’t help the customers to buy one. Thus, people were interested in buying new imported cars which were cheaper, reliable and fuel efficient.

Due to increasing influence of abroad brands, the US government applied export restraints limiting the import of Japanese cars. It resulted in the Japanese brands to develop new luxury divisions of their brands just for the US market. Toyota had Lexus, Honda had Acura and Nissan had Infiniti. Other Japanese brands started to merge with American local brands with the Big Three. Mazda had partnership with Ford, Chrysler joint facilities with Mitsubishi Motors and GM invested in Suzuki and Isuzu Motors.               

In the late 80s Chrysler and Ford made a major comeback after billion dollars of loss. Chrysler introduced the minivan with Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan which seemed to be a hit. They also bought AMC and got the right to manufacture Jeeps. Ford made their comeback with the Taurus, an aerodynamic and fuel-efficient sedan. Unlike its rivals GM was not able to make a comeback. It failed to make profit. At that time, they tried to invent new technology and experimented on cars with features and techs that were unheard of at that time.  GM EV1 is an example of this, which was an electric car ahead of its time.

From the 1990s most of the American automotive industry had a stable growth. After 2000 they were mostly back in the business. But they were not as strong as they were in the 1960s and 1970s. Slowly they have become a dominant force in the current car market. Although they made a comeback but the effects of there downfall are still visible.