A General Motors plant Photograph by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images. Mitt Romney eked out a win in Michigan’s Republican presidential primary Tuesday, overcoming criticism of his opposition to the automotive industry bailout . Why are all major auto manufacturers headquartered in or near Detroit? Because Henry Ford lived there. Detroit and its environs had a lot to offer the nascent auto industry around the turn of the 20th century. Iron ore was available from the Mesabi Range in Minnesota, and there was ample timber in Michigan itself. (Early car frames were made of wood.) Rail and water routes made it easy to ship cars to Chicago and New York. And Detroit already hosted heavy industry like machine shops and stove works. Toledo, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Buffalo could have made similar claims, yet none of them became Motown. Detroit’s eventual dominance probably had more to do with a couple of historical accidents than any geographic advantage. First, innovators like Henry Ford and Ransom Olds happened to live in Michigan. Second, automotive executives in early-20th-century Detroit behaved a lot like Silicon Valley executives today: They regularly switched companies and launched spinoffs and startups.

This culture of cross-pollination spread innovative manufacturing and design ideas among the Detroit manufacturers. Distant competitors couldn’t keep up with Motown’s research and development operations and eventually failed or sold themselves to Detroit. There was no indication that Detroit would come to dominate car making in the industry’s early years. According to economist Steven Klepper of Carnegie Mellon University, none of the 69 companies that entered the auto industry (PDF) between 1895 and 1900 was located in Detroit. Olds Motor Works became the city’s first major carmaker when it relocated from Lansing in 1900. Ransom Olds then made a decision that would shape the course of the industry—rather than creating hundreds of small components in-house for his Curved Dash Runabout , he subcontracted much of the work to companies in Detroit’s flourishing manufacturing sector. The people who built the car’s parts eventually learned so much about automotive manufacturing that they went on to launch their own brands. Olds’ subcontractors included the Briscoe brothers, who helped build Buick, and machinist Henry Leland , who created Cadillac and Lincoln. The Dodge brothers also cut their teeth making parts for both Olds and Henry Ford.

Ransom Olds, himself, eventually left Olds Motor Works to found the REO car company. A few other executives from Olds founded Chalmers and Hudson . William Durant, the man behind General Motors, was twice forced out of the company, forming Chevrolet and later Durant Motors while he was away. All of these ventures were based in or near Detroit. Advertisement The number of U.S. carmakers peaked at 272 in 1909, including major manufacturers in New England and Ohio. During the 1910s, however, the Detroit brands pulled away. In 1915, 13 out of the country’s 15 most popular car brands were in Detroit. Motor City executives, particularly Ford, invested heavily in research and development, distancing their products from the out-of-towners. The industry further agglomerated—an economics term for the consolidation of an industry in one geographic area—in Detroit, and parts suppliers and skilled laborers followed the largest manufacturers to Motown, making it harder for companies in other regions to compete.

Many of the largest remaining non-Detroit carmakers, including Nash (Kenosha, Wis.), combined with Detroit-based brands in the 1950s to form American Motors. * George Romney, father of the GOP presidential candidate, eventually helmed the company, which was bought by Chrysler in 1987. Got a question about today’s news? Ask the Explainer . Explainer thanks John Heitmann of the University of Dayton and author of The Automobile and American Life , Steven Klepper of Carnegie Mellon University, J. Douglas Leighton of the Society of Automotive Historians, and Paul Vachon, author of Forgotten Detroit . Correction, March 1, 2012: This article previously stated that Studebaker became part of American Motors. In fact, the plan to merge Studebaker-Packard with American Motors was never completed. ( Return to corrected sentence.) Video Explainer: Do Airplanes Dump Their Waste During Flight? . History of Famous Car Brands - Autoblog Autoblog Gary Hoffman With car companies going in into bankruptcy and shedding famous names left and right, it's important to remember that today's automotive titans started out as tiny startups, not unlike Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Names like Ford , General Motors , Chrysler , Toyota and Porsche call to mind the huge corporate successes of the past and the great automotive families that survive today. But behind every brand name, there is a flesh-and-blood inventor, entrepreneur or industrialist. Most of the time, they gave their name to the companies. And that fame was often about all they ended up with. David Buick, who invented the overhead valve engine, founded the Buick Motor Car Co. in 1903. William C. Durant, the industrialist who would eventually found GM, took over the company in 1904, when it ran into financial trouble. Buick stayed on as a director, but left in 1908, never making much money from the enterprise. He reportedly died in 1929, unable to afford one of his cars. Durant kept the name for one of his company divisions and for the car, even though he worried that people might pronounce it "Boo-ick," according to one author. Strangely enough, the man who practically created General Motors single-handedly never really liked the idea of a 'Durant' car.

In another example, Robert Hupp invented the Hupmobile,'a two-seat runabout, in 1908. But he sold his stock in his Hupp Motor Car Company in 1911. He turned around and founded the Hupp Corp. that same year. Investors in his first firm took him to court to make him drop the "Hupp" from his new company's name and they won. His own automotive glory quickly faded, although the Hupmobile survived until the 1940s. Swiss-born Louis Chevrolet's experience was similar. Durant brought him into a new car-building venture in 1911, hoping to trade on his fame as an absolutely fearless race car driver. Chevrolet left the company in 1913, apparently unable to make the adjustment from racing to building production vehicles. But its name stuck to the new Chevrolet vehicles; Durant reportedly liked its musical lilt. It could also work the other way around. In 1925, Walter P. Chrysler got the naming rights to the Maxwell Motor Co. after he and another industrialist steadily bought up shares in the firm over a two-year period. Things turned out a little differently for Henry Ford.

He suffered the ignominy of being booted from an early auto company that bore his own name. But his revenge was sweet. The Henry Ford Company, which traded freely on Ford's early fame as an inventor, fired him in 1902 "because he was spending all his time developing a race car, not a passenger car," according to the Encyclopedia of American Business and Biography. AOL Autos: Ford's Wonder Woman engineers their most important new car . After Ford was gone, the company was renamed Cadillac, after Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, the French nobleman who founded Detroit in 1703; his heraldry became the model's badge and the company became a part of General Motors in 1909. After his firing, Ford quickly found investors to help him found his own firm, the Ford Motor Co., in 1903. He introduced the company's first new vehicle, the Model and followed it up with other low-cost vehicles, including his greatest achievement, the Model T, in 1908. Its price tag started at $850 and fell steadily as Ford introduced more production innovations. The young firm became phenomenally successful.

AOL Autos: 10 classic American rides . In the 1920s, he got the chance to buy the five-year-old Lincoln Motor Co. out of bankruptcy. It was then owned by one of the very people, Henry Leland, who fired him in 1902. Then he used the former aircraft company to launch his own line of luxury cars bearing the Lincoln name. For its part, General Motors almost didn't get the name it bears today. Durant actually incorporated his company under the name "International Motors Co.", in New Jersey in 1908. But his attorney advised him that it would be easier to raise capital under a new name. "We might use 'United Motors Company' were it not for the fact that there is already a United Motor Car Company in that state," the attorney wrote. "We suggest the name General Motors Company, as we have ascertained it can be used." A newly coined French word, auto-mobile, inspired many vehicle names of the early years. Inventor Ransom E. Olds filed a patent for an "auto-mobile" during the mid-1890s.

Names like Bugmobile, Locomobile, Hupmobile, and of course, the Oldsmobile, could not have come along without it. The origins of some names can be tricky to trace. The first use of Jeep, for instance. is shrouded in mist. Jim Allen, the author of a book called "Jeep," concludes that it's based on early World War II slang for "a new, unproven recruit or a new unproven vehicle." It wasn't until 1950 that Toledo-based Willys-Overland, Inc., one of the producers of the early four-wheel-drive vehicle, trademarked the term. Many of the names were not originally associated with the auto industry. The Toyota name came from the Toyoda loom works in Kariya, Japan; When it turned to car production, the Toyoda family changed the 'd' to a 't' to make it simpler and more elegant in Japanese script. AOL Autos: Top 10 best car names . There's little doubt about other brand names. Pontiac was an offshoot of the Pontiac Buggy Co., a horseless carriage manufacturer named after a renowned Indian chief.

Mechanic Soichiro Honda started producing motorized bicycles after the devastation of World War II and eventually graduated to cars. AOL Autos: Pontiacs we'll never forget . Volkswagen, a response to Adolf Hitler's call for a car for the common folk, means 'people's car' in German, evidently beating out the prototype's name, 'Strength through Joy,' for the honors. In 1917, the Rapp Engine Works became known as the Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH, or Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) as the four-year-old airplane engine firm diversified into motorcycle engines, with a stylized white propeller against a blue sky as its logo, according to some authorities. The first BMW cars were produced 11 years later. The legendary Jaguar name is considered one of the best sports car names of all time. It beat out a long list of lackluster animal names compiled by a British ad agency in 1935. In 1939, Ford struck gold with Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods. It tapped into Greek and Roman mythology for the name, just as it did for the similarly styled Lincoln Zephyr, the god of the wind, three years earlier.

Some other storied automotive brands are based on acronyms. Fiat stands for Fabbrica Italiani Automobili Torino, or Italian Automotive Works Turin. Similarly, Saab stands for Svenska Aeroplanaktiebolaget, or Swedish Aeroplane Ltd., hearkening back to the automaker's origins as an aircraft company. Ford might have done better with an acronym in 1958. The Edsel was conceived as a new, distinct Ford Motor Co. brand, with its own models, badge and division. The mission was to take on GM's Oldsmobile. After considering thousands of suggestions, Ford named the new brand after Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's only child. He had been a major styling influence within the company and was its president at his fathers death in 1943. The name Edsel was an immediate letdown. Ford stock fell 10 points on the day it was announced. One disenchanted executive predicted that the name alone would cost the new vehicle 200,000 units in sales. AOL Autos: Best and worst automotive designs of all time . Its name wasn't the sole reason for its failure.

It didn't help that the country was in recession or that the new car seemed based on Ford and Mercury models. But all that didn't stop Edsel from entering the vocabulary as an idea or project fated to failure. Read More Stories: Car History 4U - History of American (US) Motor Car / Automobile Manufacturers History of American (US) Motor Car / Automobile Manufacturers 8.15 United States 8.15.1. Cadillac The Cadillac Automobile Company was formed in Detroit in August 1902 using the assets that remained when the short lived Henry Ford Company ceased trading earlier that year. The first car, a 10 hp 2-seater, produced in October 1902, was almost identical to the Model A Ford. Between 1903 and 1908 the company produced the Model A to T range of vehicles (the 1903 “A” models originally called “Runabout” and “Tonneau”). In 1909 the company was purchased by General Motors and later that year produced the Model Thirty. In 1910 Cadillac became the first manufacturer to produce a car with a fully enclosed cab.

The electric starter, developed in 1911 by Charles Kettering of Cadillac, was first fitted to Cadillac's “1912” models. Between 1909 and 1930 the company produced some fifteen different models. A vast range of Cadillacs were also manufactured during the 1930s; some 42 different “Series”. The model names between 1936 and 1942 used the year along with the series number; the Series 37-75 being a 1937 Series 75. The “Sixty Special” name was used on many occasions between 1938 and 1993. The Sixty Special Fleetwood model produced in 1941-42 being a fine example; nearly 1,900 being made. The Fleetwood name has also been used to indicate some of Cadillac’s finest cars since the mid 1920s, with greater use being made of the name on models produced between 1941 and 1996.

The Fleetwood Brougham produced between 1993 and 1996 was the largest car manufactured in the USA. By late 1949 Cadillac had produced one million cars since its formation in 1902. The first Cadillac to bear the DeVille name was the 1949 Coupe DeVille. From 1965 the name has indicated one of Cadillac's top two models. The twelvth model to carry the DeVille name was produced between 2000 and 2005. It was one of the first cars fitted with thermal imaging night vision technology. The “59 Caddie” was famous for its prominent tail fins, which were based on the fins of the P38 Lightning fighter plane. Over 140,000 of these cars were made. The Eldorado models were produced from 1953, the 304 Eldorado Brougham cars produced in 1957 being fine examples. The last Eldorado was produced in April 2003, replaced by the XLR roadster in 2004.

In 1998 Cadillac sold 182,570 cars. Models produced since 2002 include the CTS, DTS, BLS, STS, SRX and the XLR. 8.15.2. Chevrolet Chevrolet was founded in 1911 by Louis Chevrolet and William Durant. The following year the company introduced the 4.9 litre, six-cylinder Classic Six model. In 1912 the company sold nearly 3,000 cars. In 1917 Chevrolet became a division of General Motors. See Part 2, Section 8.15.5 . Models produced between 1911 and 1940 include the Baby Grand, Little Four, Little Six, Series H and Styleline. The first cars to be produced in 1945 were pre-war models that had been renamed Stylemaster and Fleetmaster. New models, the Special Series and the Deluxe were introduced in 1949, with over 100,000 produced in the first year.

A range of Corvette sports cars have been manufactured by Chevrolet since 1953, including the Roadster, C2-C6, ZO6, Callaway, ZR-1 and in 2006, the C6 convertible and ZO2 models. Over 110,000 Corvette Stingray’s were produced between 1963 and 1967. The car had a 5,358 or 6,997 cc engine and was capable of 140 mph (222 kph). Between 1955 and 1957 the company produced the “Tri Chevys”. Over 4.7 million of these cars were produced. Fuel injection was an option on the ’57 Chevy”, the first American car to offer it. A station wagon version, the Normad, was also made. The Impala was first produced in 1958 and during the 1960s it was the top selling car in America, with over one million sold in 1965. By 1996 over 13 million had been produced.

An Impala model was available between 1958-85, 1994-96 and 2000-07. The Chevrolet Camaro was introduced in 1967 as a competitor to Ford’s Mustang model. Four generations of the car were produced up to 2002 when production ended. The 1982 model was fitted with fuel injection. About 4.8 million were produced. Other models produced between 1950 and 1980 include the BelAir, Chevy ll, Chevelle, Monte Carlo, Vega, Monxa and Nova. The Cavalier was a compact Chevrolet produced from 1982 to 2005. By 1999 just over 5.2 million had been produced. The company replaced the Cavalier in 2005 with the Cobalt and Astra models. Models produced in 2007 include the Avero, Cobalt, Corvette, HHR, Impala, Malibu and the Monte Carlo. 8.15.3.

Chrysler The Chrysler Corporation was formed in 1925 by Walter P Chrysler from the assets of the Maxwell Motor Company that first produced cars in 1904. Maxwell was the profitable part of the the United States Motor Company that existed briefly between 1910 and 1913 and comprised of eleven vehicle companies. The name was changed to Maxwell Motor Corporation in 1921, with Walter Chrysler as Chairman, and then to the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. The first car to bear the Chrysler name was the Chrysler 6 that was launched in 1924 (when the company was still called the Maxwell Corporation). Over 32,000 of these cars were sold in the first year. The first car produced by the Chrysler Corporation was the Chrysler Four in 1925, followed by the Imperial 80 model in 1926. The Plymouth and DeSoto brand names were introduced in 1928. Chrysler also acquired the Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle Company in 1928, a company that had been formed by John and Horace Dodge in 1914.

Between 1934 and 1937 Chrysler produced the Airflow model, a car with a very streamlined body that the company had developed in their new wind tunnel. They were the first car manufacturer to use this technology. The first models introduced after World War 2 include the 5,229 cc Crown Imperial and New Yorker in 1946. In 1950 the company produced nearly 170,000 cars, a figure that increased to over 224,000 in 1965. By the late 1970s Chrysler encountered serious financial problems but soon recovered and in 1987 it acquired the American Motors Corporation (which was formed in 1954 by the merger of the Hudson Car Company and the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation). Between 1954 and 1987 AMC brought together Hudson, Rambler, Nash, Overland Automotive Willys Motor Company, Kaiser Motors and Kaiser-Jeep. In 1998 the Chrysler Corporation was purchased by Daimler-Benz of Germany and became the DaimlerChrysler Motors Company LLC.

In 2004 DaimlerChrysler introduced the 3.2 litre Crossfire sports car, producing over 76,000 by 2005. The original 300 "letter series" were luxury cars built by Chrysler between 1955 and 1965, with a new letter used for each year's model. In 1979 the 300 name made a brief reappearance when 3,811 limited special edition Cordoba cars were produced. DaimlerChrysler re-introduced the “letter series” in 1999 for their 300M sporting sedans and a new generation 300 model entered production in 2004. Five versions were produced, including a sedan and a station wagon. Models available in 2007 include the PT Cruiser and Convertible, Town & Country, Sebring Sedan and Convertible, the 300, Pacifica, Crossfire and Aspen. 8.15.4. Ford In 1896 Henry Ford built his first “horseless carriage” which he sold to fund work on an improved model.

By mid 1898 he had built a total of three vehicles, including a large delivery truck. In July 1898, backed by a group of investors, Henry Ford produced about 19-25 prototype vehicles for the Detroit Automobile Company. In February 1901, due to lack of funds, the company was dissolved. Nine months later, in November 1901, he formed the Henry Ford Company but left this company in 1902. Note: The Henry Ford Company reformed as the Cadillac Automotive Company in August 1902. See Part 2, Section 8.15.1 ). The Ford Motor Company was founded in June 1903 by Henry Ford. The first car produced by the Ford Motor Company was a two-cylinder Model A in July 1903. For further information on Ford’s early history, including the “Model T”, see Part 1, The Early History, Sections 6.3 and Part 2, The Last 100 Years, Section 9.3 (Model T Ford). In 1922 Ford acquired the Lincoln Motor Company (which had been formed five years earlier).

Production of the second generation Model A started in October 1927 and continued in the United States until December 1931. The 3.3 litre car, which had a top speed of about 65 mph (104 kph), was available in several different body styles and four colours. The “Tudor” version was the most popular, accounting for nearly one third of all sales. By February 1929 one million Model A’s had been produced; production reaching its peak during 1929, with over 1.7 million manufactured. A total of 4,849,340 Model A Fords were produced, of which nearly 10% were pickup trucks. The Model A was also produced in Great Britain (from 1931), France (date required), Germany (from 1932) and Canada (date rquired). The Model A was also produced in the USSR by the GAZ company as the “NAZ A” from 1932 to 1936. About 100,000 of these versions were made.

The Model A was replaced by the Model B and over four million of these cars were produced between 1932 and 1935. Production of the more powerful, 3,612 cc, Model 18/Ford V-8 was also started in 1932, with over 230,000 being made that year. The 65 hp car had a top speed of 80 mph (128 kph). The second generation, 1,172 cc, Model C was manufactured in Great Britain and Germany between 1934 and 1937. Just over 96,000 were made. Note: The first generation Model C was produced in the United States in 1904-05. About 800 were made. The 933 cc Model Y was produced in Great Britain (1932-37), where just over 157,000 were made, France (1932-34) and Germany (1933-36). It was not manufactured in the United States.

Models produced in Great Britain between 1940 and 1980 include the Anglia, Prefect, Consul, Zephyr, Zodiac, Granada, Capri, Escort and Cortina. Over one millon of the Capri and Cortina models were made. Ford’s car production ended in Great Britain in 2001. Models produced in Germany between 1940 and 1980 include the Taunas, Granada, Capri and Escort. Over the years Ford also manufactured vehicles in a number of other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Holland, Mexico, and South Africa. Models produced in America between 1946 and 1990 include the Crown Victoria, Custom, DeLuxe, Escort, EXP, Fairlane Skyliner, Falcon, Fiesta, Galaxy, Maverick, Mustang, Pinto, Tempo and the Thunderbird. In 1955 Ford introduced the two-seater Thunderbird. Between 1955 and 1957 a total of 53,166 of these first generation, 4,785 cc and 5,112 cc, models were made.

A second set of seats was fitted to the second generation model that was introduced in 1958. Ford produced the Thunderbird model from 1955 to 1997 and 2002 to 2005, selling nearly 93,000 in 1960. The largest models were produced between 1972 and 1976 and had either a 7 or 7.5 litre engine, achieving 8-12 mpg. By 2005 eleven generations of Thunderbirds had been produced. How many in total? The Mustang was first produced in 1964 when it became the world’s fastest selling car, with over 680,000 sold in the first sixteen months. By 2006 over eight million had been made. The 1964 model had a 2,785 cc engine and a top speed of 118 mph (189 kph).

The engine was increased to 7,013 cc in 1968, giving the 335 hp (250 kW) car a top speed of 142 mph (227 kph). By 2007 five generations of the Mustang had been produced: 1964-73, 1974-78, 1979-93, 1994-2004 and the fifth generation since 2005. The Escort is one of Ford’s top selling cars. Between 1968, when production started, and 2003 nearly twenty million had been produced worldwide. The Ford Fiesta entered production in 1976 and has been produced in Brazil, China, Europe, India, Mexico, South Africa and Venezuela. By 2006 over twelve million had been made. In 1996 the company produced its 250 millionth vehicle and by 2006 a quarter of the top forty best selling cars in the world were produced by Ford.

In 2007 Ford also manufactured cars under the following names: Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover. Models produced in the United States in 2007 include the Focus, Fusion, Five Hundred, Crown Victoria and the Mustang. 8.15.5. General Motors General Motors was founded in 1908 as a holding company for the Buick Motor Company. William C Durant, who controlled Buick in 1908, quickly expanded General Motors by acquiring other vehicle manufacturers. Oldsmobile (1897) became part of GM in 1908. The following year, in 1909, General Motors acquired Cadillac (1902), Elmore (1893), Oakland (1907), plus some others. Note: The date in brackets indicating when the company was formed. Durant left GM in 1910 and joined up with Louis Chevrolet, founding the Chevrolet company in 1911. In 1916 Durant bought a majority share holding in GM and rejoined the company as its president in 1917. Chevrolet become part of GM that year.

Other companies that became part of GM in the 1920s include Vauxhall (1903) in 1925 and Opel (1902) in 1929. To overcome competition by the various manufacturers that now made up General Motors, Durant designated each to produce a different class of car. The Oakland name was dropped in 1931 and the Oldsmobile name in 2004. In 1953 GM produced its fifty millionth car; a Chevrolet BelAir model. In 2007 GM consisted of: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. It was also affiliated with GM Daewood, Suzuki and Wuling. 8.15.6. Lincoln The Lincoln car company was founded in 1917 by Henry M Leland and his son. In 1902 he was one of the co-founders of Cadillac, which subsequently became one of Lincoln's main competitors. In 1922 Lincoln was acquired by the Ford Motor Company.

Between 1920 and 1930 the company produced the Lincoln L-series. In 1931 the K-series was introduced, which had a 6.3 litre engine based on the V8 fitted to the L-series. Whilst production ceased in 1939, a special Model K convertible was built in 1942 for President Franklin D Roosevelt. The Zephyr model was introduced in November 1935, originally as a 2 or 4 door sedan. A convertible coupe was introduced in 1938. In 1936 the company sold 22,000 cars of which 15,000 were the Zephyr. Production ceased in 1942. In 1932 Lincoln started designing a car that became known as the Continental. The first Continental car was produced in early 1939 as a one-off for Henry Ford’s son, Edsel (who was then President of the Ford Motor Company). The car was such a hit with his friends that Edsel had more hand-built, both as sedans and convertibles.

Twenty four were built that year, followed by four hundred in 1940. The Continental’s design was based around the Zephyr, with important changes which included the model’s trademark - the externally-mounted covered spare tire. The first post-war Continental that was produced from 1946 to 1948 was basically the same as the 1942 model, with an altered front grille and a heavier bumper; 3,334 were made. In 1946 Lincoln sold 13,496 cars. Between 1939 and 2002 there have been nine generations of the Continental. The car President John Kennedy was travelling in when he was assassinated in 1963 was custom built from a 1961 4-door Continental and code named the SS-100-X.

Between 1949 and 1960 Lincoln introduced the Lincoln Sport (1949-51), the 5.5 litre Cosmopolitan (1949-54), Lido (1950-51), the Capri (1952-59), which was one of the first cars with an automatic headlight dimmer, Custom (1955) and the Premiere (1956-60). The 2-door luxury coupe Lincoln Mark Series was produced from 1956 to 1998, with a 4-door sedan Mark Vl available from 1980 to 1983. The Lincoln Town Car was introduced in 1981, although the name first appeared on a 1922 custom built Lincoln for Henry Ford. The name was also used for the Continental sedan from 1959 to 1980, before becoming a model in its own right. Measuring nearly 18 feet (5.49 meters), the Town Car was the largest American made car in 2006.

The Lincoln LS (Luxury Sport) was produced from 2002 to 2006 and nearly 263,000 were made. The first versions were referred to as LS6 and S8 depending on the V6 or V8 engine choice. Manual transmission was also offered as an option. Between 2003 and 2005 the company also produced the mid-sized, luxury Lincoln Aviator SUV. Models avalable in 2007 include the Town Car, Mark LT, MKX, MKZ and Navigator. 8.15.7. Other American Car Manufacturers American Motor Company, Auburn, Buick, Cord, Crosley, De Soto, Dodge, Duesenberg, Edsel, Hudson, Mercury, Nash, Oldsmobile, Packard, Peerless, Plymouth, Pontiac, Rambler, Standard Motor Company, Studebaker, Stutz, Tucker, Willys and Kaiser-Frazer. © copyright - form and function The American Automobiles and American Automobile Manufacturers Made In America By Americans - The American Automobile Greetings From Detroit Let us go back more than 100 years and stand on a main street of an American town.

Since Detroit, Michigan has many links to the American Automobile, let us imagine that we are there. In the late 1800s Detroit was more like a small country town without skyscrapers, large buildings, factories, masses of people and automobiles. Only bicycles, horse drawn streetcars, buggies and wagons are found on the streets. In the distance comes the call of a railroad train and on the river a steamboat whistles. In the late 1800s these were the only forms of transportation. More than one hundred years ago there were no Chevrolet, Ford, Buick, Chrysler or Cadillac. Also absent were the National Sextet, Franklin, Hudson, Cole, Maxwell, The Moon plus 100s of other small American Automobile manufactures located all across this country. More than one hundred years ago a trip of ten miles to town and back took a day. The country was settled along rail and water transportation routes. The American Automobile was to become the instrument for changing this situation. At American Automobiles we not only pay tribute to Chevrolet, Chrysler and Ford but also the hundred's of small American Automobile Manufactures all across this nation. Long before the late 1800s men dreamed of the automobile.

An engine run by steam power was the first step toward a motor driven vehicle. Unfortunately, early inventors had enemies in the railroads and the horse-and-carriage trade, both feared the horseless carriage as a competitors. In 1860 a French engineer, Jean Joseph Lenoir developed the first 2 cycle gasoline engine. However, at first it didn't work very well but Lenoir improved his engine and by 1862 put it on a vehicle. Soon after a four cycle motor was invented by the Germans and by the late 1870s complete motor vehicles were built in Europe by Otto, Daimler and Benz. If the Germans must be given credit for inventing a gasoline carriage, then the French must be applauded for making it more workable, popular and stylish. The French gave the horseless carriage a name, "Automobile" (self-moving) and by 1898 was accepted even in America. The First American Automobile 1893 Duryea In the early 1890s the Americans entered the automobile scene after some experimenting with steam and gas propelled boats and wagons.

Naturally, they learned something from the Germans and French, but they also made contributions of their own. The first successful American Automobile was constructed by tool and die maker, Frank Duryea and financed by his brother Charles Duryea. On or about September 20, 1893, he successfully drove the first American horseless carriage on the streets of Springfield, Massachusetts. It was certainly better that Daimler's or Benz's early productions. Frank Duryea saw that this first American Automobile could be immensely improved and began to rebuild it. It was completed in 1894 and made the Duryea Brothers famous. Site Navigation Detroit: The New Motor City Detroit: The New Motor City Glenn Counts, Steve Ronson, and Kurt Spenser Poverty & Prejudice: Breaking the Chains of Inner City Poverty Detroit, Motown, the Motor City. Michigan and Detroit in particular became the center of the auto industry at the beginning of the twentieth century due to a number of factors. Steel, the Great Lakes shipping industries, and a large and growing workforce all contributed. Perhaps the most striking force though was the unique collection of inventors, dreamers, and designers that made the Detroit area their home. Ransom E.

Olds, Henry Ford, the Dodge brothers, David Dunbar Buick, Walter P. Chrysler, and even the French explorer who founded Detroit, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, all are household names today, not because of any outstanding achievement, although there were many, but because the cars which they produced or which bear their names are a part of the fabric of everyday American life. The Big 3 auto makers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were all formed and headquartered in Detroit by 1924. (Wright, Richard A.) After fledgling beginnings and the national struggle of the Great Depression, the American automotive industry entered its Golden Age with the end of World War II. America was experiencing nuclear, scientific, economic, and automotive hegemony. American Automobiles were luxurious, reliable, powerful, low priced, and beautiful. (Wright, Richard A.) The World and Nation took notice. The Detroit area economy boomed, attracting masses of labor to fill the assembly line positions in the factories which had been converted after the war to produce spark plugs, transmissions and trucks as opposed to tanks and B-24 bombers.

In 1952, Charles Wilson, Secretary of Defense to Eisenhower and former president of GM, told a House Committee, quite honestly, that what was good for General Motors, was good for the Country. What was good for GM was then certainly good for Detroit. The economy of the communities surrounding Detroit were revolving around the boom of the assembly and parts plants of the Big 3, and GM in particular, which soon grew to become the world's largest corporation. The first sign of any trouble came in 1956, when the Big 3 saw a minor slump in their sales, and the doubling of import sales. The change in the market was due to the growing popularity of European compact cars. Detroit did not panic. They began working on scaled down models of their successful lines, and some new compact models. The push toward the compact market was not very strong though as the era shunned anything foreign. Those that drove imports were dismissed as oddballs, flakes, college professors and leftists. In reality though, they were trendsetters, and the market shift was a sign of things to come.

(Wright, Richard A.) During the civil rights movement, the blue collar assembly line economy and inner city social problems proved to be a dangerous mixture. The 1960's showed the country that Detroit had its share of problems, and in the 1970's, the outside world crashed in on Detroit. The Middle East put the fear of gas shortages into America. Washington blamed Detroit for the problems of air pollution, safety, and fuel economy. It was a public relations nightmare. After the second oil crisis in 1979, the large rapid rise in the cost of gasoline caused Americas love affair with the automobile to go sour. Buyers now wanted smaller more efficient cars, and the Japanese had the best. Detroit had been devoting most of its attention to political and judicial battles. The Big 3 were busy pleasing politicians by meeting air pollution and safety standards through downsizing its oversized designs. These cars were not attractive to the consumer. What had made American cars so great in the 1950's and 60's was now their greatest hindrance. Their cars simply were not attractive consumer products. The Japanese had done an incredible job in this area. Detroit was dispirited and its economy was faltering.

In the early 1980's Chrysler was sliding towards financial disaster. GM poured 50$ million into the development of a new rotary engine, but couldn't get it to work, while a small Japanese firm, Mazda did. Ford was losing money so fast that there was talk of not only pulling out of Detroit, but North America all together. The Japanese were selling about one of every four cars sold in the United States. Detroit's communities sensing the impending danger of all of this scrambled for an answer, a scapegoat. Buy American bumper stickers soon became the hottest selling item in Detroit Posters which read "Pearl Harbor II" showed pictures of Japanese bombers dropping cars on the North American continent. Overpasses were graffitied with slogans like, "friends don't let friends drive imports" and "imports are for assholes". The distrust of the Japanese was back in Detroit. As plants began to lay off workers, the animosity grew, and in 1982 drew national attention when two laid off auto assembly line workers chased down and beat to death a Chinese American, Vincent Chin outside a bar. Chin who was getting married later in the week happened to be an assembly line worker himself. His attackers, father and son.

The tragedy personalized the out of control downward spiral which Detroit was caught in. The Auto industry which had seemingly brought so much to the Detroit area was now bringing poverty, racism and even death. The people in Detroit however wanted to believe in the Big 3 and the American dream that they were raised on: If you worked hard and your company prospered, then you would also prosper. What was the answer? The people of Detroit thought that it was to work harder and buy more American cars so that the company wouldn't lay more workers off. This, however was not the solution. It wasn't the solution because the assembly line workers didn't actually understand fully the problem. The Big 3 seemed content to let everyone think that the Japanese were the root of all evil, when in reality, it wasn't the Japanese that were causing the layoffs in Detroit. While the initial market shift caused the Big 3 to initially lose money, they actually recovered quite quickly and turned things around financially despite the horrible scene which persisted in Michigan. How could this be? The Big 3 had adapted to the growing global market by becoming more and more global themselves. The total internationalization of the auto industry, which is what the Buy American sentiment was actually trying to resist, had already happened.

By the 1980's, what was an American car and what wasn't was unclear. Engines and transmissions were built in other countries, and assembled in the United States with American nameplates. Foreign nameplates were also rolling off assembly lines in the U.S. by this point. Was a Japanese car put together by American workers in America really a "foreign" car? These issues were understood by America's businessmen, but not the assembly line worker. What the blue collar majority knew was that they were working hard, their companies were once again prospering, but they were losing their jobs. General Motors and the factories located just northwest of Detroit were the most tragic example of this. Flint was the birthplace of GM, the World's largest corporation. Until the late 70's the two had grown and prospered together. But, in the mid 1980's GM began laying off thousands and closing plants which had been the city's lifeline for over fifty years. It was finally announced that eleven GM plants were to be closed and moved to Mexico in order to cut costs.

But, since 1983, GM's car sales had risen, and the company had posted record profits reaching 19$ billion, yet GM laid off over 50,000 people in Flint alone by 1989. ( It clearly wasn't the Japanese that the Detroit auto workers had to worry about, it was their "own" profit seeking corporations that were putting them out on the curb. The scenes in Flint and other areas were and still are dumbfounding. In Flint over 28,000 had lost their homes and left town by 1989. For those that remained, they saw entire neighborhoods boarded up, city blocks deserted, and rat population which outnumbered humans two to one due to the fact that the city could not afford to pick up trash more than once or twice a month. Scenes seemed to appear out of the 1930's. Upwards of 20,000 people standing in one line to collect government surplus butter and cheese, Record unemployment rates reaching 25%, record suicide and murder rates, increases in spousal abuse, alcoholism, a crime rate higher than Miami, and general social decay.

( Flint is no longer a picturesque Midwestern town, it is a battle zone. This is the backdrop on which present day Detroit sits, and unfortunately or fortunately another drastic change is upon the auto industry. An impending energy crisis is on its way. Even the most generous estimates give less than fifteen years before oil prices skyrocket. Much like the oil crises of the 70's this new oil shortage will necessitate change. Detroit's communities do have an opportunity to take advantage of this. The Unions through community urging must become increasingly international as the global corporations expand even further into smaller countries. And second, the Detroit automotive communities must invite the next generation of vehicles to be manufactured in Detroit. The Hybrid car is unarguably the wave of the future. The UAW and the Detroit Auto Industry Unions have been a part of the American working class since the Knights of Labor captured the countrys imagination in 1878 (Short History). They have been important in fighting for the freedoms and benefits that we often take for granted today. Holidays, overtime pay, medical benefits and vacations would probably not be around without the struggle of the American unions over the past century.

With the introduction of the combustible engine and the mass production of cars, a new industry was born. Detroit was the proud capital of car production, and the workers who built them. When tough situations arose for these auto workers, they started to ban together to get what they needed. The most prominent union in the auto industry is the United Auto Workers, or the UAW. The UAW started as a small local union in Flint, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. In the midst of the Great Depression, some GM workers, fed up with company treatment, believed that it was time to organize and establish better working conditions Unemployment rates were high, so a traditional strike was feared to fail. So on December 30th, 1936, the workers at the Fisher body plant in Flint stopped working and sat down in the factory, disabling work to be completed on the car bodies there. Soon GM workers in surrounding factories in Flint and Detroit sat down on the job, and eventually workers across the country joined in the sit-down strike. GM turned off the heat in the factories and local police tried to storm the factories in order to remove the workers several times, but the strikers held there ground and repelled the attempts to oust them.

Democratic pro-labor Michigan Governor Frank Murphy brought in the National Guard to protect the strikers from the police. He forced both sides to the bargaining table. Negotiations failed, due to GM not keeping up to their end of the deal, and the sit down strike continued. GM finally had to give in to workers demands when the strikers took control of plant number 4, which employed over 4000 and produced all the engines for all Chevrolet models. On February 11th, 1937, GM recognized the United Auto Workers as the sole bargaining agent for twenty of its production factories. Two years later the entire company was unionized by the UAW. The success of the sit down strike led to Ford and Chrysler workers to demand their right to Unionize and they joined the UAW soon after. In fact the sit-down strike in Flint set a tidal wave of strikes across the country in all areas for better conditions and steady pay (Famous Flint ) Today the UAW is an international Union that produces more than just cars. Its products include everything from tools to food and even beer. Although it continues to fight for high wages and reasonable hours, lately the fight has been just to keep their jobs.

Striking methods such as the sit down strike in Flint have worked in the past in order to achieve the Unions goals, but lately the factories have been moved away from under them, so striking is not as powerful as it used to be. A Detroit article says, "the central issue (for Unions) continues to be the loss of jobs due to subcontracting and the relocation of production, which are implicitly struggles over investment" (Bacon "Striking" 1). In the late eighties, companies realized the advantages of foreign investment, as they replace expensive American labor with the highly available and very cheap Mexican labor. Thousands of jobs were lost in the Detroit area and many left homeless and hopeless due to the divestment of local capital and investment into foreign factories. During a strike in the Summer of 1998 that demanded GM reinvest in the Flint Metal Center as previously promised, a leaked company document detailed plans to increase production in Mexico from 300,000 to 600,000 vehicles by 2006 (Bacon "Striking" 1). The strikers had support from other workers across the nation, and even from Canada and Mexico.

"Even in Mexico, workers are told the company can find a cheaper place to build the next factory" (2). Divestment seems to be a concern for workers everywhere. Mexican workers recently had a big breakthrough in June of 1998. Experienced workers walked into the Han Young factory, which welds truck chassis for the Hyundai manufacturing complex in Tijuana, and turned off the means of production. They then strung strike banners across the plant and parked their cars in front of the doors, so no one could go in or out. Unlike the Flint sit-down strike of 1937, the Mexican political establishment worked against the strikers instead of for them, complaining that the strike was provoked by foreign unions to discourage foreign investment in Mexico (Bacon, "Tijuana" 1). Right now there are more than 2,700 foreign owned maquiladora (factory) plants near the Mexican-American border, employing nearly a million workers. The low wages and proximity to the U.S. make it an ideal place to put factories, but these labor disputes challenge this system. If Mexican workers are able to form their own unions and strike for more benefits wages will increase and foreign investment is less likely.

This has the current Mexican government worried. "[G]overnment policy relies on maintaining low wages as an attraction for foreign investment. So the government, its affiliated unions and the employers association have all allied themselves against us," says Enrique Hernandez, organizer of the October 6 Union for Community Labor Defense, which is the independent Union responsible for the strike at the Han Young factory. Strike leader Mijuel Angel Sanches continues, "the Mexican Government is protecting foreign investors who are here exploiting us and violating our laws, when they should be protecting us and enforcing the law. If it's OK for the companies to cross the border to do this, I think it's not only right for workers to support each other across the same border, it's necessary" (Bacon, Tijuana 2). It seems it would be in the UAW and Detroit's best interest if the Mexican government did become more pro-labor, and the Mexican workers in the maquiladoras joined the UAW to form a strong continental union. This would not only make the conditions in Mexico better, but would make it more unattractive for the "Big Three" to shut down plants in Michigan and put them elsewhere.

Even if the Mexican workers don't join the UAW specifically, if they win the right to form their own independent unions, it may be good enough to protect the interests of both the American and Mexican worker, at the expense of the Corporation' 5 profits. As American companies have moved into Mexico and employed thousands there, why cannot foreign companies move into the United States and employ thousands here? Japanese car makers have lately been moving assembly plants to the United States, to manufacture and sell the cars here. The Detroit area has a number of experienced assembly workers that need jobs from the years of layoffs due to foreign investment If Union workers want to protect their jobs, why do not they go out and get them. The UAW could recruit Japanese companies to invest in new factories or refurbish old ones and then supply the factories with experienced union workers. Examples of successful transplants already exist, a UAW workers assemble Mazdas, Toyotas, Mitsubishis, Isuzus and Nissans. As the economy and production become more globalized, the United Auto Workers must keep their interests in mind any way possible. It is difficult to "buy American" these days as many products are produced at least in part all over the world.

The UAW slogan "We buy what we make" now includes the "foreign" cars listed above. As we approach the next century and environmental and resource issues dominate the auto industry, the Japanese may lead the world in making the hybrid car, a realistic short-term solution to the future oil depletion. The UAW would be wise to find the companies where the future lies, and sit down at the bargaining table with them. Hybrid Cars: A Possible Solution The faltering American car industry as well as an increase of overseas-based plants has lead to an increased animosity toward the foreign car industry. While the big three has begun to move their assembly plants over to Mexico, the once patriotic dedication of the residents of Motown has turned from a positive way of promoting local business to a reason for taking out aggression on foreigners who, to the locals, represent a rival business that drives the American car companies to find cheaper labor to stay competitive. Recently, there has been a huge move to what are known as hybrid cars." Several years ago the hope for the future was the electric car but short battery life and long recharging times have proved that this type of car is not practical.

The hybrid car, on the other hand, uses both gasoline and a more powerful battery to run the car. Many car companies in Japan have already built very efficient and relatively inexpensive hybrid cars. The Big Three in the US are struggling to catch up. Whether or not this new road the car industry is heading will revive the car industry in Detroit remains unknown. One example of hybrid cars in the US is in New York ( . Recently in New York a fleet of 40 foot, 36 passenger hybrid busses have been deployed. Rather than running on a diesel engine the busses rely on a generator that runs on propane. The propane generator continuously recharges battery packs near the back of the bus. This new hybrid bus can run over 200 miles before refueling and doing a major recharge. Experts have determined that these hybrid busses emit 50% fewer emissions than diesel busses. The hybrid busses currently about $20,000 in price way of environmental are accompanied by an increase of but the benefits they bring in friendliness, they are well worth it. Toyota Prius Toyota, a leader in the hybrid industry, has developed a highly advanced passenger hybrid car, the Prius.

The Prius by Toyota is the next step in the company's previous environment-friendly, low fuel-consumption cars. The Prius incorporates the technologies of both the clean-burning, high efficiency internal combustion engine as well as the pollution free, silent electric vehicle power systems. By utilizing their previous breakthroughs in environmentally friendly transmissions and electrical engine management controls, Toyota's Prius shows the perfect balance of electrical and internal combustion engines. While the gasoline engine is used during ignition and acceleration the electrical component of the car takes complete control during long consistent driving periods. The Prius still has a gasoline engine but sports a nickelmetal hydride battery, an electric motor and an electric generator. By combining these components the hybrid nearly doubles the fuel efficiency of normal cars (up to 66 mpg) and has significantly lower emissions. The Prius can travel up to 800 miles on a single tank of gas but this does not take into account recharging. The price of the Prius in Japan is currently $16,000 American ( Honda is also a major competitor in the hybrid race. Honda on the other hand also offers the EV Plus, an electric car. The disadvantage of electric cars is that they must be recharged overnight almost every night.

Honda also offers the Civic GX, a fuel-efficient natural gas vehicle. Natural gas, however, does not provide the same top speeds, power, or acceleration as gas powered or hybrid cars ( Henry Ford - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Henry Ford: Early Life & Engineering Career Born in 1863, Henry Ford was the first surviving son of William and Mary Ford, who owned a prosperous farm in Dearborn, Michigan . At 16, he left home for the nearby city of Detroit, where he found apprentice work as a machinist. He returned to Dearborn and work on the family farm after three years, but continued to operate and service steam engines and work occasional stints in Detroit factories. In 1888, he married Clara Bryant, who had grown up on a nearby farm. Did You Know? The mass production techniques Henry Ford championed eventually allowed Ford Motor Company to turn out one Model T every 24 seconds. In the first several years of their marriage, Ford supported himself and his new wife by running a sawmill. In 1891, he returned with Clara to Detroit, where he was hired as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company.

Rising quickly through the ranks, he was promoted to chief engineer two years later. Around the same time, Clara gave birth to the couple’s only son, Edsel Bryant Ford. On call 24 hours a day for his job at Edison, Ford spent his irregular hours on his efforts to build a gasoline-powered horseless carriage, or automobile. In 1896, he completed what he called the “Quadricycle,” which consisted of a light metal frame fitted with four bicycle wheels and powered by a two-cylinder, four-horsepower gasoline engine. Henry Ford: Birth of Ford Motor Company and the Model T Determined to improve upon his prototype, Ford sold the Quadricycle in order to continue building other vehicles. He received backing from various investors over the next seven years, some of whom formed the Detroit Automobile Company (later the Henry Ford Company) in 1899. His partners, eager to put a passenger car on the market, grew frustrated with Ford’s constant need to improve, and Ford left his namesake company in 1902. (After his departure, it was reorganized as the Cadillac Motor Car Company.) The following year, Ford established the Ford Motor Company.

A month after the Ford Motor Company was established, the first Ford car—the two-cylinder, eight-horsepower Model A—was assembled at a plant on Mack Avenue in Detroit. At the time, only a few cars were assembled per day, and groups of two or three workers built them by hand from parts that were ordered from other companies. Ford was dedicated to the production of an efficient and reliable automobile that would be affordable for everyone; the result was the Model T , which made its debut in October 1908. Henry Ford: Production & Labor Innovations The “Tin Lizzie,” as the Model T was known, was an immediate success, and Ford soon had more orders than the company could satisfy. As a result, he put into practice techniques of mass production that would revolutionize American industry, including the use of large production plants; standardized, interchangeable parts; and the moving assembly line. Mass production significantly cut down on the time required to produce an automobile, which allowed costs to stay low. In 1914, Ford also increased the daily wage for an eight-hour day for his workers to $5 (up from $2.34 for nine hours), setting a standard for the industry.

Even as production went up, demand for the Tin Lizzie remained high, and by 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts. In 1919, Ford named his son Edsel as president of Ford Motor Company, but he retained full control of the company’s operations. After a court battle with his stockholders, led by brothers Horace and John Dodge, Henry Ford bought out all minority stockholders by 1920. In 1927, Ford moved production to a massive industrial complex he had built along the banks of the River Rouge in Dearborn, Michigan. The plant included a glass factory, steel mill, assembly line and all other necessary components of automotive production. That same year, Ford ceased production of the Model T, and introduced the new Model A, which featured better horsepower and brakes, among other improvements. By that time, the company had produced some 15 million Model Ts, and Ford Motor Company was the largest automotive manufacturer in the world. Ford opened plants and operations throughout the world.

Henry Ford: Later Career & Controversial Views The Model A proved to be a relative disappointment, and was outsold by both Chevrolet (made by General Motors) and Plymouth (made by Chrysler); it was discontinued in 1931. In 1932, Ford introduced the first V-8 engine, but by 1936 the company had dropped to number three in sales in the automotive industry. Despite his progressive policies regarding the minimum wage, Ford waged a long battle against unionization of labor, refusing to come to terms with the United Automobile Workers (UAW) even after his competitors did so. In 1937, Ford security staff clashed with UAW organizers in the so-called “Battle of the Overpass,” at the Rouge plant, after which the National Labor Relations Board ordered Ford to stop interfering with union organization. Ford Motor Company signed its first contract with UAW in 1941, but not before Henry Ford considered shutting down the company to avoid it. Ford’s political views earned him widespread criticism over the years, beginning with his campaign against U.S. involvement in World War I . He made a failed bid for a U.S.

Senate seat in 1918, narrowly losing in a campaign marked by personal attacks from his opponent. In the Dearborn Independent, a local newspaper he bought in 1918, Ford published a number of anti-Semitic writings that were collected and published as a four volume set called The International Jew. Though he later renounced the writings and sold the paper, he expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and Germany, and in 1938 accepted the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the Nazi regime’s highest medal for a foreigner. Edsel Ford died in 1943, and Henry Ford returned to the presidency of Ford Motor Company briefly before handing it over to his grandson, Henry Ford II, in 1945. He died two years later at his Dearborn home, at the age of 83. Tags

Question: Which American car manufacturer is named after the founder of Detroit?
Answer: Cadillac