Re: DESIGN IMITATION?

Posted by fred kanter On 2010/11/9 17:37:19

To Mahoning 63,

Re; the fate of independents.

There have been about 2500 American auto brands since the beginning of the industry. Ford was the earlist powerhouse and Henry snapped up Lincoln to be his halo car. Then they brought out Mercury in '39 and Edsel in '58, today they are both history and Ford is left with 2 brands.

GM bought Buick, Cadillac,Chevrolet, Oldsmobile adn founded Pontiac. Several minor brands came and went, but today only Buick, Cadillac,and Chevrolet survive.

Chrysler brought out Plymouth, Desoto, purchased Dodge?? and AMC. Now what's left is Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge.

So out of 2500 makes there are 6 left. With 1/3 of 1% survival rate I'd conclude that the survival of independents
is pretty slim, and yes mistakes were made. but out of the 2488 other makes why are none left, could it be the fact that they lacked the support of a major auto company,in other words they were "independents"??

Could they all have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and made the wrong decisions??