As every good Michigander (which includes me!) knows, the REAL Big Three are Ford, GM, and Chrysler. But what other North American based car companies could become part of Detroit's Big Three?
As every good Michigander (which includes me!) knows, the REAL Big Three are Ford, GM, and Chrysler. But what other North American based car companies could become part of Detroit's Big Three?
You have too many conditions for it to work.Well yes, there was the "Big 4" and others, but I'm looking for just 3 that make it through to today headquartered in Detroit.
That does sound fairly good. To be honest, I think Cord could survive, but as a sort of "American BMW" not as part of the Big Three...You may have too many constraints imposed. I can certainly think of an alternate member of a Big Three (Four?) but it wouldn't be based in Detroit.
In 1938, Ford was in dire financial straits to the point that the old man approached Studebaker seeking to be bought out. Had that deal been consummated, Studebaker/Ford would have been well on the way to rivaling GM. Chances are then that Mercury would never have seen the light of day, given the existence of something of a spectrum of Studebaker product that would have covered Mercury's niche rather well.
After the war, I could see Studebaker/Ford going after Hudson and Nash in an endeavor to round out the line further: Lincoln would be at the top, followed by Hudson, Studebaker, Nash, and Ford in that order. At the same time, I could see Henry Kaiser getting together with the folks at both Packard and Willys, yielding a lineup of Packard/Frazer/Kaiser/Willys/Henry J (Allstate). Now you have a Big Four, one of which would have been based in South Bend, IN.
As to the survival of Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg, forget it: that company was locked into high-end vehicles for a relative special interest market, without real mass production. Pierce-Arrow was gone by 1937 (a few '38s were produced but barely enough to notice). Graham and Hupmobile were badly strapped financially (Graham's sharknosed "Spirit of Motion" design, although striking today, evoked a love/hate--mostly the latter--when it debuted in the late '30s) to the point that they shared the use of the erstwhile Cord Beverly/Westchester body dies for the Hollywood and Skylark respectively in the last years of production ('40 and '41).