To what degree should we assume that the centralizing of all the major national competitors in one "MoTown" is some sort of economically favored phenomenon and we can only argue about where it is, versus the possibility that an ATL produces a great dispersal of automotive manufacturing centers? Indeed this situation has evolved in latter days, with USA based manufacturing being widely scattered.
I would guess there are three phases broadly speaking--the pioneer days, in which as this discussion has pointed out, various makers were indeed scattered from the old Northeast coastal states to considerably farther west than Detroit. I do think that the strongest region to harbor most of them would be as OTL the Midwest around the Great Lakes, including Buffalo--but for the US market, not Toronto! Indeed a great part of the industry might be in a make that has a Canadian background, but for both quasi-political and fiscal reasons relating to tariff and so forth, a Canadian origin make that finds a large Yankee market will probably be forced to set up a US based subsidiary that will soon become the tail wagging the dog; on paper the company might remain, for reasons of pride, associated with Canada and the British Empire generally but in reality its center of gravity in the second period, that in which Detroit became Motor City OTL, when cars are Big Business and an American make means Made in the USA--which in this period means mostly Detroit, with a few competitors eventually wiped out based elsewhere in the Midwest--will be on the US side of the border; Toronto might specialize in production for the Empire trade. The third period would be post-1970s with the old centers becoming part of the "Rust Belt" while Americans largely buy overseas, mostly Japanese--and the American production sites I am thinking of were and are for Japanese makes with the Japanese choosing US manufacture sites.
Clearly in the pioneering period and in the post-collapse period, location is largely up for grabs. It certainly makes sense to me that availability of specific resources of labor skill and local capital favor some regions-not broad regions but specific spots within the vague generality of "The Midwest"-over other sites initially.
But given that Henry Ford or someone like him is going to pioneer large scale mass production first, and then be imitated by a "me, too!" competitor funded by massive investment from the deep pocket cartels (hello, GM!) does it follow that in the middle period, the location chosen by one pioneer then tips the balance toward rivals setting up in the same market, as opposed to rivals picking different locations throughout the Midwest? I gather there were economic arguments favoring rivals doubling down in the same small region as the pioneer chooses. I gather the major one would be labor force--no longer a matter of hiring the skilled workers still less firm management in wagon making and bicycle industries, now a matter of hiring workers familiar with modern production line automotive manufacturing. I believe it was for this reason that GM in particular chose to battle Ford head on in the same metropolitan area--so they could steal away Ford's trained workforce.
So--is that really an accident in OTL, with the GM board making a decision that might have gone another way with the board members weighing other factors, or is it a very strong economic thing that means that whoever chooses a different site than the ATL *Ford chooses suffers and fails to become one of the top firms?
If in fact the arguments for there being a single Motor City in the classic period of US auto industry are weak, then we might, instead of a single car megacenter, have the several big car makers spread out in quite different locations. How plausible is that?
I could most assuredly see multiple cities become motor cities.
You could have Chicago or Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, or a Dixie highway Triumphant of Detroit ( metro area ), (south ) Dayton, Cincinnati; (North) Flint, Saginaw/Bay City
Nothing says that everyone has to setup shop in Detroit. that said, in OTL once Ford really took off with mass production, the Skilled labor flocked to the area, and as such competitors followed or spun up from former employees as well as the complete support infrastructure of sub companies that provided materials, parts and other items. Its not an accident, Its just business. Detroit was already making a name for itself in this regard, so being close to the action was helpful in those days. I personally think the Detroit north Axis is the most likely, however Chicago could become a serious contender.
- Remember the dodge Brothers worked for Henry Ford so setting up shop in the region was logical.
- Olds Motor Vehicle Company in Lansing, Michigan, on August 21, 1897. The company was bought by a copper and lumber magnate named Samuel L. Smith in 1899 and renamed Olds Motor Works. The new company was relocated from Lansing to Detroit. Smith became President while Olds became vice president and general manager.
- Henry Ford's first attempt at a car company under his own name was the Henry Ford Company on November 3, 1901, which became the Cadillac Motor Company on August 22, 1902, after Ford left with the rights to his name.[11] The Ford Motor Company was launched in a converted factory in 1903 with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, most notably John and Horace Dodge (who would later found their own car company). During its early years, the company produced just a few cars a day at its factory on Mack Avenue and later its factory on Piquette Avenue in Detroit, Michigan.
- General Motors Corporation was formed on September 16, 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company controlled by William C. Durant, owner of Buick.[18] At the beginning of the 20th century, there were fewer than 8,000 automobiles in America, and Durant had become a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in Flint before making his foray into the automotive industry in 1904 by purchasing the fledgling Buick Motor Company.[19] GM's co-founder was Charles Stewart Mott, whose carriage company was merged into Buick prior to GM's creation. Over the years, Mott became the largest single stockholder in GM, and spent his life with his Mott Foundation, which has benefited the city of Flint, his adopted home. GM acquired Oldsmobile later that year. In 1909, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland, and several others. Also in 1909, GM acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant, along with R. S. McLaughlin, lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers' trust, because of the large amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions, coupled with a collapse in new vehicle sales
- 1911, Swiss race car driver and automotive engineer Louis Chevrolet co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Company in Detroit with William C. Durant and investment partners William Little (maker of the Little automobile), former Buick owner James H. Whiting ,[6] Dr. Edwin R. Campbell (son-in-law of Durant) and in 1912 R. S. McLaughlin CEO of General Motors in Canada.
In 1916, Louis Chevrolet and his brothers founded the Frontenac Motor Corporation to make racing parts for Ford Model Ts.
Also in 1916, American Motors Corporation (unrelated to the later American Motors created by the 1954 merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company) was formed in Newark, New Jersey, with Louis Chevrolet as vice president and chief engineer.[5] By 1918 it was producing cars in a plant at Plainfield, New Jersey.[6] In 1923 it merged with the Bessemer Motor Truck Company of Pennsylvania into Bessemer-American Motors Corporation, which lasted less than a year before merging with the Winther and Northway companies into Amalgamated Motors. The latter company apparently ceased soon after. - Nash Motors Company was an American automobile manufacturer based in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the United States from 1916 to 193
- Industrialist Powel Crosley, Jr., of Cincinnati, Ohio, owner of Crosley Broadcasting Corporation and the Cincinnati Reds baseball team, had ambitious plans to build a subcompact car and with the able assistance of his younger, graduate engineer brother Lewis Crosley, developed assembly plants at Richmond, Indiana, and Marion, Indiana.
- Packard was an American luxury automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, United States. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last true Packard in 1956, when they built the Packard Predictor, their last concept car. Packard bought Studebaker in 1953 and formed Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana.
Viability, consolidation, World War II all played major factors as well. Michigan was the Arsenal of Democracy during the war. To that end cities like Pittsburgh, Akron, Columbus, St Louis are in my eyes also viable options, if people want to separate themselves from Ford and Detroit. However more logically by the 1920's almost everyone is in Michigan or in the immediate area because that is where the support network is and the action. Remember this is the days before the internet, jet travel, and everyone has a car. Materials are delivered by ship and train.
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