Henry Kaiser goes car shopping

I don't know if this has any basis whatsoever in fact (it may not, for all I know) but let's assume for discussion purposes that in the waning months of the war, with civilian production set to resume, that Henry Kaiser decided to buy up one or more existing automotive maufacturers instead of starting from scratch?

He could still team up with Joseph Frazer and re-work an existing independent in his image, adding Kaiser and Frazer to the lineup. The kicker is: which independent? Willys might seem the most vulnerable--only Jeep kept them alive at a time when Graham and Hupmobile went under--but Hudson, Studebaker, Nash, and Packard were well established with good reputations.

Imagine a Kaiser-owned Hudson Motors, with Hornet-type power under the hoods of Kaiser Manhattans or Darrin-designed roadsters. Or perhaps a Kaiser Virginian with a taekoff on Loewy's bullet nose might appeal. Then there's always the possibility that Dutch Darrin could have overseen the design of Packards under Kaiser's auspices, leading away from the somewhat elephantine proportions of late '40s Patricians. And quite possibly an earlier version of the Metropolitan that looked a lot like what we know as the Henry J might have taken to the roads...

Well, it's worth perhaps some discussion.
 

Driftless

Donor
Very interesting idea. Henry Kaiser was a dynamic innovator, so following a different path from OTL, could plausibly lead to a significantly different automotive universe.

I'm no expert on car companies, particularly for that era, but I think some homework is in order..... ;)
 
I don't know if this has any basis whatsoever in fact (it may not, for all I know) but let's assume for discussion purposes that in the waning months of the war, with civilian production set to resume, that Henry Kaiser decided to buy up one or more existing automotive maufacturers instead of starting from scratch?

He could still team up with Joseph Frazer and re-work an existing independent in his image, adding Kaiser and Frazer to the lineup. The kicker is: which independent? Willys might seem the most vulnerable--only Jeep kept them alive at a time when Graham and Hupmobile went under--but Hudson, Studebaker, Nash, and Packard were well established with good reputations.

Imagine a Kaiser-owned Hudson Motors, with Hornet-type power under the hoods of Kaiser Manhattans or Darrin-designed roadsters. Or perhaps a Kaiser Virginian with a taekoff on Loewy's bullet nose might appeal. Then there's always the possibility that Dutch Darrin could have overseen the design of Packards under Kaiser's auspices, leading away from the somewhat elephantine proportions of late '40s Patricians. And quite possibly an earlier version of the Metropolitan that looked a lot like what we know as the Henry J might have taken to the roads...

Well, it's worth perhaps some discussion.

I'm asking myself what this does to OTL's Kaiser-Frazer & Henry J...

Could this save Willys? Or Packard?
 
Or, Kaiser and Joe Frazer basically go the path of AMC (with some interesting quirks and branch points).

People sometimes forget that we had a 4th American auto company until AMC's merger with Renault in 1982(?).

And in this timeline, George Romney does something else and is not president of AMC, and he probably doesn't become governor of Michigan, but that's alt hist.
 
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Looking at this thread has me thinking Kaiser could put enough money into Stude to allow it to do some interesting things. Like, frex, take over Willys & get Jeep; combine that with Stude's pickup experience, it could lead to a *Suburban or Thunderchief or Scrambler? Use Willys experience to build a 4wd Jeepster *Camino? Or a *Gremlin Camino? (There was a prototype built in the '70s of a Gremlin *Camino, never produced.)

Kaiser could also encourage better Stude V8s. Aluminum SOHC/DOHC & FI? Enough to get AC's attention? To produce a DOHC FI 289 Stude *Cobra?:cool::cool:
 
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