I started this second thread because the first one had gotten way off topic. It wasn't about how to create a Big Six U.S. automakers, it was about what the effect on history would have been if that had happened as I outlined.
There are 2 sayings about altering history. "The more things change the more they stay the same." and "Change one thing and you change everything."
If I could go back and do what I had said the way I outlined it, I think it would produce one of two possibilities.
I. The alternate timeline would have only the following changes: 1. We would have six major U.S. automakers as I outlined in the other thread and they would be strong, thriving, and highly competitive. 2. Automotive design and technology would have advanced further and faster than in OTL.
3. Japan would never have gotten a foothold in the American automobile market. Japan's automobile market would be largely limited to Japan, a number of other Asian countries, and perhaps parts of the Middle East.
4. This would have also kept Japan, China, and other Asian countries from getting the kind of foothold they did in other American markets such as textiles and sophisticated electronics. 5. We would not today be losing American jobs to cheap foreign labor markets.
In terms of automotive technology:
In the mid 1970's the American automobile industry begins moving to the gas turbine engine. By 1982 the gas turbine had replaced the conventional piston engine as the industry standard.
1994: Studebaker-Packard markets the world's first production gas/electric hybrid, It is a Studebaker. Its gasoline engine is a small efficient gas turbine. note, the very first Studebaker car in 1902 was an electric car. American Motors quickly follows with a gas/electric hybrid Rambler. Within the next 5 to 8 years the gas/electric hybrid becimes the industry standard.
As in OTL, all the car companies are experimenting with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. They are finding the same difficult technological problems as in OTL. If and when the production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle becomes a reality, it will do so sooner in the ATL than in OTL, but as in OTL, that is if it ever does become a reality.
Other than that, everything in the ATL remains exactly the same. The same list of U.S. Presidents, all the same events and history both domestic and worldwide. Same overall historic timeline.
The other posibility is that just about everything changes in the ATL.
In OTL, even though the companies remained in business, between 1955 and 1958 five makes of car went out of production. Kaiser, Willys, Hudson, Nash, and Packard. Over those three years it put some 10,000 to 15,000 Americans out of work. There was a mild to moderate recession in 1958 into 59 and this may have been one factor in that.
ALT: Over those three years the so called "independents," (Studebaker-Packard, American Motors, and Kaiser-Willys) become much stronger and very competitive. They are also increasing their workforce which spurs growth in many of the industries that support the automobile industry. As a result, the 1958 recession never comes, the economy continues strong and even grows during that time. This helps Richard Nixon in 1960. Nixon wins the 1960 Presidential Election.
For more on what it would have been like if Nixon had won in 1960, go to the thread "JFK v NIXON - NIXON WINS."
As I said in that thread, had Nixon won in 1960, I think the 60's would have been a quieter decade than they were under Kennedy/Johnson. Certainly I think the second half of the 60's would have been quieter under Nixon. I don't think Nixon would have handled Viet Nam the way Johnson did. I don't think there would have been direct military intervention in Viet Nam, or if there had been I don't think Nixon would have allowed it to become the kind of long drawn out protracted war Johnson got us into over there. Result: No Viet Nam war like that and thus no war protests and the turmoil that caused. I feel we would have turned our attention more to technology and invention, and also to humanitarian things like improving the human condition.
In other words, if the major U.S. independent automakers had survived as I outlined, I think it would have beefed up the American economy in the late 50's which might well have put Nixon in the White House in 1960, and that would have changed almost everything in the ATL. That's the kind of change we might have had if the major independents had survived.
There are 2 sayings about altering history. "The more things change the more they stay the same." and "Change one thing and you change everything."
If I could go back and do what I had said the way I outlined it, I think it would produce one of two possibilities.
I. The alternate timeline would have only the following changes: 1. We would have six major U.S. automakers as I outlined in the other thread and they would be strong, thriving, and highly competitive. 2. Automotive design and technology would have advanced further and faster than in OTL.
3. Japan would never have gotten a foothold in the American automobile market. Japan's automobile market would be largely limited to Japan, a number of other Asian countries, and perhaps parts of the Middle East.
4. This would have also kept Japan, China, and other Asian countries from getting the kind of foothold they did in other American markets such as textiles and sophisticated electronics. 5. We would not today be losing American jobs to cheap foreign labor markets.
In terms of automotive technology:
In the mid 1970's the American automobile industry begins moving to the gas turbine engine. By 1982 the gas turbine had replaced the conventional piston engine as the industry standard.
1994: Studebaker-Packard markets the world's first production gas/electric hybrid, It is a Studebaker. Its gasoline engine is a small efficient gas turbine. note, the very first Studebaker car in 1902 was an electric car. American Motors quickly follows with a gas/electric hybrid Rambler. Within the next 5 to 8 years the gas/electric hybrid becimes the industry standard.
As in OTL, all the car companies are experimenting with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. They are finding the same difficult technological problems as in OTL. If and when the production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle becomes a reality, it will do so sooner in the ATL than in OTL, but as in OTL, that is if it ever does become a reality.
Other than that, everything in the ATL remains exactly the same. The same list of U.S. Presidents, all the same events and history both domestic and worldwide. Same overall historic timeline.
The other posibility is that just about everything changes in the ATL.
In OTL, even though the companies remained in business, between 1955 and 1958 five makes of car went out of production. Kaiser, Willys, Hudson, Nash, and Packard. Over those three years it put some 10,000 to 15,000 Americans out of work. There was a mild to moderate recession in 1958 into 59 and this may have been one factor in that.
ALT: Over those three years the so called "independents," (Studebaker-Packard, American Motors, and Kaiser-Willys) become much stronger and very competitive. They are also increasing their workforce which spurs growth in many of the industries that support the automobile industry. As a result, the 1958 recession never comes, the economy continues strong and even grows during that time. This helps Richard Nixon in 1960. Nixon wins the 1960 Presidential Election.
For more on what it would have been like if Nixon had won in 1960, go to the thread "JFK v NIXON - NIXON WINS."
As I said in that thread, had Nixon won in 1960, I think the 60's would have been a quieter decade than they were under Kennedy/Johnson. Certainly I think the second half of the 60's would have been quieter under Nixon. I don't think Nixon would have handled Viet Nam the way Johnson did. I don't think there would have been direct military intervention in Viet Nam, or if there had been I don't think Nixon would have allowed it to become the kind of long drawn out protracted war Johnson got us into over there. Result: No Viet Nam war like that and thus no war protests and the turmoil that caused. I feel we would have turned our attention more to technology and invention, and also to humanitarian things like improving the human condition.
In other words, if the major U.S. independent automakers had survived as I outlined, I think it would have beefed up the American economy in the late 50's which might well have put Nixon in the White House in 1960, and that would have changed almost everything in the ATL. That's the kind of change we might have had if the major independents had survived.