Comments on: Last man standing

By: Jeffro

Jeffro — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:32:47 +0000

Great essay. Darwinism applied to the car industry? I think you are correct in assuming customers will buy Fords over the offerings from Government Motors, so that makes me wonder what the marketing geniuses at ObamaCorp will do about that?

The supposed Chinese curse comes to mind – we are living in interesting times.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:51:10 +0000

Certainly more than Chrysler, which bought its way into Europe once upon a time, acquiring Britain’s Rootes Group and France’s Simca in the 1960s, only to give them up a decade later. (PSA Peugeot-Citroën eventually took them off Chrysler’s hands.)

The Ford Motor Company (England) Ltd. was founded in 1909; Fords had been imported into Britain for a few years before that. The German operation is almost as old. Eventually the two were combined into Ford Europe.

GM acquired Vauxhall and Opel in the 1920s.

By: Jeff Brokaw

Jeff Brokaw — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:07:21 +0000

Nice essay, Chaz.

I’m betting on Ford too. It has been a global car company far longer and more effectively than either of the other two, to my knowledge. You can probably serve as the definitive source on that … ;-)

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:05:58 +0000

Interesting. So that’s why my grand-dad always insisted on driving Mercuries, rather than Fords?

And it also brings a new resonance to “Gee, our old LaSalle ran great; those were the days.” to know that LaSalle was the “poor man’s Cadillac”

By: CGHill

CGHill — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:31:21 +0000

References to the Low-Priced Three in those days always meant Chevy, Ford and Plymouth. In fact, during the deepest days of the Depression, Chrysler dispatched Plymouths to be sold, not only at Chrysler-Plymouth stores, but at both Dodge and DeSoto dealerships as well. At least some of those dual dealerships persisted into the 1950s.

After Dodge was acquired, the marketroids sandwiched it between DeSoto and Chrysler, although I suspect that DeSoto was originally created as Plan B: in case the Dodge acquisition didn’t come off, DeSoto would occupy the slot intended for Dodge.

The Airflow design introduced on the ’34 Chrysler was also offered in a DeSoto version; neither Dodge nor Plymouth would get one. And Chrysler’s first-generation Hemis, in the 50s, were never installed in Plymouths.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:49:34 +0000

Plymouth was downmarket of Dodge? Actually, I can see how that might be, but I was always under the impression that the Joe Lunchpail marques of the Big Three were Chevy, Ford and Dodge. Did something change at Chrysler after the DeSoto was terminated?