Archive for May 21, 2012

Decades of American Autos Part II.ii

admin / May 23, 2012 / No comments

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Decades Of American Automobiles 1900-1910 cont.

We left of with Ford building budget cars for the middle class, and his assembly line. With that we will continue to some of the other makes we mentioned in the first section of Part II. At this point we have quite a few to talk about and a decent amount you may have never heard about.

Who are they and where did they go

We will start with Buick, who more than others went far being the oldest car manufacturer in the nation that is still around today. It actually started in 1899 but not as the Buick we know no, but as independent engine manufacturer. The original name was Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company. One of the Models they mad was the Bug, which Louis Chevrolet drove in the Vanderbilt Cup. Another which was more of the Consumer vehicle was the Model 17. Another reason Buick was successful was the use of a Valve in Head Engine patented by Eugene Richard. Buick was later acquired by General Motors and brought through the decades to be the Luxury Vehicle it is known as now.

Cadillac was another auto maker born in this decade that is still around and also owned by General Motors now. Cadillac did have an interesting beginning though.

Cadillac was formed from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company when Henry Ford departed along with several of his key partners and the company was dissolved. With the intent of liquidating the firm’s assets, Ford’s financial backers William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen called in engineer Henry M. Leland of Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to appraise the plant and equipment before selling them.
Instead, Leland persuaded them to continue the automobile business using Leland’s proven single-cylinder engine. The company after Henry Ford left needed a new name, and on 22 August 1902 the company reformed as the Cadillac Automobile Company. Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing and the Cadillac Automobile Company merged in 1905.[7]
The Cadillac automobile was named after the 17th-century French explorer Antoine Laumet de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac, who founded Detroit in 1701

Quite interesting to know, that’s for sure. Cadillac also pioneered the idea to use interchangeable parts between models, this allowed them to keep costs down while still offering a top of the line vehicle.

Cadillac Model E

Cadillac Model E, 1905

While Cartercar was not around very long, it did use a friction drive transmission, which was a forerunner to the CVT transmission which is used in many of today’s cars. Cartercar was soon bought by General Motors after a booming success in it’s early years, only to be shut down not much later.

The Ewing automobile does not have much known history which is actually difficult to research, it was only around for 3 years. It leads us to believe it was one of the very unsuccessful companies that came and went.

Oakland another company that started and was doing decent on it’s own but really opened up when acquired by General Motors. It started with a small 2 cylinder vertical engine and later went to the standard 4 cylinder and sales rocketed up to 5000 cars sold that year. Later they added the V8 and again prices rose quite a bit. See everyone wants a bigger motor. They like Cartercar saw their demise under the General Motors empire.

1910 Buick

Buick 4 Seater

Buick Bug

Buick Bug, Driven by Louis Cherolet

Oakland Motor Car

What where we thinking?

General Motors was a fast growing company acquiring smaller auto makers left and right, if only they knew what was coming. This concludes the first decade of the 1900′s. a lot happened but the best is yet to come. We will continue with Part III tomorrow.

Have any questions or anything to add let us know.

Category: Uncategorized / Tags: american, decades of american autos, Decades of Automobiles

Decades of American Autos Part II

admin / May 22, 2012 / No comments

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Decades Of American Autos: 1900-1910

The next segment of Decades of American Autos takes us to the turn of the century. A lot was going in the 1910′s and its next part in our series. So lets take a quick look at what manufacturers started in this decade then we will break down which each has contributed to what we know now as the American Car.

Chalmers-Detroit/Chalmers – 1908
Maxwell – 1905
Ford – 1903
Buick 1903
Cadillac – 1902
Cartercar – 1906
Ewing – 1908
Oakland – 1907
Rainer – 1905
Welch – 1903

Some of these will look familiar to you and a couple may have you scratching your head and rushing to google. Well what you are going to learn is that around 1800 car makers, or horseless carriage builders that came and went from the late 1800′s to the 1930′s. A few of these stuck around and are what we refer to the Big Three and their sister companies that they picked up along the way. Those are Ford, General Motors, and Daimler Chrysler, each with many sub brands or partner companies.

What did they bring to the table?

Chalmers, was one of the short lived companies, that was around for only a couple decades. They did not do much to change the face of the automotive world. They where also a rather expensive option, maybe the cause of their demise. The two model options where The 30 Touring and the 30 Roadster which sold for US$1500, which would be tens of thousands in today’s money. Maxwell a similar company had actually merged with Chalmers in couple of decades but we will get to that in another segment.

Next we have one of our big three, and maybe the most notable for American Automobile Manufacturing, as well all types of manufacturing. Ford was the first car company to use an assembly line to build their cars. This greatly reduced cost as they could make more, and make them quickly. Henry Ford is the driving force behind middle class families being able to afford a car. “You can have it in any color you want as long as it’s black” – Henry Ford. While the Model T was not a luxurious vehicle, it was affordable. What exactly is affordable? The average worker in 1903 made $924 per year. The Model T, when released was a whopping 550, later dropping to 440 dollars. With similar cars priced well above at 2500 dollars. Eventually prices dropped enough for an assembly worker to buy one with 4 months pay.

1908 Model T

Ford Model T

With so much to cover in the first decade in the turn of the century we will have to continue tomorrow. This and the 1920′s was the biggest boom in advancements of the Revolution. We will continue this part with what a few more of our companies from the decade did for the American Automobile, as well as where that puts us in the series.

If you have any questions or more to add let us know.

Check out Part II.i

Category: Uncategorized / Tags: american autos, decades of american autos

Decades of American Autos Part I

admin / May 21, 2012 / No comments

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Decades Of American Autos

Our next series is Decades of American Autos. It makes sense right that a place called Ameri-Tuner would put up an article about our history. We will cover everything American Autos by decade from the start to current. So look each day for the next decade. Not only will we enlighten you with some neat facts about cars but the changes in America due to the Automotive Industry

So we will start in a small Harbor in Michigan by the name of Benton Harbor, where the Baushke Family who where Carriage builders built Americas first powered carriage. It could carry 5 passengers and was built by hand by Louis and Albert Baushke. This American icon had a 7.5 horse engine and could cruise down main street at 23 miles per hour, and you complain about your car. The engineer behind the car, allegedly took the idea to Indiana and helped create the Haynes machine, which was claimed for some time to be the first American auto.

Baushke car

picture from http://www.israelitehouseofdavid.com/T10.html

Where does this put us

Well we are at the begging of the industrial revolution which made the automobile what it is today. But what else happened before 1900. Well we will let you know. Henry Ford started building cars in 1896 as well but did not start Ford Motor Company until after the turn of the century, which we will get into tomorrow. And that’s about all that happened in the 1890′s as far as the Automotive world goes.

Where are we going

We are going to get on the dirt road to the future. All of a sudden the Industrial Revolution takes off and all kinds of manufacturing that has all to do with the automobile.

Stay tuned for more

Category: Uncategorized / Tags: automotive history, Decades of Automobiles

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