Timeline Cars
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1831 Mar 12,
Clement Studebaker, auto maker, was born.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1863 Mar 26, Henry Royce, founder
(Rolls-Royce Limited in 1884), was born. [see Mar 27]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1863 Mar 27, Sir Henry Royce,
Rolls Royce founder, was born. [see Mar 26]
(HN, 3/27/98)
1867 Aug, The first recorded race
of two self powered road vehicles over a prescribed route was between
Ashton-under-Lyne and Old Trafford, a distance of eight miles. It was
won by Isaac Watt Boulton against Daniel Adamson, each in steam cars of
their own manufacture.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycbvsah)(http://tinyurl.com/y98cs3h)
1875 Apr 2, Walter Chrysler,
founder of Chrysler automobile company, was born. He grew up in Ellis,
Kansas.
(HN, 4/2/98)(WSJ, 8/10/00, p.A16)
1875 May 23, Alfred Pritchard
Sloan, Jr., president and chairman of the board for General Motors, was
born. His foundation started the cancer research center Sloan-Kettering
Institute. Sloan defined the modern automobile industry and helped
rescue General Motors in 1920.
(HN, 5/23/99)(WSJ, 1//03, p.D8)
1876 Aug 29, Charles F. Kettering,
inventor (automobile self-starter), was born in Ohio.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1876 Nikolaus Otto (1832-1891),
German inventor, first demonstrated the four-stroke engine.
(www.keveney.com/otto.html)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaus_Otto)
1877 Aug 27, Charles Stewart
Rolls, British auto manufacturer (Rolls-Royce Ltd), was born.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1882 Apr 28, Alberto Pirelli,
Italian industrialist, was born.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1882 James Atkinson, British
engineer, invented the Atkinson cycle engine, an ultra-lean internal
combustion engine.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.77)(www.jyrojak.com/steamtime.htm)
1885 Nov 10, Paul Daimler, son of
Gottlieb Daimler, became the first motorcyclist when he rode his
father's new invention on a round trip of six miles.
(HN, 11/10/99)
1886 Jan 26, Karl Benz patented
the 1st automobile. [see Jan 29]
(MC, 1/26/02)
1886 Jan 29, 1st successful
gasoline-driven car was patented by Karl Benz in Karlsruhe. [see Jan 26]
(MC, 1/29/02)
1886 Jul 3, In Germany Karl Benz
drove the 1st automobile. [see Jan 29]
(MC, 7/3/02)
1888 Jul 27, Philip Pratt unveiled
the 1st electric automobile.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1888 Aug 12, Bertha, wife of
inventor Karl Benz, made the 1st motor tour.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1890 Jul 18, Charles Wilson, Pres.
of General Motors (1940-53), Sec. of Defense (1953-57), was born.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1892 Apr 19, The prototype of the
first commercially successful American automobile was completed in
Springfield, Mass., by Charles E. Duryea and his brother Frank.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1893 Rudolph Diesel, German
engineer, developed his diesel engine.
(WSJ, 1/14/05, p.W10)
1894 Jun 26, Karl Benz of Germany
received a US patent for a gasoline-driven auto.
(MC, 6/26/02)
1894 Jul 4, Elwood Haynes
successfully tested one of 1st US autos at 6 MPH.
(Maggio, 98)
1894 Jul 22, The first major
automobile race with prizes and a promoter was organized as a
reliability trial by Le Petit Journal of Paris. It took place on the
78-mile route between Paris and Rouen, France [see Aug 30, 1867].
(http://wapedia.mobi/en/Auto_racing)(Econ, 4/22/06,
p.65)(http://tinyurl.com/ycbvsah)
1895 Sep 8, Adam Opel (58), German
manufacturer of sewing machines and bicycles, died. In 1899 the firm
acquired a car factory.
(MC, 9/8/01)(www.histomobile.com)
1895 Nov 5, George B. Selden of
Rochester, N.Y., received the first U.S. patent for an "improved Road
Engine."
(AP, 11/5/07)
1896 Mar 6, Charles B. King rode
his "Horseless Carriage," the 1st auto in Detroit.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1896 May 9, The 1st horseless
carriage show in London featured 10 models.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1896 May 30, 1st car accident
occurred when Henry Wells hit a bicyclist in NYC.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1896 Jun 8, The 1st car was stolen.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1896 Jun 16, Jean Peugeot, French
auto manufacturer, was born.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1896 The Michelin brothers
introduced pneumatic tires in the Paris-to-Bordeaux automobile race.
They had come up with the removable tire, but the pneumatic tire was
invented in the US by John Dunlap.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W5)
1897 Ransom E. Olds started the
Olds Motor Vehicle Co. In 2004 the last Oldsmobile Alero rolled of a GM
assembly line in Lansing, Mich.
(SFC, 4/28/04, p.C1)
1898 Feb 18, Enzo Ferrari
(d.1988), Italian sports car manufacturer, was born.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9034085/Enzo-Ferrari)
1898 Mar 24, The 1st automobile
was sold.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1898 In France the Michelin Tire
company began using its tire-man logo. The first ad offered a toast
with broken nails and glass and told consumers that the Michelin tire
"drinks up obstacles."
(SFC, 3/19/98, p.A3)(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.T3)
1899 May 24, The 1st US auto
repair shop opened in Boston.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1899 Aug 15, Henry Ford (36) quit
his job with the Edison Illuminating Company. He soon found backers and
started the Detroit Automobile Company, with himself as chief engineer.
(ON, 3/03, p.1)
1899 Sep 13, Henry H. Bliss became
the first person killed by an automobile, an electric taxi in
Manhattan.
(SFC, 10/10/97, p.A21)
1900 Mar 6, Gottlieb Daimler (65),
designer of the 1st motorcycle, died.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1900 Nov, Henry Ford’s Detroit
Automobile Company failed. It was revived in 1901 as the Henry Ford Co.
(http://home.planet.nl/~nagte017/Cadillactext001.html)
1900 The Lohner-Porsche was
introduced at the World’s Fair in Paris. The hybrid car relied on
batteries and a generator to produce electricity for its motors.
Ferdinand Porsche working for Jacob Lohner in Vienna put electric
motors into the hubs of the wheels of the Lohner-Porsche.
(Econ, 4/24/10, p.78)
1901 Apr 15, The 1st British
motorized burial took place.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1901 Apr 25, New York became the
first state to require automobile license plates; the fee was one
dollar. The first automobile license plates were issued in Paris,
France in 1893. The first American city to require drivers to be
licensed and register their vehicle was Boston, but the trend quickly
spread.
(AP, 4/25/98)(HNQ, 7/18/00)
1901 Henry Ford founded the Henry
Ford Co. but soon left. In 1902 the remaining owners dissolved
operations and formed the Cadillac Co.
(http://home.planet.nl/~nagte017/Cadillactext001.html)
1901 In Lanark, Illinois, Charles
Cotta built the Cottamobile, a steam-powered car with individual chains
driving each of 4 wheels.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1901 Cixi, China’s empress
dowager, received a new wood-bodied Duryea automobile to mark her 66th
birthday. She is said to have fortified her driver, Sun Fuling, with a
generous bowl of rice wine. Fuling promptly lost control of the car and
ran over and killed a palace eunuch.
(Econ, 8/22/09, p.40)
1902 Mar, Henry Ford (38) left the
Detroit Automobile Company and soon found backers for the new Ford
Motor Co., which incorporated in 1903.
(ON, 3/03, p.1)
1902 Aug 13, Felix Wankel,
inventory of the rotary engine which bears his name, was born in
Germany.
(HN, 8/13/00)(MC, 8/13/02)
1902 Aug 22, The Cadillac Company
formed from the Henry Ford Co. when Henry Ford left. Ford formed the
Ford Motor Co. in 1903.
(http://home.planet.nl/~nagte017/Cadillactext001.html)
1903 May 19, Dr. Horatio Nelson
Jackson bet $50 that he could cross the US from San Francisco in his
$2,500 Winton Touring car. He and his mechanic reached NYC July 26.
(SFC, 6/16/03, p.A1)
1903 May 23, Dr. Horatio Nelson
Jackson set off to cross the US from San Francisco in his $2,500 Winton
touring car with his mechanic Sewell Croker. They reached NYC July 26.
(SFC, 6/16/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/18/03, p.A23)(ON, 9/04,
p.10)
1903 Jun 15, Barney Oldfield
(1878-1946), race car driver, drove a Ford 999 at a record mile per
minute.
(Ind, 10/6/01, 5A)
1903 Jun 16, Ford Motor Co. was
incorporated.
(AP, 6/16/98)
1903 Jun 18, 1st transcontinental
auto trip began in SF and arrived in NY 3-months later. [see Jul 26]
(MC, 6/18/02)
1903 Jul 23, The Ford Motor
Company sold its first automobile, the Model A.
(HN, 7/23/98)
1903 Jul 26, Dr. Horatio Nelson
Jackson of Vermont and his mechanic Sewell Croker arrived in NYC
completing the first cross-country automobile trip in 63 days after
leaving SF. On July 26, 2003 Peter Kesling and Charlie Wake completed a
rerun of the original trip.
(WSJ, 7/19/02, p.W9)(WSJ, 5/7/03, p.B1)(SSFC,
7/27/03, p.A2)(ON, 9/04, p.12)
1903 Burton Westcott (1868-1926)
brought his family business, the Westcott Motor Car. Co., from Richmond
Ind., to Springfield, Ohio, where its cars were assembled by hand.
(WSJ, 8/16/07, p.D7)
1904 Jan 27, Willie Vanderbilt
(1878-1944) reached 92.3 mph in his new German motorcar at the Daytona
Beach Road Course at Ormond Beach, Florida, establishing a new land
speed record. He was the 2nd child and first son of William Kissam
Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith.
(Econ, 12/22/07,
p.122)(www.racechase.com/ftopic254.html)
1904 The British Rover Motor Car
Company was founded.
(SSFC, 11/22/09, p.H1)
1905 Mary Anderson of Alabama
received a patent for a streetcar windshield wiper. Her effort was the
result of a trip to NYC in 1903 where she watched drivers coping with
the weather.
(WSJ, 5/9/05, p.R10)
1905 Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav
Klement, Czech bicycle makers, began making cars. They later merged
with Skoda Pilsen.
(www.skoda-auto.com/global/history/company)
1906 Henry Ford used stock
purchases to acquire 51% of the Ford Motor Co. and concentrated on
producing inexpensive cars. His highest priced vehicle in 1906 cost
$750.
(ON, 3/03, p.2)
1907 May 31, Taxis began
running in NYC.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1907 Jun 10, In China 11 men in
five cars set out from the French embassy in Beijing on a race to
Paris. Prince Scipione Borghese of Italy was the first to arrive in the
French capital two months later. The 62-day race was won by an Italian
built Itala.
(AP, 6/10/07)(AH, 6/03, p.21)
1908 Feb 12, The first
round-the-world automobile race began in New York City. It ended in
Paris the following July with the drivers of the American car, a Thomas
Speedway Flyer, was declared the winner over teams from Germany and
Italy. The Flyer was made by the E.R. Thomas Motor Co. of Buffalo, NY,
was initially driven by Montague Roberts and George Schuster. Roberts
dropped out in Wyoming. Schuster took over as captain and chief driver
from San Francisco, which was reached on March 24.
(AP, 2/12/08)(ON, 4/08, p.8,9)
1908 Jul 30, An around the world
automobile race ended in Paris. The American Thomas Speedway Flyer, was
declared the winner over teams from Germany and Italy. In 1966 driver
George Schuster authored “The Longest Auto Race.” The restored Flyer
was later displayed at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.
(ON, 4/08, p.10)(AP, 7/30/08)
1908 Aug 12, Henry Ford's first
Model T rolled off the assembly line.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1908 Sep 16, General Motors was
formed in Flint, Mich., by William Durant.
(AP, 9/16/08)
1908 Oct 1, The Ford Model T, the
first car for millions of Americans, hit the market. Each car cost
$825. Over 15 million Model Ts were eventually sold, all of them black.
The Model T automobile cost $850 when it was first introduced to the
public. Ford lowered the price of automobiles—previously regarded as a
toy of the rich—by maintaining control of raw materials and using new
mass production techniques. The price of this two-seater,
affectionately known as the “tin Lizzy,” fluctuated over the years,
dipping below $300 in 1924. Electric lights and an optional electric
starter were among the few improvements over the years. The model was
discontinued in 1927 after more 15,000,000 had been produced.
(CFA, ‘96, p.56)(AP, 10/1/97)(HN, 10/1/98)(HNQ,
7/11/00)
1909 Jun 1, Pres. William Howard
Taft touched a key in Washington, DC, sending a signal to Seattle,
opening the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Expo at the Seattle World’s Fair, as
well as a signal to NYC initialing the New York to Seattle Automobile
Race.
(AH, 6/03, p.18)
1909 Jun 23, A Ford Model T
crossed the finish line in the NYC to Seattle Automobile Race after 22
days and 55 minutes to claim the Guggenheim Cup and a $2,000 first
prize. A Shamut came in 17 hours later to win the 2nd-place prize of
$1500. An Acme car came in on June 29 to claim a $1000 3rd prize. The
Ford was later disqualified for having switched engines enroute.
(AH, 6/03, p.23)
1909 Aug 7, Alice Huyler Ramsey
(22) arrived in San Francisco on a ferry boat after driving a 1909
Maxwell Model DA across the country. She had left New York on June 9 on
the first ever cross-country trip by a woman.
(SFC, 7/10/09, p.D3)
1909 Aug 19, The Indianapolis
Motor Speedway opened with a 2.5 mile race track. It was founded in
1906 and the 1st 500 race was held in 1911.
(MC, 8/19/02)(Internet)
1909 The California State
Automobile Association produced its first road map. In 2008 it planned
to stop production of paper maps and shift to digital technology.
(SFC, 5/27/08, p.D1)
1909 John H. Eagal, manager of the
automobile department of the Studebaker, San Francisco branch, said
“The future of the electric automobile is assured… The past few months
have seen an increase in demand for the electric cars that has been
surprising to manufacturers all over the country.” Studebaker sold
battery-powered cars from 1902 to 1912.
(SSFC, 1/10/10, DB
p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Electric)
1910 Mar 23, 1st race at Los
Angeles Motordrome (1st US auto speedway).
(SS, 3/23/02)
1910 Henry Ford opened a new plant
in Highland Park, Mich., the largest plant in the world. The retail
price of the Model T dropped to $780.
(ON, 3/03, p.3)
1911 Mar 11, The Cadillac Division
of General Motors demonstrated the first electric self starter,
enabling women to drive alone. Charles Kettering created the first
successful electric self-starter for Cadillac. It was introduced in the
1912 model. The perfection of the self-starter by inventor Charles
Kettering enormously expanded the market for the automobile. Kettering,
born in Londonville, Ohio, in 1876, had invented an electric cash
register motor while at the National Cash Register Company in 1906. In
1909 he organized the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, later
known as Delco, and soon made notable improvements in automobile
ignition and lighting systems. His self-starter was introduced in the
1912 Cadillac. He founded the Charles F. Kettering Foundation dedicated
to natural science research and was co-founder of the Sloan-Kettering
Institute for Cancer Research. Kettering died in 1958.
(SMTS, 10/1/86, p.4)(F, 10/7/96, p.67)(HNQ, 3/3/99)
1911 May 29, The first running of
the Indianapolis 500. Ray Harroun won at 74.59 mph (120 kph). [see May
30]
(HN, 5/29/98)(SC, 5/29/02)
1911 May 30, The first
long-distance auto race in Indianapolis was won by Ray Harroun. One
driver was killed and the average speed was 74.4 mph. [see May 29]
(SMTS, 10/1/86, p.4)(AP, 5/30/97)
1911 Henry Ford reduced the retail
price of the Model T to $690.
(ON, 3/03, p.3)
1912 Jan 22, Second Monte-Carlo
auto race began.
(HN, 1/22/99)
1912 Apr 6, Cadillac adopted an
electric self-starter. Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958), as
president of Delco, introduced the electric-starter on the 1912
Cadillac.
(www.todayinsci.com/4/4_06.htm)(http://local.aaca.org/bntc/mileposts/1912.htm)
1912 May 18, Georg von Opel,
German auto manufacturer, was born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1912 Henry Ford doubled production
and reduced the price of the Model T to $600.
(ON, 3/03, p.3)
1913 Jul 1, The Lincoln Highway
Association decided to call its coast-to-coast highway the Lincoln
Highway, and it was officially incorporated as the Lincoln Highway
Association.
(http://lincolnhighway.jameslin.name/history/part2.html)
1913 Aug, Henry Ford began his 1st
large-scale automobile assembly tests.
(ON, 3/03, p.4)
1913 Sep 14, The Lincoln Highway
Association announced the route of the Lincoln Highway. Its leaders,
particularly Henry Joy, President of the Packard Motor Car Company,
decided on as straight a route as possible and that decision dictated
the course. That initial line was 3,389 miles long. Less than half of
it, 1,598 miles, was improved. (Eventually, as segments of the route
were improved, the length shrunk to about 3,140 miles).
(www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/lincoln.cfm)
1913 Oct 7, In attempting to find
ways to lower the cost of the automobile and make it more affordable to
ordinary Americans, Henry Ford took note of the work of efficiency
experts like Frederick Taylor, the "father of scientific management."
The result was the assembly line that reduced the time it took to
manufacture a car, from 12 hours to 93 minutes. Ford reversed the
slaughter house production process of removing parts from a moving line
to adding parts. Production more than doubled and the price of the
Model T was reduced from $600 to $550.
(HN, 10/7/00)(SFC, 6/13/03, p.B4)(ON, 3/03, p.4)
1914 Apr 14, Stacy G. Carkhuff
patented a non-skid tire pattern.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1914 Aug 5, One of the first, if
not the first, electric traffic light systems were installed in
Cleveland, Ohio.
(AP, 8/5/07)
1914 Henry Ford (1863-1947)
introduced his $5 a day pay that made it possible for the average
worker to buy a car. 231,000 "Tin Lizzies" were built this year.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1914 Dodge cars were introduced.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1914 Lionel Martin and Robert
Bamford founded Aston Martin. They produced their 1st car in 1915. Ford
bought a controlling interest in 1987 and acquired full ownership in
1994. In 2007 Ford sold a controlling stake to a consortium of
investors that included racing mogul David Richards, car collector John
Sinders, and the Kuwaiti companies Investment Dar and Adeem Investment
Co.
(SFC, 3/13/07, p.E2)
1915 Oct 12, Ford Motor Company
manufactured its 1 millionth Model T automobile. [see Dec 10]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1915 Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and
Harvey Firestone rode in a private Pullman car to visit Luther Burbank
in Santa Rosa, Ca.
(SFEC, 12/1/96, p.T8)
1915 There were some 450
automotive and auto parts makers in the US by the end of this year.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1915 Louis Chevrolet sold his
interest in the Chevrolet Motor Company and focused his interest on
auto racing.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFEC, 1/9/00, Z1 p.2)
1916 The Four Wheel Drive Auto Co.
of Clintonville, Wis., got a boost from WW I demand for its trucks.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1921 Walter P. Chrysler, president
of the General Motor’s Buick Motor Co., became chairman of Maxmell
Motor Corp.
(NYT, 10/8/04, p.D9)
1921 Ford’s car production
comprised nearly 56% of the total output.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1923 Apr 5, Firestone Co. put
their inflatable tires into production.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1923 Alfred P. Sloan Jr.
(1875-1966), a ball-bearing magnate, became president of a troubled GM
and brought in corporate management and tight financial controls. He
introduced the ideas of model changes and offering a car "for every
purse and purpose."
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(Econ,
6/6/09, p.61)
1923 Benz & Cie introduced a
diesel truck with a 50-horsepower engine.
(WSJ, 1/14/05, p.W10)
1924 Aug 5, The comic strip
"Little Orphan Annie" by Harold Gray (d.1968) made its debut in the NY
Daily News. Daddy Warbucks was her millionaire guardian. Leonard Starr
took over the strip in 1979. Her image was updated in 2000 by
cartoonist Andrew Pepoy. [see Oct 5]
(AP, 8/5/97)(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.C12)(SFC, 6/12/00,
p.A2)
1925 Mar 2, State and federal
highway officials developed a nationwide route numbering system and
adopted the familiar U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker. For instance,
in the east, there is U.S. 1 that runs from New England to Florida and
in the west, the corresponding highway, U.S. 101, from Tacoma, WA to
San Diego, CA.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1925 Dec 12, Arthur Heinman opened
the first motel, the "Motel Inn," in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
(AP, 12/12/97)
1925 The Michelin Guide introduced
its star system for hotels and restaurants.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W5)
1925 Burton Westcott (1868-1926)
was forced to close his Westcott Motor Car. Co. in Springfield, Ohio.
(WSJ, 8/16/07, p.D7)
1926 Frederic J. Fisher
(1878-1941) and his brother Charles (1880-1963), founders of the Fisher
Body Co., sold their operations to GM.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1926 Charles Stewart Mott
(1875-1973) established a family foundation that focused on social
enterprises around Flint, Mich. He had earlier sold the family’s wheel
and axle business to General Motors and become its largest shareholder.
(SFC, 6/16/08,
p.B3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stewart_Mott)
1926 GM opened a plant in Osaka,
Japan.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1926 Firestone Tire and Rubber Co.
created the world's largest plantation at Harbel, Liberia, and rubber
became the backbone of the economy.
(AP, 7/1/03)(NG, Feb, 04)
1927 May 25, Henry Ford stopped
production of the Model T car and began the Model A.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1927 May 26, Ford Motor Company
manufactured its 15 millionth Model T automobile.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1927 Henry Ford obtained a
Connecticut-sized land in the Brazilian jungle and began creating his
Fordlandia factory town for the creation of a rubber plantation and
processing facility to supply his factories with tires and gaskets. A
strike in 1930 wrecked Fordlandia. It was rebuilt and struggled on for
a decade until succumbing to leaf blight and insects. In 2009 Greg
Grandin authored “Fordlandia: The rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s
Forgotten Jungle city.”
(SSFC, 7/5/09, p.F7)
1928 May 29, Fritz von Opel
reached 200 kph in an experimental rocket car. [see Sep 30, 1929]
(SC, 5/29/02)
1928 Nearly 2,000 people died on
California highways.
(SFC, 8/13/04, p.F4)
1929 Dec 18, Helene Delangle
(1900-1984), French racing pioneer, became the fastest woman driver in
the world, averaging 120.5 mph at Montlhery, France. In 2004 Miranda
Seymour authored “The Bugatti Queen: In search of a Motor-Racing
Legend.”
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.81)
1929 The Henry Ford Museum and
Greenfield Village opened in Dearborn.
(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.D10)
1929 General Motors purchased
Opel, a German car manufacturer, for $33.3 million.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.E6)
1930 Mar 26, Congress appropriated
$50,000 for Inter-American highway.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1930 In Italy Battista “Pinin”
Farina founded Pininfarina SpA, a car design firm.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.B5)
1932 Mar 31, Ford Motor Co.
publicly unveiled its V-8 engine.
(AP, 3/31/97)
1932 Jun 6, A US Federal gas tax
was enacted.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1932 Dec 21, Carl McGee, Oklahoma
inventor, applied for a patent for his parking meter. He had came up
with the 1st coin-operated, single-space, mechanical meter to be used
to free up parking spaces in downtown Oklahoma City.
(WSJ, 6/30/05,
p.B1)(www.ok-history.mus.ok.us/enc/parking.htm)
1933 Automatic shifting was
introduced by the Reo Car Co. (1904-1936).
(SSFC, 4/27/08, DB
p.58)(www.canadiandriver.com/articles/bv/reo.htm)
1934 Mar 26, Driving tests were
introduced in Britain.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1934 May 2, In Germany a
Chancellery meeting took place between Adolph Hitler and executives of
General Motors Corp. and its German division (Opel). Opel quickly
became an essential element in German rearmament. Over the next 4 years
GM’s workforce in Germany grew from 17,000 to 27,000.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.E6)
1934 Jun 22, "Dr. Ing. h.c. F.
Porsche GmbH, Konstruktionen und Beratung für Motoren- und
Fahrzeugbau" received the go-ahead from the "Reichsverband der
Automobilindustrie (RDA)" (the Association of the German Reich of the
Automotive Industry) to construct and build the Volkswagen. Hitler had
asked Ferdinand Porsche Sr., owner of a consulting and design firm, to
build a "people’s car," from which resulted the Volkswagen. Porsche
took the design from the Tatra T97 of Czechoslovakia’s Hans and Erich
Ledwinka.
(http://tinyurl.com/22n6kb6)(SFC, 3/28/98,
p.B12)(Econ, 6/28/08, p.20)
1935 Mar 13, Driving tests were
introduced in Great Britain.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1935 May 7, US Commissioner Ernest
E. Williams listened as witnesses charged Walter Lord, head of
Drive-Away Travel Service of Detroit, with violating the National
Recovery Administration automobile code. At least 10 young men were
left stranded in San Francisco after driving in cars from Detroit with
no pay. Drivers figured they had worked 138 hours, which at the NRA
rate of 37.5 cents and hour, would have meant $51.75 in wages for each
driver.
(SSFC, 5/2/10, DB p.46)
1935 Jul 16, The first parking
meters were installed, in Oklahoma City. Carlton Magee's automatic
meter, the "Park-O-Meter" was installed by the Dual Parking Meter
Company in Oklahoma City. The parking meters were divided by 20-foot
spaces painted on the pavement and accepted nickels.
(AP, 7/16/97)(HNQ, 8/4/02)
1935 Sep 3, Sir Malcolm Campbell
became the first person to drive an automobile over 300 MPH. Campbell
drove the Bluebird Special on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah at a
speed of 304.331 MPH.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1936 Jul 4, The Reich Government
decided to build a separate plant for the new Volkswagen, the
Volkswagenwerk. The "Company for Preparation of Deutsche Volkswagen
Ltd" was established on 28 May 1937.
(http://tinyurl.com/22n6kb6)
1937 Feb 11, In Flint, Mich., a
sit-down strike against General Motors ended after 44 days, with the
company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union. The
UAW was victorious in a strike against GM. GM recognized the union and
agreed to a contract.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(AP, 2/11/97)
1937 Mar 1, The 1st US permanent
automobile license plates was issued in Connecticut.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1937 Jul 2, Richard Petty, auto
race driver (Daytona 500-1979,81), was born.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1937 Mercedes- Benz developed an
all-wheel-drive car, largely for military purposes.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1938 Aug 27, George Eyston set an
automobile land-speed record.
(MC, 8/27/02)
1938 Ford introduced the Mercury
line of cars.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1939 Apr 30, The New York World’s
Fair, billed as a look at "the world of tomorrow," officially opened.
NY Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia mandated that the city's nude dancers cover
up during the fair. The cover-up evolved into the G-string and later
the thong. The General Motors exhibit was titled Futurama. Philo T.
Farnsworth premiered his television at the fair. AT&T presented its
first Picture Phone at the World's Fair. Salvador Dali created a
pavilion that was called “Dream of Venus” and described as the “funny
house of tomorrow.” In 2000 Miles Beller authored "Dream of Venus (Or
Living Pictures): A Novel of the 1939 New York world’s Fair." National
Presto Industries introduced the home pressure cooker at the fair.
(AP, 4/30/97)(WSJ, 6/7/99, p.A8)(SFEC, 4/16/00, BR
p.7)(NYTBR, 2/2/03, p.20) (www.imdb.com/title/tt0149460/trivia)(WSJ,
12/27/08, p.A7)
1939 Ford debuted the Lincoln
Continental created under the design team led by Bob Gregorie (d.2002
at 94).
(SFC, 12/3/02, p.A21)
1939 GM’s Buick introduced
electrical, directional indicator signals.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1939 Oldsmobile was the first car
to offer an automatic transmission. [see 1937]
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1939 Packard introduced the first
auto air-conditioning system.
(F, 10/7/96, p.69)
1940 Dec 30, In California the
Arroyo Seco Parkway, connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, officially
opened as the first freeway in the Western US.
(AP, 12/30/97)(SFC, 3/7/98, p.A18)
1940 Nov 11, Willys unveiled its
General Purpose vehicle, the "Jeep." The Willys Quad, featuring 4-wheel
drive, was one entry in a US government competition for a small
military utility vehicle.
(MC, 11/11/01)(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1941 Apr 3, Andre Michelin (88),
French tire manufacturer, died. In 2004 Herbert Lottman authored "The
Michelin Men: Driving an Empire," the story of Andre and Edouard
Michelin.
(MC, 4/3/02)(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W5)
1941 Aug 2, The summary of an FBI
probe of GM senior executives with links to Adolph Hitler found
collusion Germany by James D. Mooney, president of GM Overseas Corp.,
but no evidence of any disloyalty to America.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.E6)
1942 Oct, Pres. Roosevelt signed
special legislation that allowed General Motors to take a complete tax
write-off for the loss of Opel, its Nazi subsidiary. The tax reduction
amounted to some $22.7 million, an amount equal to about $285 billion
in 2007.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.E6)
1943 May 26, Edsel Ford, president
(49) of the Ford Motor Company, died.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1943 General Motors invited Peter
Drucker (1909-2005), a young author, to study the company from the
inside. His seminal study of General Motors: “The Concept of the
Corporation” (1946) introduced the idea of decentralization as a
principle of organization, in contrast to the practice of command and
control in business.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_of_the_Corporation)(Econ,
11/19/05, p.72)
1945 Volkswagen, under British
army engineer Ivan Hirst (d.2000), turned out 1,785 cars as part of a
20,000 car, war reparations contract with the British army.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.D6)
1946 Mar 8, Frederick William
Lanchester (b.1868) died in England. He was a major contributor to the
theory and practice of automobile engineering and aeronautical
engineering. He also published works in radio, acoustics, relativity,
music and poetry.
(http://www.lanchester.com/Lanc1.html)
1946 Sep 11, The 1st mobile
long-distance car-to-car telephone conversation.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1946 Peter Drucker (1909-2005)
published his seminal study of General Motors: “The Concept of the
Corporation.” In it he introduced the idea of decentralization as a
principle of organization, in contrast to the practice of command and
control in business.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_of_the_Corporation)(Econ,
11/19/05, p.72)
1946 Michelin patented its radial
tire.
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.60)
1947 Apr 7, Auto pioneer Henry
Ford (b.1863) died in Dearborn, Mich. Most of his personal estate,
valued at $205 million, was left to the Ford Foundation. In 2001 Neil
Baldwin authored "Henry Ford and the Jews - The Mass Production of
Hate." In 2003 Douglas Brinkley authored "Wheels for the World - Henry
Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress." In 2005 Steven Watts
authored “The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century.”
(AP, 4/7/97)(HN, 2/20/98)(SFC, 6/13/03, p.B4)(SSFC,
8/28/05, p.C2)
1948 Oct 2, In New York the 1st
Grand Prix at Watkins Glen was held. Cameron Argetsinger (1921-2008)
was the main driving force behind the race which was won by Frank
Griswold. Formula racing continued there until bankruptcy in 1981. Two
year later Corning Glass Works revived the Watkins Glen race course in
partnership with Int’l. Speedway Corp.
(WSJ, 4/26/08,
p.A6)(www.nascar.com/races/tracks/wgi/index.html)
1948 General Motors agreed to
annual cost-of-living pay increases.
(Econ, 6/6/09, p.61)
1948 General Motors began
regaining control over Opel operations in Germany. GM collected some
$33 million in war reparations for Allied bombing of its German
facilities.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.E6)
1948 British carmaker Rover
developed the Jeep-like Land Rover.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1948 Trevor Wilkinson incorporated
TVR Engineering, a small British carmaker. He left the company in 1962
and in 1965 it was sold to Martin Lilly.
(SFC, 6/16/08, p.B3)
1948 Ferdinand Porsche
(1875-1951), German car inventor, rolled out the first Porsche sports
car.
(Econ, 6/14/08,
p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Porsche)
1949 Mar 2, 1st automatic street
light was in New Milford, CT.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1949 The German Volkswagen Beetle
was introduced in the US.
(SSFC, 7/20/03, p.A14)
1950 General Motors agreed to free
health-care coverage for life along with generous pensions. Chrysler
and Ford were forced to offer similar benefits.
(Econ, 6/6/09, p.61)
1950 Giaur was formed in Italy by
the great Berardo Taraschi (previously of Urania) and the Giannini
brothers, the name coming from Giannini and Urania. The engines were
mainly Giannini units, although Fiat and Crosley items were also used.
(http://ferrariexperts.com/giaur.htm)(SSFC, 7/20/08,
p.J3)
1951 Jan 30, Ferdinand Porsche
(b.1875), German car inventor (Porsche), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Porsche)
1951 Feb 17, Packard introduced
its "250" Chassis Convertible.
(HN, 2/17/02)
1951 Chrysler introduced
Hydraguide power steering. Thompson Products helped to pioneer the
innovation. Chrysler also debuted hemispherical combustion heads above
the cylinders of its V-8 engines.
(F, 10/7/96, p.69)(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 4/30/04,
p.B1)
1952 British engineer Charles
Spencer King (1925-2010) set a land speed record of 152 mph for gas
turbine cars in Jet1, which he helped design.
(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.C9)
1953 Jan 17, GM introduced the
first American sports car, the two-seater Corvette at the annual NYC
Motorama Show at the Waldorf-Astoria. It was not made available for
sale to the public until June 30th.
(http://tinyurl.com/fdjur)(http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1953-corvette.htm)
1953 Jan, Pres. Eisenhower
selected Charlie Wilson, the president of General Motors, as Secretary
of Defense. During his confirmation hearing Wilson made his famous
statement: “…what was good for our country was good for General Motors,
and vice versa.”
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.E6)
1953 Nov 22, The Ford Motor Co.
planned to spend an estimated $40 million to build an assembly plant in
Milpitas, Ca.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.E4)
1953 Jun 30, The first Corvette
rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, MI. The brainchild of
designer Harvey J. Earl sold for $3,250. GM made 300 Corvettes in 1953
and moved production to St. Louis for 1954.
(http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1953-corvette.htm)(WSJ, 7/12/02, p.W12)
1953 Naugahyde, an imitation
leather made from plastic, was sold by Uniroyal Technology to the auto
industry for upholstery. It soon came to be used for office seating
units and for some residential furniture.
(SFC, 3/5/08, p.G4)
1953 Air conditioning units became
widely available on American cars.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl.)
1953 Robert F. Borkenstein
(d.2002) invented a Breathalyzer to test drivers for alcohol content.
It stemmed from his work with Dr. R.N. Harger of the Indiana School of
Medicine to make the Drunkometer.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.B6)
1953 Volkswagen began
manufacturing cars in Brazil.
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.6)
1954 GM transferred production of
the Corvette to St. Louis and 3,000 were produced in this year.
(WSJ, 7/12/02, p.W12)
1954 Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson
Motor combined to form the American Motors Co.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl.)
1954 The Nash Metropolitan went on
sale for $1,445. The small car got up to 40 miles per gallon. American
Motors discontinued production of the British-built car in 1961. Total
sales reached nearly 95,000.
(SFC, 12/19/06, p.B1)
1954 The Studebaker Co. merged
with Packard Motor Car Co.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A12)
1955 Apr, Alberto Ascari, champion
race car driver, lost control of his Ferrari in Milan and was killed.
In 2004 Brock Yates authored “Against Death and Time.”
(WSJ, 7/7/04, p.D10)
1955 May, Bill Vukovich, 2-time
winner of the Indianapolis 500, was killed while going for his 3rd win.
(WSJ, 7/7/04, p.D10)
1955 Jun 11, In Le Mans,
France, a Mercedes-Benz racer crashed killing its driver and some 81
spectators. Pierre Levegh’s car hit the bank by the grandstand and
immediately exploded. Parts of the wreckage were blown into the
enclosure, killing scores of mostly-French spectators. Levegh was
speeding down the straightaway in front of the pits when he clipped an
Austin-Healey driven by British driver Lance Macklin.
(WSJ, 7/7/04, p.D10)(http://tinyurl.com/69g9e)
1955 Jun 27, 1st automobile seat
belt legislation was enacted in Illinois.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1955 Aug 3, Automobile Association
of America ended support of auto racing.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1955 Aug 16, Fiat Motors ordered
the 1st private atomic reactor.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1955 Aug 31, 1st sun-powered
automobile demonstrated, Chicago, Ill.
(YN, 8/31/99)
1956 Industry experts in 1996
picked the 1956 Hudson as the number 1 worst American-made car. An
average car this year sold for about $2,500.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 9/11/06, p.C2)
1956 Canadian Les Dawes (d.2002)
produced his first La Dawri car, a fiberglass body on a Ford chassis.
He moved to Southern California where his La Dawri Coachcraft produced
some 800 car kits before it folded in the late 1960s.
(SSFC, 9/30/07, p.B1)
1957 Apr 6, NYC ended trolley car
service.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1957 Jul 4, In Italy the new Fiat
500 was launched.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.69)
1957 Aug 26, Ford Motor Company
revealed the Edsel, its latest luxury car.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1957 Sep 4, Ford Motor Co.
introduced the 1958 Edsel. It was designed by Roy Brown and sold only
173,000 units through 1960.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.D12)(AP, 9/4/97)
1957 In Zwickau, East Germany, the
first Trabant car was manufactured. Production ceased in 1991.
(SSFC, 6/17/07, p.A2)
1957 The Italian Mille Miglia
automobile race, begun in 1927, was cancelled following the crash of a
Ferrari driven by the Marquis de Portago. He and his co-driver were
killed along with 10 bystanders when the car ran off the road at 90 mph.
(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A13)
1958 Mercedes-Benz brought the 1st
diesel to the US market, the rounded, pokey 190D.
(WSJ, 1/14/05, p.W10)
1959 Mar 7, Hinsdale Smith (88),
developer of roll-down auto windows, died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1959 May 20, Ford won a battle
with Chrysler to call its new car "Falcon."
(MC, 5/20/02)
1959 The 3-point seat belt,
invented by Nils Bohlin (d.2002 at 82), was introduced by Volvo.
(SFC, 9/27/02, p.A25)
1960 Jul 21, Germany passed the
Volkswagen law legislation privatizing Volkswagen. It capped a
shareholder's voting rights at 20%, regardless of the number of shares
held, and required a majority of 80% for "important decisions." It also
gave Lower Saxony, the state in which Volkswagen is based, a
controlling minority stake in the automaker. In 2007 the European Court
ruled that the VW law had to go.
(http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKL2232313720071023)(Econ,
6/14/08, p.82)
1960 Stanford Ovshinsky founded
Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) in Rochester Hills, Michigan. In the
1980s the company introduced a nickel-metal hydride battery (NiMH) for
consumer use and made it available for automobiles in the early 1990s.
The technology made hybrid vehicles possible.
(WSJ, 10/13/04, p.C1)
1960s-1970s The Toyota Motor Company, formed as a
division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works in the 30s, acquired several
competing companies including Hino, Nippondenso and Daihitsu during the
60s and 70s in a huge expansion that included marketing more cars
overseas. The “Toyota Way,” its corporate culture, embodied 5 elements:
Kaizen (continuous improvement), Genchi genbutsu (go to the source for
facts), Challenge, Teamwork, and Respect for other people.
(HNQ, 9/28/00)(Econ, 1/21/06, Survey p.11)
1961 Mar 6, 1st London minicabs
were introduced.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1961 Raymond Loewy, industrial
designer for Studebaker Corp., assembled a 4-man team in Palm springs
to design a new sports coupe called the Avanti. Thomas Kellogg (d.2003
at 71) was a member of the team.
(SFC, 8/19/03, p.A19)
1961 Engineer Harry Ferguson’s
all-wheel-drive racer appeared in Formula One competition.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1962 The Studebaker car company
went into bankruptcy. A little money left over went into the design and
production of a few hundred Avanti sports cars.
(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A12)
1962 The 1st Jeep Wagoneer, a
precursor to the SUV, ran in a 2-or-4 wheel drive mode.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1963 Mar 31, LA ended streetcar
service after 90 years.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1963 Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr.,
former head of General Motors Corp., authored "My Life With General
Motors."
(F, 10/7/96, p.132)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.123)
1963 Chrysler became the majority
holder of Simca. By 1970 it changed the name to Chrysler France.
(www.allpar.com/model/simca.html)
1963 GM introduced the Malibu,
named after the California city, as a top line option on various 1964
Chevelles.
(WSJ, 4/1/09, p.A20)
1963 GM opened a 380-acre assembly
plant in Fremont, Ca., GM closed the plant in 1982.
(SSFC, 2/28/10, p.D1)
1963 Studebaker halted production
of cars in the US. 4,000 employees lost their company pensions. This
led to the passage of the Employment Retirement Income Security Act
(ERISA) in 1974.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 2/14/02, p.B1)
1964 Mar 9, The first Ford Mustang
rolled off the Ford assembly line.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1964 Apr 17, Ford Motor Company
unveiled its new Mustang model at the New York World’s Fair. The base
price was $2,368. Donald Frey (d.2010 at 86), spearheaded the design
and development of the car. Industry experts in 1996 picked the 1964
Mustang as the number 1 favorite car.
(AP, 4/17/97)(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 3/30/10,
p.C3)
1964 Jul 2, Glenn "Fireball"
Roberts, biggest NASCAR money winner, died in crash.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1964 Richard Petty won 27 NASCAR
races driving a 426-horsepower Hemi-powered Charger.
(WSJ, 6/17/05, p.A10)
1964 Mexico began producing its
own version of the Volkswagen Beetle, known as the el vocho.
(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A10)
1965 Consumer advocate Ralph Nader
published "Unsafe At Any Speed," a book criticizing the auto industry
for knowingly producing unsafe cars and not installing proper safety
devices. It specifically attacked the Chevrolet Corvair.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFEC, 10/13/96, Z1 p.3)
1965 Kevlar was invented by
Stephanie Kwolek, a chemist for DuPont, while experimenting with
polymers for new ways to reinforce car tires. In 1970 Herbert Blades of
DuPont developed a process for mass production. Marketing began in
1971. Soon after that Lester Shubin (1925-2001), a US Justice Dept.
researcher, began developing Kevlar, into body armor for police and
soldiers.
(SFC, 4/7/03, p.E2)(SFC, 11/28/09, p.C4)
1966 Feb 17, Alfred P. Sloan Jr.
(b.1875) former president GM (1923-1956), died. As president of GM he
brought in corporate management, introduced the ideas of model changes
and offering a car "for every purse and purpose." In 2002 David Farber
authored "Sloan Rules."
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1967 Feb 21, Ford recalled 217,000
cars to check brakes and steering.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1967 May 30, Robert "Evel" Knievel
on his motorcycle jumped 16 automobiles.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1967 James M. Roche (d.2004)
became chairman and CEO of General Motors. He stepped down as chairman
in 1971.
(SFC, 6/8/04, B7)
1967 Robert Kearns (1928-2005)
patented automobile intermittent windshield wipers.
(SFC, 3/2/05, p.B7)
1968 British Leyland was put
together by Harold Wilson’s industrial planners. It was nationalized in
1975, and sold to British Aerospace in 1988. BMW picked up Rover in
1994.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.15)
1969 Apr 10, Harley Jefferson Earl
(b.1893), car designer, died. He was a Hollywood builder of custom cars
and became GM’s VP of styling from 1940-1959. He was the first to
introduce tail fins in 1948. His design philosophy was "You can design
a car so that every time you get in it, it’s a relief--you have a
little vacation for a while."
(www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1998/2/1998_2_10.shtml)(WSJ,
6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1969 In Japan Nissan introduced
its Skyline GT-R muscle car. The car was initially introduced by the
Prince Motor Co. in June, 1957. It was discontinued in 2002. A new
version was introduced in 2007.
(WSJ, 10/24/07,
p.B1)(www.driftclub.com/SkylineHistory.htm)
1970 Feb 20, Students at San Jose
Univ., Ca., buried a brand new Ford Maverick as part of their Survival
Faire. The Maverick was exhumed one year later.
(SFC, 4/20/10, p.E1)(http://tinyurl.com/yyplgjc)
1970 Apr 1, American Motors Corp.
(AMC) introduced the compact Gremlin for $1879. It was designed by
Richard Teague on the back of a Northwest Airlines sickness bag. The
last Gremlin was made in 1978.
(www.allpar.com/amc/gremlin.html)(SFC, 3/14/05,
p.A10)
1970 May, Leonard Woodcock
(1911-2001) was named head of the UAW following the death of Walter
Reuther. He was elected to a full term at the union's 23rd
Constitutional Convention in April, 1972, and re-elected in 1974. He
retired in May 1977 and then served as US ambassador to China from
1979-1981.
(SFC, 1/18/01, p.C2)
1970 Sep, Ford introduced the
compact 1971 Pinto. The car became infamous for its lethally exploding
gas tank. The car lasted to 1980.
(www.allpar.com/amc/gremlin.html)(SFC, 3/14/05,
p.A10)
1970 Sep, GM introduced the
compact 1971 Chevrolet Vega. The car was released in 1971 and lasted to
1977. The aluminum and cast-iron engine kept breaking.
(www.allpar.com/amc/gremlin.html)(SFC, 3/14/05,
p.A10)(WSJ, 12/22/08, p.B2)
1970 Dec 10, Ford elected Lee
Iacocca (b.1924) as president.
(www.stfrancis.edu/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/bbios/biograph/leeic.htm)
1971 Aug 14, Georg von Opel (59),
German auto manufacturer, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1971 The US government set strict
federal safety standards for the auto industry that included passive
restraints, i.e. air bags. The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) delayed a passive-restraint mandate until 1976
after Henry Ford II and Ford President Lee Iacocca lobbied President
Nixon.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv.
Supl)(www.motorvista.com/airhist.htm)
1971 Rev. Leon Sullivan
(1922-2001), a noted Philadelphia minister, became GM’s 1st black board
member. In 1998 Sullivan authored “Moving Mountains.”
(SFC, 6/8/04,
B7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Sullivan)
1972 Ford became the first company
to equip vehicles with air bags.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1972 John DeLorean left GM to
start a car company in Northern Ireland.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1972 Industry experts in 1996
picked the 1972 Corvette Stingray as the number 9 favorite car.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1972 The Soviet Union began
producing more private cars than trucks.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.94)
1973 Jun 1, Harvey Jr. Firestone
(b.1898), American chairman of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., died in
Akron, Ohio.
.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_S._Firestone,_Jr.)
1973 Jul 2, Swede Savage died from
injuries at Indianapolis 500.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1973 Italian tire maker Pirelli
introduced steel-belted radial tires.
(Econ, 2/27/10, TQ p.5)
1974 Jan 2, President Nixon signed
legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph. Federal
speed limits were abolished in 1995. The legislation was conceived by
Claude Brinegar (1926-2009), Nixon’s secretary of transportation.
(AP, 1/2/98)(http://tinyurl.com/45ywak)(SFC,
3/18/09, p.B6)
1974 The 1st Volkswagen Golf, a
small sporty hatchback, hit the market.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.63)
1975 Jan 12, The Pittsburgh
Steelers beat the Minnesota Vikings (16-6) in the Superbowl in New
Orleans. Bob McCurry of Chrysler Corp. introduced the auto rebate in a
1975 Superbowl commercial.
(www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/results.nsf/Teams/1974-pit)
1975 Feb 28, AMC introduced the
Pacer, the first wide, small car.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv.
Supl)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Pacer)
1975 Japan’s Subaru, a division of
Fuji Heavy Industries, rolled out its 1st 4-wheel-drive car in the US
market.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1976 Italian carmaker Fiat began
manufacturing cars in Brazil.
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.6)
1977 May 29, Janet Guthrie
(b.1938) became the 1st woman to drive in the Indianapolis 500. Her
autobiography, "Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle," was published
in 2005.
(www.janetguthrie.com/biofr.htm)(www.nascar.com/2002/kyn/women/02/02/Guthrie/)
1977 Sep 13, General Motors
introduced 1st US diesel auto (Oldsmobile 88).
(MC, 9/13/01)
1977 Oct 12, The US Supreme Court
ruled that communities have a right to prevent commuters from parking
in residential neighborhoods.
(SFC, 10/11/02, p.E7)
1977 The Ford F-Series pickup
truck became the best-selling vehicle in the US.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1977 Industry experts in 1996
picked the 1977 Lincoln Versailles as the number 8 worst American-made
car.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1977 Jeep, a division of American
Motors, launched a 4-door Cherokee, a forerunner of the SUV boom.
(WSJ, 12/22/08, p.B2)
1977 The US stopped importation of
the German Volkswagen Beetle because it did not meet safety and
emissions standards.
(AP, 8/27/03)
1978 May 13, Joie Chitwood
(1912-1988), Texas-born race car driver, set a world record when he
drove a Chevette 5.6 miles on just 2 wheels.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joie_Chitwood)
1978 Jul 13, Lee Iacocca was fired
as president of Ford Motor Co. by chairman Henry Ford II. Iacocca later
joined Chrysler as its president.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl.)(AP, 7/13/97)
1978 Oct 2, The first Yugo 45 was
handmade. The Zastava Koral, also known simply as the Yugo, was a
subcompact vehicle built in Yugoslavia by Zastava corporation. The Yugo
entered the United States by means of Malcolm Bricklin, who wanted to
introduce a simple, low cost car to that market. In total 141,511 cars
were sold in the US from 1985 to 1991, with the most American units
sold in a year peaking at 48,500 in 1987.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zastava_Koral)
1978 GM rolled out large diesel
cars in its Cadillac and Oldsmobile divisions. Production of its diesel
cars ended in 1985 amid consumer complaints.
(WSJ, 1/14/05, p.W10)
1979 May 19, The Regents of the
Univ. of California asked General Motors to stop doing business with
the police and military forces in South Africa.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
1979 Sep 7, The Chrysler
Corporation petitioned the United States government for $1.5 billion in
loan guarantees to avoid bankruptcy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler)
1979 Sep, John Riccardo stepped
down as Chrysler’s chairman and was succeeded by Lee Iacocca.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(WSJ, 5/15/07, p.A14)
1979 Oct 1, Henry Ford II stepped
down as Ford’s chairman and CEO and was succeeded by Philip Caldwell
(b.1920).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Caldwell)
1979 A second oil shortage forced
US car buyers to search for smaller vehicles.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1979 Ford bought a stake in Mazda.
(HNQ, 11/26/00)
1979-1983 Ford Motors during this period closed 13
factories and dropped its work force from 191,000 to 101,000 people.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1980 Jan 7, Pres. Carter signed
the Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act. Financier James Wolfensohn
persuaded 400 private lenders to restructure their debt so that a $1
billion loan from the US government could prevent Chrysler from sliding
into bankruptcy.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SSFC, 9/26/04, p.M4)
1980 Jan 11, Honda announced that
it would build Japan's first US passenger-car assembly plant in Ohio.
(HN, 1/11/99)
1980 Oct 8, British Leyland
started selling the Mini Metro.
(www.austin-rover.co.uk/index.htm?lc8storyf.htm)
1980 Audi introduced its
all-wheel-drive Quattro Coupe.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1980 American Motors introduced
its four-wheel-drive Eagle.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1981 Jan 1, Roger Smith (b.1925)
took office as chairman and CEO of GM.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(http://tinyurl.com/2pvqps)
1981 Mar, Diesel cars in the US
peaked at 6% of the market as gas prices in the hit $1.42 per gallon,
the equivalent of $3.08 in 2005.
(WSJ, 1/14/05, p.W10)
1982 Oct 19, Carmaker John
DeLorean was arrested in Los Angeles and charged in a 24-million-dollar
cocaine scheme aimed at salvaging his bankrupt sports car company. He
was found not guilty due to entrapment on August 16, 1984.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_De_Lorean)
1982 Honda, the first Japanese
auto maker to start production in the US, began making the Honda Accord
at Marysville, Ohio.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(F, 10/7/96, p.71)(WSJ,
4/1/09, p.A20)
1983 Jun, Japan’s Nissan began to
produce trucks in the US. Nissan became the first foreign carmaker in
America when it opened an assembly plant in Smyrna, Tenn.
(http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=N040)(WSJ,
6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1983 Jul 13, Chrysler under Lee
Iacocca paid off the last of its guaranteed loans totaling $1.2
billion, 7 years ahead of schedule.
(http://tinyurl.com/aabvq)
1983 Chrysler Corp. announced
plans to make minivans.
(WSJ, 5/15/07, p.A14)
1983 GM increased the focus on
trucks and discontinued the Malibu, introduced in 1963, after 6.5
million units were sold. The Malibu was reintroduced in 1997.
(WSJ, 4/1/09, p.A20)
1983 In Malaysia PM Mahathir
Mohamed initiated Proton, the Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional (National
Car Project). Production of the 1st model, Saga, began in 1985 in
association with Mitsubishi of Japan.
(Econ, 5/8/04, p.61)(WSJ, 7/14/04, p.B2B)(Econ,
12/2/06, p.68)
1984 Aug 16, A federal jury in Los
Angeles acquitted auto maker John Z. DeLorean of trafficking in cocaine
due to entrapment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_De_Lorean)
1984 Aug 22, The VW plant at
Westmoreland, Pa., produced its last Volkswagen Rabbit.
(http://tinyurl.com/34j6lf)
1984 GM and Toyota established a
joint venture, the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), to
build cars in Fremont, California.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(WSJ, 12/22/08, p.B2)
1984 Chrysler introduced the Dodge
Caravan, its first Minivan.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(WSJ, 12/22/08, p.B2)
1984 GM helped originate a jobs
bank in which employees continued to be paid even though the company
did not need them. Volunteer activity or clocked-in presence in a
“rubber room” was required.
(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A1)
1984 Shanghai Automotive Industry
Corp. (SAIC) with government support partnered with Volkswagen
and produced the Santana model sedan. VW was the first foreign carmaker
to establish operation in China.
(WSJ, 6/30/99, p.A19)(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.4)
1985 Ford Motor Co. premiered the
Taurus. Production of the car was terminated in 2006.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 10/20/06, p.D3)
1986 Mar 31, The state-owned car
company BL P.L.C., formerly British Leyland, said that it was pursuing
two offers for its Land Rover division after negotiations with the
General Motors Corporation collapsed. Range Rover of North America,
Inc. soon established its headquarters in Lanham, Maryland with Charles
R. Hughes as President and CEO. Just before Christmas 1985 Range Rover
of North America (later changed to Land Rover North America), was
established to pave the way for a US launch in 1987.
(http://tinyurl.com/j2do5)(http://tinyurl.com/f8xgo)
1986 Dec 17, A federal jury in
Detroit cleared automaker John DeLorean of all 15 charges in his fraud
and racketeering trial.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1986-12/1986-12-17-ABC-11.html)
1986 Hyundai, a South Korean auto
maker, entered the US market with low cost cars.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.72)
1987 Mar 9, Chrysler Corp.
announced it had agreed to buy the financially ailing American Motors
Corp.
(AP, 3/9/07)
1987 Sep 29, Henry Ford II,
longtime chairman of Ford Motor Company, died in Detroit at age 70.
(AP, 9/29/97)
1987 Dodge introduced a Cummins
engine in its Ram truck.
(WSJ, 1/14/05, p.W10)
1987 Ford purchased a 75% share of
Aston Martin
(HNQ, 11/26/00)
1987 Mazda opened a new plant in
Flat Rock, Mich.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1987 Britain’s Range Rover was
introduced in the US. It was designed in the late 1960s by Charles
Spencer King (1925-2010).
(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.C9)
1987 Toyota introduced All Trac
models, featuring 4-wheel-drive, of Camry and other cars.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1987 The Soviet Oka car was
launched.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.94)
1988 Mar 1, Pontiac announced the
end of the Fiero automobile.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1988 Jun 2, The publishers of
Consumer Reports magazine called for a ban on the Suzuki Samurai, a
popular sport utility vehicle that the magazine said tended to roll
over in sudden turns; American Suzuki Motor Corporation defended the
vehicle as safe.
(AP, 6/2/98)
1988 Aug 4, Hertz car rental
agreed to pay out $23 million in a consumer fraud case.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1988 Aug 14, Enzo Ferrari
(b.1898), Italian sportscar manufacturer (Ferrari), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzo_Ferrari)
1988 BMW began selling the 325iX
all-wheel-drive sports sedan in the US. It stopped 3 years later.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1989 May 28, Emerson Fittipaldi of
Brazil won the Indianapolis 500 auto race.
(AP, 5/28/99)
1989 Dec 15, GM and SAAB agreed to
form a 50-50 joint auto-making company, called Saab Automobile A.B. GM
acquired the rest of SAAB a decade later.
(http://tinyurl.com/oktgl)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.72)
1989 Benedict J. Dasher helped
open the National Automobile Museum in Reno.
(SFC, 1/10/04, p.B4)
1989 Ford acquired Jaguar.
(Econ, 9/25/04, p.77)
1989 Mercedes-Benz began building
all-wheel E-Class cars.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1990 Mar, GM and SAAB completed
setting up a joint auto-making venture in Europe. They had agreed on
Dec. 15, 1989, to form a 50-50 joint auto-making company, called Saab
Automobile A.B.
(http://tinyurl.com/oktgl)
1990 Jul 30, GM’s first Saturn car
rolled off the line at Spring Hill, Tennessee. In the fall, GM
introduced its all-new Saturn cars to compete against the imports in
the small car market. Roger Smith, GM’s CEO, announced the secret
Saturn project in 1985 in order to "leap-frog" the Japanese car makers.
(www.gm.com/company/corp_info/history/gmhis1990.html)
1990 Aug 1, Robert Stempel took
charge at GM.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(http://tinyurl.com/q8mqs)
1990 Dec, Investor Kirk Kerkorian
said he had bought a 9.8% stake in Chrysler Corp.
(WSJ, 5/15/07, p.A14)
1990 Harold "RED" Poling became
Ford’s chairman and CEO.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1990 Ford launched the Explorer,
which soon became the best-selling SUV in America. Sales peaked in 2000
at 445,000 units.
(WSJ, 12/22/08, p.B2)
1991 May 14, General Motors ended
production of the Buick Reatta, a two-seater sports car that had been
introduced in 1988.
(WSJ, 6/23/08,
p.R2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Reatta)
1991 Oct 22, General Motors
announced a 9 month loss of $2.2 billion.
(www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi?askmonth=10&askday=22)
1991 Daniel T.
Jones, Daniel Roos and James P. Womack of MIT authored “The Machine
That Change the World: The Story of Lean Production,” an account of the
Toyota Production System (TPS).
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.65)
1992 May 24, Al Unser Jr. became
the first second-generation winner of the Indianapolis 500; his father,
four-time winner Al Unser, finished third.
(AP, 5/24/97)
1992 McLaren produced its first
sports car, the F1. A total of 106 cars were produced between 1992 and
1998. The British McLaren F1 was designed and manufactured by Gordon
Murray and McLaren Automotive. On March 31, 1998, it set the record for
the fastest production car in the world, 240 mph (391 km/h).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren_F1)
1993 Feb 4, A jury in Atlanta
found General Motors negligent in the fuel-tank design of a pickup
truck and awarded $105.2 million to the parents of a teen-ager killed
in a fiery 1989 crash. The negligence verdict was later overturned, and
the parents of Shannon Moseley reached an out-of-court settlement with
GM.
(AP, 2/4/03)
1993 Feb 8, General Motors sued
NBC, alleging that the "Dateline NBC" program had rigged two car-truck
crashes to show that 1973-1987 GM pickups were prone to fires in side
impact crashes. NBC settled the lawsuit the following day.
(AP, 2/8/03)
1993 Feb 9, NBC News announced it
had settled a defamation lawsuit brought by General Motors over the
network's "inappropriate demonstration" of a fiery pickup truck crash
on its "Dateline NBC" program.
(AP, 2/9/03)
1993 May 11, The Senate approved
the so-called "motor voter" bill, designed to make voter registration
easier.
(AP, 5/11/98)
1993 May 30, Emerson
Fittipaldi won the 77th Indianapolis 500, driving at an average speed
of 157.2 mph.
(AP, 5/30/98)
1993 Jul 13, Race car driver Davey
Allison died in Birmingham, Ala., of injuries suffered in a helicopter
crash.
(AP, 7/13/98)
1993 Sep 6, Automakers Renault of
France and Volvo of Sweden announced they would merge; however, Volvo
canceled the deal the following December.
(AP, 9/6/98)
1993 Elmer W. Johnson (1932-2008),
former GM executive, authored “Avoiding the Collision of Cities and
Cars.”
(WSJ, 3/15/08, p.A6)
1993 Alabama Governor James E.
Folsom Jr. (b.1948) led an offer to Mercedes-Benz of $253 million in
incentives to build its 1st auto plant in Vance.
(WSJ, 4/3/02,
p.A1)(http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/folsom.html)
1993 Ford’s European division
launched the Mondeo, a car that reflected Ford’s new approach to
improved dynamics.
(Econ, 3/8/08, p.73)
1993 Ferdinand Piech left Audi and
took over operations at Volkswagen, where he turned losses into
profits. He was the grandson of founder Ferdinand Porsche and the son
of the companies wartime chief, Anton Piech. In 2002 he was succeeded
by Bernd Pischetsrieder. Piech (65) became chairman of Volkswagen’s
supervisory board.
(WSJ, 11/7/96, p.A17)(Econ, 12/2/06, p.70)
1993 Daimler-Benz acquired the
Dutch plane-maker NV Fokker.
(WSJ, 1/26/96, A-6)
1993 Fiat Auto SpA bought Maserati.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.B1)
1994 Jan, Bernd Pischetsrieder,
CEO of BMW, bought the Rover car group from British Aerospace. The move
proved a disaster.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.63)
1994 Dec 2, The US government
agreed not to seek a recall of allegedly fire-prone General Motors
pickup trucks. GM agreed to spend more than $51 million on safety and
research.
(AP, 12/2/99)
1994 Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B.
White authored "Comeback: The Fall and Rise of the American Automobile
Industry."
(Econ, 10/11/03, p.82)
1995 Apr 12, In a move that
stunned the business world, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian and former
Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca made an unsolicited $22.8 billion-dollar
bid to buy the nation's third largest automaker; Chrysler responded
that it wasn't for sale.
(AP, 4/12/00)
1995 Ratan Tata decided to enter
India’s passenger car market. The 1st Tata Motors car was produced in
1998.
(Econ, 4/2/05, p.53)
1995-1996 Fiat SpA of Italy invested $1 bil over this
period for new engines, updated models, and new projects in Brazil
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.A11)
1996 Apr 25, Ford Motor Co.
announced a recall of about 8 million cars, minivans and pickups
because of an ignition switch fire hazard.
(AP, 4/25/97)
1996 May 14, In France Renault
outlined a plan to become majority owned by private investors after
more than 5 decades of state control.
(WSJ, 1/2/97, p.R2)
1996 May 16, GM was expected to
pick Thailand over the Philippines for a $1 billion vehicle assembly
plant.
(WSJ, 5/16/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 17, Scott Brayton, race
car driver, was killed during a practice run for the US Indy 500 race.
He was the 40th driver to die during practice, qualifications or the
race. 66 people in all have died in accidents related to the race.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.B-1)
1996 May 26, Buddy Lazier won the
Indianapolis 500.
(AP, 5/26/97)
1996 Jun 27, The GM North
Tarrytown Assembly Plant in NY produced its last minivan prior to
closure for the remaining 2,100 workers.
(WSJ, 6/26/96, p.A1)
1996 Chrysler engineers began
developing a new Hemi engine. It was introduced in 2002.
(WSJ, 6/17/05, p.A10)
1996 GM introduced its OnStar
system as a quick way to summon roadside assistance. In 2009 its
slowdown feature was activated for the first time to stop a stolen GM
Chevrolet Tahoe.
(Econ, 11/21/09, p.81)
1997 May 27, Arie Luyendyk won the
Indianapolis 500 for the second time.
(AP, 5/27/98)
1997 Oct 13, A British jet car,
Thrust SSC, driven by Andy Green of the Royal Air Force set a land
speed record of 764.168 mph in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. The record
was not recorded as official because turn around time went over an hour
due to braking problems. Green officially broke the record two days
later.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A1,7)(AP, 10/13/98)
1997 GM reintroduced the Malibu in
an effort to regain sales in the midsize sedan market. It had been
discontinued in 1983.
(WSJ, 4/1/09, p.A20)
1997-1998 Fiat SpA of Italy said it would invest $1
bil over this period in Brazil for new engines, updated models, and new
projects.
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.A11)
1998 Mar 27, Ferdinand Porsche
Jr., creator of the Porsche sports car, died at age 88 in Zell am See,
Austria. He was born in Wiener-Neustadt and moved to Germany with his
family after WW I where his father became chief engineer of
Daimler-Benz, the manufacturer of the Mercedes Benz cars. He wrote an
autobiography titled "Cars Are My Life."
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.B12)(AP, 3/27/99)
1998 Mar 30, In Britain the
Rolls-Royce company of Vickers PLC was sold to BMW of Germany for $570
million. However, BMW was later successfully outbid by Volkswagen AG
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B4)(AP, 3/30/08)
1998 May 6, Jurgen Schrempp of
Daimler Benz and Robert Eaton of Chrysler announced in London that the
German auto company will purchase Chrysler in a $38 billion merger. The
takeover was later documented by Bill Vlasic and Bradley A. Stertz in
their book "Taken for a Ride: How Daimler-Benz Drove Off with Chrysler."
(WSJ, 5/8/98, p.W1)(WSJ, 6/12/00, p.A28)
1998 May 7, The $34.7 billion
merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp. was confirmed in London. The
parent company of Mercedes-Benz agreed to buy Chrysler Corp. for more
than $37 billion.
(USAT, 5/7/98, p.1A)(AP, 5/7/99)
1998 May 15, In Washington DC
Latia Robinson (7) took control of a Honda Accord after her father
passed out and drove him safely to a hospital at the beginning of rush
hour.
(SFC, 6/20/98, p.A6)
1998 Oct 5, Rick Wagoner became
the president of General Motors.
(WSJ, 3/30/09, p.A5)
1998 Michelin first produced a PAX
tire, which allowed a vehicle to travel with a puncture.
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.60)
1998 In South Korea Chung
Mong-koo, eldest son of founder Chung Ju-yung, took over as head of
Hyundai Motor Co.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.68)
1999 Jan 28, Ford Motor Co,
confirmed the acquisition of the passenger car division of Volvo AB for
$6.47 billion.
(SFC, 1/28/99, p.B1)(WSJ, 1/3/00, p.R12)
1999 Jan, Tata Motors, known at
this time as Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (Telco), launched
the Tata Indica, a modern hatchback car with a diesel engine. It was
styled by IDEA in Italy.
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.9)
1999 May 30, Kenny Brack won the
crash-marred Indianapolis 500, driving a car owned by racing legend
A.J. Foyt.
(AP, 5/30/00)
1999 Jul 9, In LA a jury ordered
GM to pay $4.9 billion to 6 people burned when their 1979 Chevrolet
Malibu fuel tank exploded Dec 24, 1993 following a rear end collision.
In Aug a judge reduced the award to $1.2 billion. A judge later reduced
the punitive damages to $1.09 billion, while letting stand $107 million
in compensatory damages; GM continued to appeal.
(SFC, 7/10/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A3)(AP, 7/9/00)
1999 The Ford Motor Co. began
operating a small assembly plant near St Petersburg, Russia, while GM
set up a joint venture with Avtovaz (at the time a byword for
corruption and gangsterism).
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.7)
1999 General Motors spun off its
parts supplier Delphi Automotive.
(Econ, 3/12/05, p.61)
1989 In China Beijing and Shanghai
began holding a biannual auto show.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/19/content_8011178.htm)
1999 Renault threw a line to
floundering Nissan with Carlos Ghosn in charge. In 2003 David Magee
authored "Turnaround," a look Ghosn’s leadership of Nissan.
(WSJ, 1/31/03, p.W8)
1999 Renault of France spent $50
million to acquire a controlling stake in Dacia, a sickly Romanian car
maker formerly owned by the state. The first Renault-Dacia Logan was
produced in 2004. The millionth Logan was produced in mid 2008.
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.14)
2000 Mar 27, DaimlerChrysler AG
announced it would buy 34 percent of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors
Corporation.
(AP, 3/27/01)
2000 May 12, Adam Petty, 19, the
fourth-generation driver of NASCAR's most famous family, died in a
crash during practice for the Busch 200 at New Hampshire International
Speedway.
(AP, 5/12/01)
2000 May 28, Juan Montoya won the
84th Indianapolis 500, becoming the first rookie champion since Graham
Hill in 1966.
(AP, 5/28/01)
2000 Jun 1, Rick Wagoner, the
president of General Motors, was named CEO of GM.
(WSJ, 3/30/09, p.A5)
2000 Aug 9, Bridgestone /
Firestone Inc. announced the recall of 6.5 million tires used mainly on
Ford SUVs and light trucks due to 46 [88] deaths and over [250] 300
accidents related to the tires.
(SFC, 8/10/00, p.A2)(SFC, 9/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Aug 22, In Japan Mitsubishi
Motors admitted that it had concealed tens of thousands customer
complaints about automobile defects since 1977.
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A10)
2000 Nov, Dieter Zetsche, head of
DaimlerChrysler’s commercial vehicle division, was tapped to be CEO of
Chrysler.
(WSJ, 5/15/07, p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/2s2dhu)
2000 Dec 12, General Motors, under
new CEO Rick Wagoner, announced a restructure and planned phase out of
the Oldsmobile vehicle division following a long slide in sales.
(WSJ, 12/12/00, p.A3)(SFC, 12/13/00, p.a3)(WSJ,
12/22/08, p.B2)
2000 Ford Motors spun off its
parts supplier Visteon.
(Econ, 3/12/05, p.61)
2000 GM took full control of Saab.
(www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0501/19/C01-63842.htm)
2000 Toyota released its Prius in
the US, the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle.
(WSJ, 12/22/08, p.B2)
2001 Jan 8, Donna Bailey (43),
paralyzed from a Ford Explorer rollover crash, settled her suit with
Ford and Firestone for a total in the range of $20-35 million along
with the disclosure of internal memos and reports on tire safety and
rollover issues.
(SFC, 1/9/01, p.A3)
2001 Feb 18, In Florida Dale
Earnhardt (b.1951), race car driver, was killed on his final turn at
the NASCAR Daytona 500. Later this year Joe Menzer authored "The
Wildest Ride," a history of NASCAR racing.
(SFC, 2/19/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/9/01, p.A26)(NW,
12/31/01, p.109)
2001 May 21, Ford Motor and
Bridgestone/Firestone announced the termination of their century old
business relationship.
(WSJ, 5/23/01, p.A1)
2001 May 22, Ford Motor Co. said
it planned to spend more than $2 billion to replace up to 13 million
Firestone tires on its vehicles because of safety concerns.
(AP, 5/22/02)
2001 Aug 24, Bridgestone/Firestone
agreed to pay $7.5 million to the family of Marisa Rodriguez, who was
paralyzed in a Ford Explorer crash in 2000. Ford settled before the
trial for $6 million.
(SFC, 8/25/01, p.A3)
2002 Jan 19, Benneta Buell-Wilson
(42) was left a paraplegic after her Ford Explorer rolled over in San
Diego County after she swerved to avoid an obstacle on the road. An
initial ruling awarded her $122 million in compensation and $246
million in punitive damages. The trial judge reduced the total to $150
million. In 2006 an appeals court reduced the total award to $82
million. In 2009 the US Supreme Court upheld her $55 million in
punitive damages.
(SFC, 7/20/06, p.B2)(SFC, 12/1/09, p.C3)
2002 Jan, Ford Motor Co. took a $1
billion write-off on its stock pile of precious metals, mostly
palladium.
(WSJ, 2/6/02, p.A1)
2002 May 26, Helio Castroneves won
his second straight Indianapolis 500 despite a protest filed by Paul
Tracy.
(AP, 5/26/03)
2002 Aug 7, Ford Motor Co. and
Canadian fuel cell developer Ballard Power Systems Inc. jointly
unveiled a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine-driven generator
they said could help pave the way toward the commercialization of fuel
cell technology.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug, Porsche rolled out its
new Cayenne SUV, the 1st non-sports car in the company’s 54-year
history.
(WSJ, 8/21/02, p.A1)
2002 The Lamborghini Murcielago
supercar used all-wheel-drive to help control its 580 horsepower.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
2002 Nissan launched a joint
effort in China with car manufacturer Dongfeng.
(Econ, 6/12/10, p.71)
2003 Jan 24, Giovanni Agnelli
(81), the patriarch of the Fiat auto company, died in Turin after a
months-long illness.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2003 Feb 16, Michael Waltrip raced
past leader Jimmie Johnson to win the rain-shortened Daytona 500 for
the second time in three years.
(AP, 2/16/04)
2003 May, A Nissan factory in
Canton, Miss., rolled out its 1st car. Mississippi had lured in Nissan
with a $290 million package.
(Econ, 11/29/03, p.29)
2003 May, Bernd Pischetsrieder,
former CEO of BMW, took over the top job at Volkswagen.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.63)
2003 Jun 16, The 100th anniversary
of the founding of Ford Motor Co. Douglas Brinkley authored "Wheels for
the World," a history of the company.
(WSJ, 4/25/03, W6)
2003 Jul 30, The last Volkswagen
Beetle was produced in Puebla, Mexico. The first Beetles had arrived in
1956. Mexico had begun producing its own version of the Beetle in 1964.
(WSJ, 7/31/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A10)
2003 Aug, Toyota sold more cars in
America than did Chrysler.
(Econ, 10/11/03, p.82)
2003 Sep 22, California signed
into law a privacy bill, effective Jul 1, 2004, that prevents use of
vehicle recorded data without the consent of the owner. GM began
installing data boxes in the 1970s.
(SFC, 9/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 30, Ford planned to cut
some 12,000 jobs world-wide. Chrysler planned to eliminate several
thousand positions.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R12)
2003 Nov 20, Motor Trend named the
Toyota's hybrid Prius as "Car of the Year."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Micheline Maynard authored
"The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the American
Car market."
(Econ, 10/11/03, p.82)
2003 The introduction of flex-fuel
cars, vehicles that could run on ethanol as well as regular petrol,
took off in Brazil due to a policy that dated to the 1970s of promoting
fuel derived from home-grown sugar cane.
(Econ, 9/24/05, p.79)
2003 Thailand produced some
470,000 pick-up trucks and ranked behind the US as the world’s 2nd
largest producer. Production in 2004 was expected to approach 600,000.
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.60)
2004 Jan, General Motors announced
the purchase of a 51% share of Delta Motors, South Africa’s 4th largest
car firm.
(Econ, 2/14/04, p.62)
2004 Mar 13, Near Barstow,
California, robotic vehicles began a 200-mile road race sponsored by
DARPA. The Pentagon sponsored race ended without a winner, as none of
the autonomous vehicles built by the 15 qualifying teams was able to
travel farther than 7 miles from the starting line.
(SFC, 3/13/04, p.A1)(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar, KIA Motors, a unit of
South Korea’s Hyundai group, decided to build a new $850 million plant
in Slovakia, where corporate and personal taxes were recently cut to a
flat 19%.
(Econ, 3/6/04, p.60)
2004 Apr 25, The 14th annual
"California Mile" vintage 4-day car rally began in SF.
(SFC, 4/26/04, p.B1)
2004 Apr 29, GM ended production
of its Oldsmobile line (b.1897), named after Ransom E. Olds. The last
Olds Alero rolled of a GM assembly line in Lansing, Mich.
(SFC, 4/28/04, p.C1)
2004 Apr, Elon Musk, co-founder of
PayPal agreed to invest about $30 million in Tesla Motors, an electric
car venture based in San Carlos, Ca. The firm was founded by Martin
Eberhard and marc Tarpenning, co-founders of the Rocket e-book firm. In
2006 the Tesla Roadster was assembled by Lotus Cars in England with an
electric motor made in Taiwan.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.A2)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.73)
2004 May 27, Umberto Agnelli (69),
Fiat Chairman, died in Turin.
(SFC, 5/29/04, p.B6)
2004 Jun 2, Romania’s Pres. Ion
Iliescu unveiled the new Logan sedan, a joint venture between Renault
and Romania’s Dacia. Starting prices were around $6,100. In 2007 nearly
80,000 Logans were sold in western Europe.
(SFC, 6/3/04, C5)(Econ, 5/31/08, SR p.7)
2004 Sep, French auto maker
Renault rolled out the no-frills Logan. The midsize sedan was launched
at a cost of $7,254 (€5,700) in emerging markets like Poland. Western
buyers soon clamored for the car. In June, 2005, Renault began
delivering the roomy, unpretentious five-seater to France, Germany, and
Spain.
(AP, 6/25/05)(WSJ, 10/4/06, p.B18)
2004 Oct 14, General Motors Europe
said it plans to shed 12,000 jobs, almost 20 percent of its work force,
in order to halt chronic losses.
(AP, 10/14/04)
2004 BMW unveiled the world's
fastest hydrogen-powered car at the 2004 Paris auto show. Dubbed the
H2R, it can exceed 300 kilometers (185 miles) per hour and reaches 100
km per hour from a standing start in around six seconds.
(Reuters, 9/12/06)
2004 Chinese car sales reached 2.3
million making it the world’s 4th largest car market. It was expected
to overtake Germany in 2005 and Japan by 2010.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.61)
2004 A report by the World Health
Organization (WHO) said some 600 people were killed daily in traffic
accidents in China.
(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A25)
2005 Jan 20, It was reported that
the global car industry had an annual excess capacity of some 24
million vehicles.
(WSJ, 1/20/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan, Carlos Ghosn’s “Shift:
Inside Nissan’s Historic Revival” was published in English.
(Econ, 2/26/05, p.66)
2005 Feb 16, CEO Sergio Marchionne
announced Fiat SpA will buy the Maserati sportscar brand from Ferrari,
a company in which it already had a majority stake, just three days
after winning independence from General Motors Corp.
(AP, 2/16/05)(Econ, 4/26/08, p.88)
2005 Mar 19, John Z. DeLorean
(80), developer of the gull-winged sports car, died in Michigan. He
quit GM in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern
Ireland. Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets.
(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Apr 15, Administrators for
Britain’s MG Rover Group said they intend to break up the company,
laying off 5,000 workers, in a bid to find buyers for different units
after the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. made clear it was not
interested in a joint venture.
(AP, 4/15/05)
2005 Apr 19, General Motors
reported a loss of $1.1 billion for the 3 months ending in March, its
worst quarterly performance since 1992.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.71)
2005 May 17, Toyota said it will
build a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the Camry at its plant in
Georgetown, Ky.
(WSJ, 5/18/05, p.D4)
2005 May, Carlos Ghosn, head of
Nissan, was set to also become head of Renault.
(Econ, 2/26/05, p.66)
2005 Jun 4, It was reported that
the death rate on China’s roads, according to the WHO, was 680 per day
plus 45,000 injuries. American traffic deaths in contrast were at 115
per day.
(Econ, 6/4/05, p.25)
2005 Jun 7, General Motors
announced plans to close plants and eliminate some 25,000 manufacturing
jobs in the US by 2008.
(SFC, 6/805, p.C1)
2005 Jun 14, Japanese automaker
Toyota Motor Corp. broke ground on a new assembly plant in St.
Petersburg, in a vote of confidence in the booming Russian consumer
market despite investors' jitters over the Yukos case.
(AP, 6/14/05)(Econ, 7/16/05, p.58)
2005 Jul, In Russia the 1st Logan
cars, made by Renault, went on sale. They were made at the former
Moskvitch plant in Moscow.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.58)
2005 Nov 22, Motor Trend magazine
named the Honda Civic as 2006 Car of the Year.
(AP, 11/22/05)
2005 In Belgium deaths from
traffic accidents reached 11.2 per 100,000 inhabitants. Blame was put
on the lack of stop signs at most intersections.
(WSJ, 9/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 2, General Motors Corp.
said it has made major steps in developing a commercially viable
hydrogen-powered vehicle and expects it can get the emission-free cars
into dealerships in the next four to nine years.
(AFP, 3/2/06)
2006 Jul 23, The 654-foot
Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace, a cargo ship carrying 4,813 cars from
Japan to Canada, began tilting to its port side late at night hundreds
of miles off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. 23 crew members were rescued
the next day. The ship was owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and
listed on its side for several weeks before being righted. 4,703 of the
cars were new Mazdas valued at about $100 million. After a year of
planning Mazda scheduled all the cars for complete reduction to scrap
in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 7/25/06)(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A9)
2006 Sep 5, Bill Ford stepped down
as CEO of Ford Motor Co. and was replaced by Alan Mulally, a top Boeing
executive.
(SFC, 9/6/06, p.C3)
2006 Sep 15, US automaker Ford
Motor Co. unveiled sweeping job cuts and plant closures to stem losses
and said it has no intention of selling its luxury brand Jaguar. Ford
said it would cut 10,000 more white-collar positions, up from a
previous goal of 4,000, and offer buyout and early retirement to all
75,000 hourly employees. Ford stock closed at $8.02.
(AFP, 9/15/06)(SFC, 9/16/06, p.C1)(WSJ, 9/16/06,
p.A1)
2006 Nov 14, Honda unveiled the
hydrogen powered Honda FCX in Monterey, Ca. Hondo planned to produce
fuel cell cars within 2 years.
(SFC, 11/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 29, Still losing money
after job and factory cuts, Ford Motor Co. said 38,000 workers, almost
half of its hourly production force, had accepted buyouts or early
retirement offers.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2006 Nov, Venezuela inaugurated
its Venirauto car factory, a joint venture with Iran. The first 300
units were released on July 9, 2007.
(Econ, 11/28/09,
p.42)(www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2491)
2007 Jan 26, In Germany Peter
Hartz, Volkswagen human resources executive, was fined $750,000 and
given a 2-year suspended sentence after he pleaded guilty to funding an
account that provided special travel perks for employees.
(www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/volk-j27.shtml)
2007 Jan, China’s Changfeng Group
Co., made its first appearance at the international auto show in
Detroit, Mich. China numbered over 100 automakers and industry
consolidation was expected.
(WSJ, 1/3/06, p.B1)
2007 Feb 14, German-US auto giant
DaimlerChrysler said it planned to axe 13,000 jobs at its loss-making
Chrysler subsidiary as part of a broad restructuring plan aimed at
returning the US unit to profitability by 2009. The bulk of the job
losses will affect union workers, with 9,000 hourly jobs eliminated in
the United States and 2,000 in Canada.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Mar 6, Volkswagen's new chief
executive Martin Winterkorn has been nominated as chairman of Swedish
truck maker Scania in a new phase in the plans for a three-way tie-up
with German group MAN. VW is Scania's biggest shareholder with a voting
stake of 34 percent and traditionally holds the chair of the Swedish
truck maker's supervisory board.
(AFP, 3/6/07)
2007 Apr 24, Japan's Toyota Motor
Corp. reported that it outsold General Motors Corp. by around 90,000
vehicles in the first quarter, moving a step closer to unseating its US
rival as the world's biggest automaker. Aside from a few strike-related
blips GM had been the top US car seller since 1931.
(Reuters, 4/24/07)(Econ, 4/28/07, p.76)
2007 May 14, German-based
DaimlerChrysler said it will sell almost all of money-losing Chrysler
to Cerberus, a private equity firm, for $7.4 billion, backing out of a
troubled 1998 takeover aimed at creating a global automotive
powerhouse. John Snow, former US treasury secretary, served as chairman
of Cerberus.
(AP, 5/14/07)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.67)
2007 May 27, Dario Franchitti won
a rain-abbreviated Indy 500.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2007 Jul 4, In Italy some 100,000
people in Turin celebrated the launch of the new Fiat 500
(Cinquecento), 50 years following the launch of the 1st Fiat 500.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.69)
2007 Aug 6, Cerberus Capital
Management LP named Robert Nardelli, former CEO of Home Depot, to lead
its newly acquired Chrysler unit.
(WSJ, 8/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 9, Volkswagen announced
the Up! At the Frankfurt Motor Show. The 6,000 euro ($8,300) is a small
car intended for emerging markets.
(Econ, 9/15/07, p.78)
2007 Sep 24, More than 73,000
General Motors Corp workers walked off the job after marathon contract
talks between the United Auto Workers union and GM stalled and the
union called the first national strike since 1970 against the top U.S.
automaker.
(Reuters, 9/25/07)
2007 Sep 26, The United Auto
Workers union and General Motors Corp reached a tentative contract,
ending a national strike by 73,000 workers with a groundbreaking deal
that includes a health-care trust fund.
(AP, 9/26/07)
2007 Oct 10, Thousands of Chrysler
LLC autoworkers walked off the job after the automaker and the United
Auto Workers union failed to reach a tentative contract agreement
before a union-imposed deadline. Hours later negotiators reached a
tentative agreement.
(AP, 10/10/07)(WSJ, 10/11/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 27, Despite significant
dissent among some of its workers, United Auto Workers members narrowly
passed a four-year contract agreement with Chrysler LLC.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2007 Nov 3, United Auto Workers
agreed to a tentative contract with Ford Motor Co.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2007 Nov 11, Proton, Malaysia’s
national car maker, said it planned to team up with companies in Iran
and Turkey to produce "Islamic cars" for the global market.
(http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/12/news/international/bc.mi.malaysia.islamicc.ap/)
2007 Nov 29, Roger B. Smith (82),
former chairman and CEO of General Motors, died in Detroit. He was the
target of Michael Moore’s 1989 film “Roger & Me.” During his term
GM’s market share dropped from 45% to 36%. It currently stood at 24%.
(SFC, 12/1/07, p.B5)
2007 Rhode Island lawmakers ended
a 51-year prohibition on Sunday auto sales.
(WSJ, 11/6/08, p.A14)
2007 In China the Great Wall Motor
company in Hebei province produced 108,000 vehicles this year. The
company had ambitious plans for growth. It already built cars with a
licensee in Iran and in 2006 had opened a factory in the Ukraine.
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.74)
2007 Road accidents in India
averaged nearly 100,000 per year.
(SFC, 12/7/07, p.A25)
2008 Jan 3, Ford Motor Co. named
Tata Motors Ltd. the top bidder for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands
and entered into "focused negotiations at a more detailed level."
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 4, The annual 5,760 Dakar
Rally was canceled on the eve of the race across the Sahara Desert
because of terror threats and the recent killings of a French family in
Mauritania blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants. The race, organized by
the France-based Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), had been due to start
in Lisbon, Portugal, and finish in Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 20.
(AP, 1/4/08)(WSJ, 1/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 10, India's Tata Motors
unveiled the world's cheapest car, bringing new mobility within the
reach of tens of millions of people and nightmares to
environmentalists, traffic engineers and safety advocates. The Tata
Nano was expected to sell for about $2,500.
(AP, 1/10/08)(SFC, 1/11/08, p.C1)
2008 Jan 18, Renault-Nissan signed
an accord with the Moroccan government for what it says will be one of
its largest automobile-making operations in the world, set to be
constructed near Tangiers.
(AFP, 1/18/08)
2008 Jan 30, Auto giant Ford
announced a multi-million dollar investment in South Africa, brushing
aside fears about an electricity crisis which has alarmed other
international investors.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Feb 2, South Korean car giant
Hyundai Motor Co opened a second plant in India, making the country its
biggest foreign manufacturing site.
(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 12, General Motors Corp.
reported a $38.7 billion loss for 2007, the largest annual loss ever
for an automotive company, and said it is making a new round of buyout
offers to US hourly workers in hopes of replacing some of them with
lower-paid help.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 13, The WTO condemned
China for the first time for taxing imports of auto parts at the same
rate as foreign-made finished cars.
(SFC, 2/14/08, p.C3)
2008 Feb 16, In Maryland a car
plowed into a crowd that had gathered to watch a drag race on a
suburban road, killing 8 people and injuring at least four.
(AP, 2/16/08)(SSFC, 2/17/08, p.A2)
2008 Feb 27, The German luxury
carmaker BMW said that a restructuring plan aimed at boosting
profitability would see the overall elimination of 8,100 jobs worldwide.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 27, Italian tax police
busted a ring of auto-body shops involved in creating fake Ferraris
using Pontiac Fieros.
(WSJ, 2/28/08, p.D5)
2008 Feb, Renault SA invested $1
billion for a 25% stake in Russian car maker OAO Avtovaz.
(WSJ, 3/21/08, p.A1)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.74)
2008 Mar 21, It was reported that
the French built Smart ForTwo by Daimler would be introduced in the US,
the 37th country to sell the small car, for a starting price of
$12,235. This followed 10 years after its European launch.
(WSJ, 3/21/08, p.W10)
2008 Mar 23, South Korea's Hyundai
Motor said it would begin mass producing hybrid cars next year amid
growing demand for fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 26, India's Tata Motors
said it had bought British luxury icons Jaguar and Land Rover from
ailing US carmaker Ford Motor Co for 1.15 billion pounds (2.3 billion
dollars).
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Apr 10, Iran reported that
the SenIran Auto plant in Thies, Senegal's second largest city, has
built its first Iran-Khodro Samand sedan. Iran Khodro is the largest
carmaker in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa regions with
annual production of more than one million various vehicles including
cars, trucks and buses.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.49)
2008 May 19, Nissan Motor Co. and
NEC corp. announced plans to begin mass-producing lithium-ion batteries
for electric cars. Nissan and Renault planned to have an all-electric
car in the US and Japan by 2010.
(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.B1)
2008 Jun 4, In Canada angry
autoworkers blockaded the entrance to General Motors of Canada
headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario, one day after GM said it would shut
its Oshawa truck plant as well as 2 plants in the US and one in Mexico.
(Reuters, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 10, Japan’s Toyota said
it will start making the Camry hybrid in Australia and Thailand as part
of the its efforts to step up production of "green" cars around the
world.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 16, The FCX Clarity,
Honda's new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car, rolled off a
Japanese production line and headed to Southern California, where
Hollywood is already abuzz over the latest splash in green motoring.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jul 15, Volkswagen announced
that it would build a $1 billion car plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., and
expected to open it as soon as 2011.
(WSJ, 7/30/08,
p.C10)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFdSOp19gU)
2008 Jul 24, Ford Motor Co. posted
the worst quarterly performance in its history, losing $8.67 billion in
the second quarter.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, French giant
automaker Renault said it will cut about 5,000 jobs in Europe among
measures to reduce costs by 10 percent as it prepares for a sharp and
possibly rocky downturn.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Aug 7, It was reported that
the Dubai-based Al Yousuf Group has invested $10 million in Zap, a
Santa Rosa, Ca., firm that makes electric cars.
(SFC, 8/7/08, p.C1)
2008 Aug 24, In India about 40,000
protesters surrounded the Tata Motors factory slated to produce the
Nano, the world's cheapest car, alleging land for the site was forcibly
taken from local farmers. A day earlier Ratan Tata, whose Tata Motors
is India's top vehicle-maker, warned he would move the plant out of the
state if the demonstrations kept up, although his company has already
invested 350 million dollars in the project.
(AFP, 8/24/08)
2008 Sep 23, Chrysler LLC
disclosed that it had lost $400 million so far this year just hours
after it unveiled prototypes of 3 new electric cars.
(WSJ, 9/24/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 2, Nissan unveiled the
Nuvu, a prototype for an electric city car.
(WSJ, 4/9/09,
p.B2)(http://odeo.com/episodes/23832952-Nissan-NuVu-Concept-EV)
2008 Oct 3, India's Tata Group
announced it was abandoning a plant in eastern India which was slated
to turn out the world's cheapest car after weeks of violent
demonstrations triggered by a land dispute.
(AFP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 7, In India Tata Chairman
Ratan Tata said the company had acquired 1,100 acres in Gujarat state
and will relocate equipment from the failed Nano minicar project in
West Bengal.
(WSJ, 10/8/08, p.A14)
2008 Nov 6, The leaders of GM,
Ford and Chrysler came to Capital Hill along with the president of the
UAW to discuss billions of dollars in financial help for the struggling
car industry.
(SFC, 11/7/08, p.C3)
2008 Nov 7, General Motors Corp.
reported $2.5 billion losses in the third quarter, burning through $6.9
billion in cash and warned that it could run out of cash in 2009. GM
also said it has suspended talks to acquire Chrysler. Meanwhile, Ford
Motor Co. said it lost $129 million in the third quarter as the
struggling automaker burned through $7.7 billion in cash and set plans
for more job cuts.
(http://cbs5.com/business/ford.posts.loss.2.858582.html)
2008 Nov 7, General Motors Corp.
dedicated its first Russian assembly plant, a $300 million,
70,000-car-a-year factory just outside of St. Petersburg.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 17, US Automakers begged
governments to save them amid a spreading global recession.
Cash-strapped General Motors Corp. said it will sell its entire stake
in Suzuki Motor Corp. for 22.37 billion yen ($230 million), the
automaker's latest move to stay afloat while awaiting a decision on
government aid for the industry.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 18, The chief executives
of Detroit’s Big Three automakers appeared before the US Senate Banking
Committee along with the head of the UAW union to plea for financial
aid under the current economic crises.
(WSJ, 11/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 20, US Congressional
efforts to rescue Detroit’s auto makers collapsed with lawmakers saying
the industry lacks credibility to return to profitability. Democrats
asked for a convincing turnaround plan by Dec 2.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 2, Detroit’s Big Three
auto makers presented turnaround plans to Congress and sought $34
billion in aid.
(WSJ, 12/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 2, Hawaii unveiled plans
to be first in the nation to roll out electric car stations statewide,
a move Gov. Linda Lingle hailed as a major step toward weaning
the islands off oil.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 10, Congressional
officials said majority Democrats and the White House have finalized a
deal to spend $15 billion on emergency loans for struggling US
automakers.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 11, The $14 billion
package to aid General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC
collapsed amid disputes over union wage cuts. A band of mostly
Republican Southern senators, including states that subsidized foreign
auto makers, formed the heart of the opposition.
(AP, 12/12/08)(WSJ, 12/12/08, p.A3)
2008 Dec 12, The White House and
the Treasury said they were considering diverting money from the Wall
Street rescue fund to stave off bankruptcy filings among the carmakers.
General Motors Corp. said it will temporarily close 20 factories across
North America and make sweeping cuts to its vehicle production as it
tries to adjust to dramatically weaker automobile demand.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 15, In China the BYD Co.
introduced the F3DB, country’s first homegrown electric vehicle for the
mass market. The sedan was expected to be priced at about $22,000 and
introduced to the US in the second half of 2010.
(WSJ, 12/13/08, p.B2)
2008 Dec 16, In Italy Fiat Group
SpA for the first time shut down most of its Italian plants for a
month, laying off nearly 50,000 workers for an extended holiday as it
copes with the precipitous drop in demand for new cars.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 20, The Canadian and
Ontario governments announced they would follow the US in providing C$4
billion ($3.3 billion) in emergency loans to the Canadian arms of
Detroit's ailing automakers to keep them operating while they
restructure their businesses.
(Reuters, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 20, Some 500 motorists
rallied in Russia's far east to protest the government's decision to
raise car import tariffs. Thousands of others were expected to stage
similar demonstrations across Russia on Dec 21.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 21, In far east Russia
riot police in Vladivostok clubbed, kicked and detained dozens of
people as hundreds across the country protested an increase in car
import tariffs.
(AP, 12/21/08)(WSJ, 12/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 22, Toyota Motor Corp.
projected its first-ever operating loss since 1939, acknowledging
that its nine-year stretch of global vehicle-sales growth had stalled.
Pres. Katsuaki Watanabe projected an operating loss of $1.7 billion.
(AP, 12/22/08)(WSJ, 12/23/08, p.A7)
2008 Dec 29, The US federal
government approved $6 billion in aid to GMAC LLC, the financing
company vital to the future of General Motors.
(WSJ, 12/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec, In Norway Think Global
AS, a front runner in the plug-in car market, filed for Bankruptcy
after its failure to get capital financing under the current credit
crunch.
(WSJ, 1/24/08, p.B2)
2008 Steven M. Gelber authored
“Horse Trading in the Age of Cars: Men in the Marketplace.”
(WSJ, 12/3/08, p.A15)
2008 Lewis H. Siegelbaum authored
“Cars for Comrades: The Life of the Soviet Automobile.”
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.94)
2009 Jan 11, South Korea’s Hyundai
Genesis was named North American Car of the Year and the Ford F-150 as
the 2009 North American Truck of the Year. The awards were first given
in 1994. This was the first time a Korean automaker has won.
(Econ, 3/7/09,
p.71)(www.northamericancaroftheyear.org/)
2009 Jan 20, Chrysler and Italy’s
Fiat confirmed they had reached an agreement on an alliance that would
give Fiat a 35% stake in Chrysler, but only if Chrysler gets $3 billion
more in financial help from Washington.
(WSJ, 1/21/09, p.B1)
2009 Jan 20, In Japan Toyota
tapped Akio Toyoda, grandson of the automaker's founder, as president,
paying homage to its roots at a time when the company faces its first
operating loss in 70 years.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 21, GM reported an 11%
drop in 2008 vehicle sales, relinquishing its crown as the world’s
biggest auto maker to Toyota after 77 years.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.B3)
2009 Jan 27, Lord Mandelson,
business secretary to Britain’s PM Gordon Brown, announced loan
guarantees of up to 2.3 billion pounds (2.5 billion euros, 3.2 billion
dollars) in credit funding for its ailing auto industry.
(AP, 1/27/09)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.63)
2009 Jan 31, Porsche's new museum
in Stuttgart, a sprawling monument to 60 years of German engineering,
opened to the public.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 9, Nissan said it is
slashing 20,000 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its global work force, to cope
with what Japan's third-largest automaker expects will be its first
annual loss in nine years.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, The French government
said it would give $8.4 million in low interest loans to Renault SA and
PSA Peugeot-Citroen in exchange for pledges that the car makers won’t
close any factories of lay off workers in France for the duration of
the funding.
(WSJ, 2/10/09, p.B2)
2009 Feb 10, General Motors Corp.
said it will cut 10,000 salaried jobs, citing the need to restructure
itself with a government deadline looming and amid some of the worst
sales in the auto industry's history.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 17, Chrysler and GM told
the US government they may need up to $21.6 billion in combined bailout
loans. GM’s survival plan called for cutting a total of 47,000 jobs
globally and closing 5 more US factories.
(SFC, 2/18/09, p.C1)(WSJ, 2/18/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 20, General Motors
Corp.'s Swedish-based subsidiary Saab went into bankruptcy protection
so the unit can be spun off or sold by its struggling US parent.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, The Canadian units of
General Motors Corp and Chrysler sought as much as C$10 billion ($8
billion) in aid from the Canadian and Ontario governments as they
fought to survive an industry wide crisis.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 23, Ford Motor Co. said
it has reached a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers union on
changes to retiree health care, becoming the first Detroit automaker to
secure union concessions on the key issue.
(Reuters, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 23, Honda Motor Co. named
Takanobu Ito (55), head of core automaking operations, as its new chief
executive, in an effort to provide fresh leadership to battle a global
crisis in the auto industry. He replaced Takeo Fukui (64) as CEO and
president.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 26, General Motors
reported a $9.6 billion 4th quarter loss bringing its loss for the year
2008 to $30.9 billion. This was its 2nd worst financial performance in
its 100 year history.
(WSJ, 2/27/09, p.B1)
2009 Mar 9, California-based
Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, announced the first transfer of
BioIsoprene™ product to The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. By December
the world’s first concept demonstration tires made with BioIsoprene™
technology, a breakthrough alternative to replace a petrochemically
produced ingredient in the manufacture of synthetic rubber with
renewable biomass, made their debut in Copenhagen, Denmark.
(http://tinyurl.com/27vewpy)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.79)
2009 Mar 23, India’s Tata Motors
launched its ultra-cheap Nano car in Mumbai. The vehicle was hoped to
herald a revolution by making it possible for the world's poor to
purchase their first car.
(AP, 3/22/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Los Angeles US
automaker Tesla Motors unveiled its state-of-the-art five-seat sedan,
billed as the world's first mass-produced, highway-capable electric
car. The San Carlos company said it would likely be built in Southern
California rather than San Jose.
(AFP, 3/26/09)(SFC, 3/27/09, p.C1)
2009 Mar 30, President Barack
Obama said that neither General Motors nor Chrysler has proposed
sweeping enough changes to justify further large federal bailouts, and
demanded "painful concessions" from creditors, unions and others as
their price for survival. Driving home the point, the White House
ousted the GM Chairman Rick Wagoner as it rejected GM and Chrysler's
restructuring plans. Fritz Henderson, GM's president and chief
operating officer, became the new CEO. Board member Kent Kresa, the
former chairman and CEO of defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp.,
was named interim chairman of the GM board.
(AP, 3/30/09)
2009 Mar 30, Malaysia's national
car maker Proton and Detroit Electric, a Dutch-based company, signed a
$555 million deal to make zero emission electric cars that they said
would be more powerful that any existing model.
(AP, 3/30/09)
2009 Mar 30, In Russia PM Putin
pledged over $1 billion in state support to its ailing car industry in
a bid to avoid heavy job losses and potential social unrest.
(WSJ, 3/31/09, p.B2)(http://tinyurl.com/csyby9)
2009 Mar 31, Fritz Henderson, GM's
new chief executive said that more of the automaker's plants could
close and bankruptcy is "more probable" as it works to meet new,
tougher requirements for government aid. In his first news conference
as CEO, Henderson said he expects the company would "need to take
further measures" beyond the 5 plants the company said it would shutter
when it submitted a restructuring plan to the government last month.
(AP, 4/1/09)
2009 Mar 31, Volkswagen opened a
new plant in western India, pledging to make further inroads into the
country's growing auto market.
(AFP, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 7, GM and Segway
announced that they are working together to develop a two-wheeled,
two-seat electric vehicle designed to be a fast, safe, inexpensive and
clean alternative to traditional cars and trucks for cities across the
world. The project was called P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and
Accessibility).
(AP, 4/7/09)(WSJ, 4/8/09, p.B4)
2009 Apr 16, The British
government promised a multimillion pound investment to try to jumpstart
the market for environmentally friendly electric cars.
(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 19, The Shanghai Motor
Show opened. Porsche kicked off the show by unveiling the Panamera, the
German luxury carmaker's first foray into the sedan segment.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8007484.stm)
2009 Apr 20, At the Shanghai Motor
Show Rolls Royce CEO Tom Purves announced that the company's new model
would be called Ghost.
(http://tinyurl.com/dfqycq)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.66)
2009 Apr 22, Britain’s Chancellor
Alistair Darling said the government will pay drivers to swap old cars
for new in a scheme to boost its stricken auto sector, mirroring moves
in Germany and other European nations. He also said he saw the economy
starting to grow again by the end of this year following the worst
recession since World War II.
(AP, 4/22/09)(AFP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 24, The Canadian Auto
Workers union and Chrysler Canada reached a tentative concession deal
that would cut about C$19 ($15.70) an hour from labor costs in a bid to
keep the struggling automaker from bankruptcy.
(Reuters, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 26, A deal between
Chrysler and the UAW was revealed that would give the union a 55% stake
in the company in return for concessions. Under the plan Fiat SpA would
eventually own 35% and the US government together with secured lenders
would own up to 10%.
(WSJ, 4/28/09, p.A8B)
2009 Apr 27, General Motors Corp.
said it will cut 21,000 US factory jobs by next year, phase out its
storied Pontiac brand and ask the government to take more than half its
stock in exchange for half of GM's government debt as part of a major
restructuring that would leave current shareholders holding just 1
percent of the company.
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 Apr 30, Chrysler filed for
bankruptcy protection after overnight talks broke down with a small
group of the company's creditors. Canada's government said it will take
an ownership stake in Chrysler in exchange for more than $2 billion in
loans, under a sweeping North American rescue plan. Ottawa and
Washington demanded the Detroit company partner with Fiat as a
condition for funding.
(AP, 4/30/09)(Reuters, 5/1/09)
2009 May 4, In Germany Sergio
Marchionne, the boss of Italy's Fiat, drummed up support in Berlin for
audacious plans to snap up General Motors' European arm and merge it
with the bankrupt Chrysler to create a new global auto giant. Germany's
economy minister said Fiat Group SpA wants to take over GM's Opel unit
without running up debt and would preserve the three main German
assembly plants if successful.
(AFP, 5/4/09)(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 5, Pres. Obama and
Democratic lawmakers reached agreement on a legislative proposal
designed to stimulate US auto sales, which have fallen to near 30-year
lows.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 7, General Motors Corp.
lost $6 billion in the first quarter and its revenue was cut nearly in
half as car buyers feared the wounded auto giant would enter bankruptcy
and no longer honor its warranties.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 14, Chrysler LLC said in
a bankruptcy court filing that it wants to eliminate roughly a quarter
of its 3,200 US dealerships by early next month, because the network is
antiquated and has too many stores competing with each other.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, General Motors said
it plans to eliminate some 1,000 of 6,000 showrooms over the next year
in an effort to boost profits by lessening competition among dealers.
(SFC, 5/16/09, p.C1)
2009 May 19, President Barack
Obama announced a new fuel and emission standard that he says will, at
last, put the United States on the road to a cleaner environment and
better fuel efficiency.
(AP, 5/19/09)(SFC, 5/19/09, p.A1)
2009 May 19, Tesla, an electric
car maker in San Carlos, Ca., sold a 10% stake to German auto giant
Daimler.
(SFC, 5/20/09, p.C1)
2009 May 30, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel said General Motors Corp. will sell its Opel unit and
other European assets to Canada's Magna International Inc. in a deal
that would protect the assets from GM's likely bankruptcy.
(AP, 5/30/09)
2009 Jun 1, General Motors filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of the Obama
administration's plan to shrink the automaker to a sustainable size and
give a majority ownership stake to the federal government. GM assets
were valued at $82.2 billion with liabilities at $172 billion. The US
government planned to receive 60.8% of GM stock, Canada’s government
11.7%, the UAW’s trust 17.5% and bondholders 10%. GM said it will
permanently close nine more plants and idle three others to trim
production and labor costs under bankruptcy protection. GM was expected
to lose 14 factories, 29,000 workers and 2,400 dealers.
(AP, 6/1/09)(Econ, 6/6/09, p.9,60, 62)
2009 Jun 2, GM struck a tentative
deal to sell its Hummer brand to China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy
Industrial Machinery Co.
(SFC, 6/3/09, p.C2)
2009 Jun 5, General Motors Corp.
announced a tentative deal to sell its Saturn brand to former race car
driver and dealership group owner Roger Penske.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Britain van maker
LDV was placed in administration after the collapse of a rescue deal by
Malaysian firm Weststar collapsed. Up to 850 jobs and thousands more in
the supply chain were threatened. The company, owned by Russian giant
GAZ, applied to Birmingham County Court for administrators to be
appointed.
(AFP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 10, Italy's Fiat became
the new owner of the bulk of Chrysler's assets, closing a deal that
saves the troubled US automaker from liquidation and places a new
company in the hands of Fiat's CEO.
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 16, GM and Sweden's
Koenigsegg said they have struck a deal for Koenigsegg, a niche
manufacturer of some of the world's fastest and most expensive sports
cars, to buy loss-making Saab Automobile from General Motors.
(Reuters, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 16, A new hydrogen car
designed for use in cities and backed by Sebastian Piech, a relative of
the founder of German luxury sportscar maker Porsche, was unveiled in
London. The two-seater Riversimple Urban Car can travel 240 miles
without refueling, weighs just 350 kilograms (770 pounds) and has a top
speed of 50 miles per hour.
(AFP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jul 1, A US federal “cash for
clunkers” scheme went into effect providing incentives for car buyers.
(Econ, 7/11/09, p.66)
2009 Jul 1, US car giants General
Motors and Ford suspended operations on their production lines in
Russia as the deepening economic crisis squeezes Russian consumers'
demand for new cars.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 10, General Motors
emerged from bankruptcy protection. CEO Fritz Henderson said the new GM
will be far faster and more responsive to customers than the old one,
and it will make money and repay government loans faster than required.
(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 13, German automobile
group Daimler said it sold 40 percent of its stake in US electric car
maker Tesla Motors to United Arab Emirate's Aabar Investments group to
boost development of low-emission vehicles.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 15, Luxury carmaker
Jaguar, owned by India's Tata Motors, announced it would end Liverpool
production of its X-Type car by the end of the year with the loss of up
to 300 jobs.
(AFP, 7/15/09)
2009 Aug 7, Pres. Obama signed
into law a measure tripling the budget of the $1 billion incentive
“cash for clunkers” program.
(SFC, 8/8/09, p.A5)
2009 Aug 11, General Motors Corp.
said its Chevrolet Volt rechargeable electric car should get 230 miles
per gallon of gasoline in city driving, more than four times the
mileage of the current champion, the Toyota Prius.
(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 14, In Germany shares in
Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, plunged after it approved a
takeover of luxury auto manufacturer Porsche to create a sector giant.
(AFP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 19, Germany launched a
campaign to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2020, making
battery research a priority as it tries to position the country as a
market leader.
(AP, 8/19/09)
2009 Aug 24, The US government
cash for clunkers program ended.
(SFC, 8/24/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 27, Toyota confirmed that
it would stop making cars at the NUMMI plant in Fremont, Ca., idling
some 4,700 workers.
(SFC, 8/28/09, p.A1)
2009 Sep 10, GM announced that it
agreed to the sale of 55% of Ruesselsheim-based Adam Opel and Vauxhall
unit to Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc. and Russian
lender Sberbank. Detroit-based GM will keep a 35% stake and continue to
work with Opel on developing vehicles, sharing technology and
engineering resources.
(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 11, Europe's biggest
automaker Volkswagen said it planned to invest 4.0 billion euros (5.8
billion dollars) to boost its presence in China over the next three
years.
(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 14, In Germany Siegfried
Wolf, the co-chief executive of Magna International Inc., said as many
as 10,500 Opel jobs in Europe could be cut, including nearly half of
them in Germany. Opel employs some 49,000 workers in Europe and has
plants in Germany, Spain, Britain, Poland and Germany.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 15, The Frankfurt auto
show opened. The French company Renault unveiled a lineup that includes
a purely electric sedan, without a backup internal combustion engine.
Renault says the vehicle will be in showrooms by 2011.
(www.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/automobiles/14electric.html)(Econ,
10/17/09, p.74)
2009 Sep 23, It was reported that
solar power company SolarCity and Dutch Bank RaboBank have teamed
together to build 5 recharging stations along Highway 101, between the
SF Bay Area and Los Angeles, to support the new Tesla electric cars.
The $109,000 roadster was limited to range of about 250 miles.
Recharging would take 30-45 minutes. Fully charging the cars took over
3 hours at a cost of about $4.
(SFC, 9/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Sep 23, In Canada the Globe
and Mail said Ford Motor Co's Canadian subsidiary faces a $1.8 billion
shortfall in its pension plan, citing a company letter to employees and
retirees.
(Reuters, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 29, Toyota Motor Corp.
issued its largest-ever US recall, involving 3.8 million vehicles.
Toyota and the government warned owners to remove the mats from their
vehicles that could cause accelerators to get stuck and lead to a crash.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Sep 30, The Penske Automotive
Group Inc. announced it is walking away from a deal to acquire the
Saturn brand from GM, after being unable to find a manufacturer to make
Saturn cars when GM stops producing models sometime after the end of
2011. The brand was set up in 1990 to fight growing Japanese imports.
(AP, 10/1/09)
2009 Oct 7, The first
British-built Honda Jazz auto rolled off the assembly line after
production was switched from Japan in a move the manufacturer hopes
will end a troubled year for the factory.
(AFP, 10/7/09)
2009 Nov 4, Germany's politicians
fumed with anger and Opel workers canceled cost concessions and readied
walkouts after General Motors Co. abandoned the sale of its European
subsidiary to parts maker Magna International and Russian lender
Sberbank.
(AP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 5, In Germany thousands
of Opel workers, fearing widespread layoffs, walked off the job to
protest General Motors Co.'s decision to abandon the unit's sale to new
owners.
(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 9, General Motors said
that it would invest C$90 million ($85.1 million) to expand a joint
venture plant in Canada where it builds the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC
Terrain crossovers.
(Reuters, 11/9/09)
2009 Nov 13, The Dutch government
announced to bring the polluter-pays principle into the home garage. As
of 2012 rather than an annual road tax for their cars, drivers will pay
a few cents for every kilometer on the road, in a plan aimed at
breaking chronic traffic jams and cutting carbon emissions.
(AP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 16, General Motors Co.
says it lost $1.2 billion from the time it left bankruptcy protection
through Sept. 30, far better than it has reported in previous quarters
and a sign that the auto giant is starting to turn around its business.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Nov 16, French tire maker
Michelin announced plans to invest nearly 900 million dollars to build
a tire plant to supply India's fast-growing vehicle market.
(AFP, 11/16/09)
2009 Nov 18, South Korean auto
giant Hyundai said it would roll out another new small car in India as
it jostles with rivals for a larger slice of the fast-growing Indian
market.
(AFP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 25, Toyota said it would
fix accelerator pedals on 4.26 million vehicles to prevent them from
becoming stuck and leading to unintentional acceleration.
(AFP, 11/25/09)(Econ, 12/12/09, p.76)
2009 Dec 9, Germany’s Volkswagen
announced that it has agreed to pay $2.5 billion for a 19.9% stake in
Suzuki, a family-owned Japanese maker of small cars and motorcycles.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.72)
2009 Dec 18, General Motors Co.
said it will shut down Saab after talks to sell the brand to a Dutch
carmaker collapsed, marking the third time this year that a deal by GM
to sell an unwanted brand has fallen through.
(AP, 12/18/09)
2009 Dec 20, Dutch sports carmaker
Spyker said it has made a new bid for Sweden's Saab Automobile, two
days after General Motors said it would close the loss-making unit.
(AFP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 23, US auto giant Ford
said it had agreed the main terms for selling its Swedish brand Volvo
Cars to Chinese carmaker Geely, in a deal set to underline China's
growing economic clout.
(AFP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 23, Italian carmaker Fiat
became a majority owner of Serbian car manufacturer Zastava with a 67%
stake.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.39)(http://tinyurl.com/yd2lccd)
2009 Dec 30, The US government
gave GMAC Financial Services an additional $3.8 billion in cash and
took a majority stake in the auto lender.
(SFC, 12/31/09, p.D1)
2010 Jan 5, In India global car
manufacturers eyeing the explosive growth of the Indian market unveiled
new compact models at the Delhi auto show as they sought to break the
dominance of entrenched local producers.
(AFP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 8, The China Passenger
Car Association reported that China overtook the US as the biggest auto
market in 2009 and automakers should see more strong growth this year.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Ecuador Quito
Mayor Augusto Barrera said his government will impose new driving
restrictions to keep 80,000 private cars off the capital’s congested
streets during rush hour.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 21, General Motor Co.'s
Opel unit will cut 8,300 jobs across Europe, including 4,000 in
Germany, and close a plant in Antwerp, Belgium, cutting over 2,300 jobs.
(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 21, Toyota said it is
recalling 2.3 million vehicles in the US to fix accelerator pedals with
mechanical problems that could cause them to become stuck. The
announcement comes just months after it recalled 4.2 million vehicles
due to gas pedals that could become trapped under floor mats, causing
sudden acceleration.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 25, Electric vehicle
network firm Better Place announced it has signed an agreement with an
HSBC-led investor consortium for new equity financing of $350m
(£217m), valuing the firm at $1.25bn. Better Place, led by former
software entrepreneur Shai Agassi, hoped to be the leading
infrastructure provider for the world’s growing fleet of electric cars.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.71)(http://tinyurl.com/ycsyrdj)
2010 Jan 26, Toyota Motor Corp.
announced it would halt sales of some of its top-selling models to fix
gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration. Last
week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models affecting 2.3
million vehicles. Toyota said it is also suspending production at six
North American car-assembly plants beginning the week of Feb. 1. It
gave no date on when production could restart.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 26, General Motors agreed
to sell Saab, its Swedish subsidiary, to Spyker Cars, a Dutch maker of
sports cars, for $74 million in cash and preference shares worth $326
million.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.76)
2010 Jan 28, Ford Motor Co. said
it has halted production of some full-sized commercial vehicles in
China because they contain gas pedals built by the same company behind
the accelerators in Toyota Motor Corp.'s recent recall. Ford spokesman
Said Deep said the diesel version of its Transit Classic built by a
Chinese joint venture contains accelerators built by CTS Corp., based
in Elkhart, Ind. The vehicles began production in December and only
about 1,600 have been produced.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, Toyota Motor Corp
extended its safety recall of millions of its most popular cars to
Europe and China in a further blow to the reputation of the world's
largest auto maker.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 29, Honda Motor Co. said
it would recall a total 646,000 units of the Fit/Jazz and City models
globally, including 140,000 in the United States. The recall was to fix
a defective master switch, which could cause water to enter the power
window switch and in some cases cause a fire.
(Reuters, 1/29/10)
2010 Feb 7, Newspapers said Toyota
will recall 300,000 Prius hybrid vehicles because of brake flaws.
Toyota said that it will soon announce plans to deal with braking
problems in its prized Prius hybrid amid reports it has decided to
issue a recall for the latest model in Japan, a possible new
embarrassment for the world's biggest automaker.
(AFP, 2/7/10)(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Germany GM's Opel
unit asked European governments for billions of euros (dollars) in aid
even as it formally presented a restructuring plan that will result in
some 8,300 job cuts in Europe.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Toyota officials went
to Japan's Transport Ministry to formally notify officials the company
is recalling the 2010 Prius gas-electric hybrid. The automaker is also
recalling two other hybrid models in Japan, the Lexus HS250h sedan,
sold in the US and Japan, and the Sai, which is sold only in Japan. The
total recall amounted to 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles
worldwide to fix brake problems.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Honda Motor Co. added
378,000 US vehicles and 41,000 in Canada to its 15-month-old global
recall for faulty air bags in the latest quality problem to hit a
Japanese automaker. The next day 17,000 cars in Japan were added to the
list.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 11, Italy's Fiat SpA and
Russian automobile company Sollers announced a euro2.4 billion ($3.3
billion) joint venture to produce up to 500,000 vehicles per year in
Russia in a bid to become the country's second-largest car maker.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, Volkswagen announced
it was recalling nearly 200,000 vehicles in Brazil because of a problem
with the rear wheels that could cause them to seize or fall off.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 18, US researchers
unveiled a vehicle that earns money for its driver instead of guzzling
it up in gasoline and maintenance costs. The presentation of the
box-like, unassuming looking Scion was the researchers' way of
introducing the "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) concept as it begins to gain
momentum in the United States and around the world.
(AFP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 19, In San Mateo, Ca.,
Mahran Baranriz (47) and his wife Bita Imani (35) pleaded no contest to
10 counts of insurance fraud. They ran the Group Specialists car repair
shop in Redwood City and had bilked customers by putting rats in their
cars and claiming the vehicles needed costly work to fix rodent damage.
Baranriz was sentenced to 4 years in prison, and his wife to 6 months
in jail. A day earlier they ware ordered to pay $875,000 in restitution
to 25 insurance companies.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.C2)
2010 Feb 23, India's biggest
carmaker Maruti Suzuki India announced it has recalled 100,000 of its
best-selling A-Star hatchback cars due to a fuel leakage problem.
(AFP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 24, Akio Toyoda, scion of
the beleaguered Toyota empire, apologized before a US House committee
investigating deadly flaws that sparked the recall of 8.5 million cars.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Mar 1, General Motors Co.
said it is recalling 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac compact cars
sold in the US, Canada and Mexico to fix power steering motors that can
fail.
(AP, 3/2/10)
2010 Mar 1, In China Toyota
President Akio Toyoda apologized in Beijing to Chinese customers for
the company's quality problems and emphasized the importance of the
fast-growing market to his company.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 15, Honda Motor Co. said
it will recall 410,000 Odyssey minivans and Element small trucks, from
the 2007-2008 model years, due to braking system problems.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 28, Zhejiang Geely
Holding Group signed a binding deal to buy Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo Cars
unit for $1.8 billion, representing a coup for the independent Chinese
automaker which is aiming to expand in Europe.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Apr 1, In Fremont, Ca., the
New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant (NUMMI) produced its last
Toyota Corolla after 25 years of operations building cars the Toyota
Way.
(SFC, 4/2/10, p.A1)
2010 Apr 7, Auto giants Renault,
Nissan and Daimler launched a partnership to save billions of euros and
accelerate sales of low-pollution electric cars.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 16, Renault announced
that it has pulled out of a joint venture with Indian car manufacturer
Mahindra and Mahindra, which produced its first car for the growing
South Asian market, the Logan.
(AFP, 4/16/10)
2010 May 9, Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened what is being dubbed as the Middle East's
biggest car plant set up by Iranian state-run automobile company Saipa.
(AFP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 20, Tesla Motors
announced that it will use a $50 million investment from Toyota Corp.
to help it buy the recently closed Nummi auto plant in Fremont, Ca.
(SFC, 5/21/10, p.A1)
2010 May 21, In China some 1900
workers at a Honda auto parts factory in Guangdong province went on
strike demanding higher pay. Monthly pay at the facility in Foshan city
was about $117 per month. Similar companies paid between $292 and $365
a month. Honda announced a settlement on June 4.
(www.china.org.cn/business/2010-05/28/content_20133668.htm)(SSFC,
5/30/10, p.A4)(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 7, Chrysler Group LLC
said it is recalling nearly 600,000 minivans and Jeep Wranglers because
of brake or wiring problems that could become safety issues.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 8, General Motors Co.
said it was recalling about 1.5 million vehicles worldwide to address a
problem with a heated windshield wiper fluid system that could lead to
a fire, its second recall over the issue in two years.
(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 17, Toyota said it will
restart the delayed construction of its Mississippi plant, which will
provide 2,000 jobs and be up and running by the fall of next year.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jun 29, American car maker
Tesla Motors began trading shares in an IPO offered at $17. Trading
closed at $23.89.
(SFC, 6/30/10, p.A1)
2010 Jul 4, In Japan Toyota
started recalling more than 90,000 luxury Lexus and Crown vehicles over
defective engines.
(AP, 7/4/10)
2010 Jul 9, Italy's Fiat, which
controls Chrysler Group LCC, said it will proceed with a euro700
million ($886 million) investment to move production of its new Panda
compact from Poland to a plant near Naples despite an unresolved
dispute with an Italian union.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 14, NYC unveiled its
first electric car charging station.
(SFC, 7/15/10, p.A6)
2010 Jul 20, Italian engineers
launched a 3-month, 8,000-mile test drive of a robotic vehicle from
Parma to China.
(SFC, 7/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 26, China’s Geely Holding
Group received final government approval to acquire Volvo Cars from
Ford Motor Co. in a $1.8 billion deal.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 28, Japan’s Nissan said
is new car models will feature air conditioners that pump breathable
vitamin C and stress-reducing seats.
(AFP, 7/28/10)
2010 Aug 5, The US Export-Import
Bank unveiled a loan guarantee for Ford Motor Co that will finance $3.1
billion in exports of cars and trucks to customers in Canada and Mexico.
(Reuters, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 9, Honda Motor Co said it
was recalling more than 428,000 vehicles in the United States and
Canada because of a defect that could cause the cars to roll away if
they are parked incorrectly.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 16, Teams from Australia,
Germany and Switzerland have set off from Geneva in electric vehicles
for what they hope will be the first carbon neutral race around the
world. The race set up by Swiss inventor Louis Palmer will pass through
150 cities including Berlin, Moscow, Shanghai, Los Angeles and Cancun
before returning to Geneva in January after 18,642 miles (30,000 km) on
the road.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 24, A massive traffic jam
in north China stretched for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark.
It reportedly stemmed from road construction in Beijing that won't be
finished until the middle of next month.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Jason Vuic authored “The
Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History.”
(Econ, 1/16/10, p.83)
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Subject = Cars
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