According to a survey conducted by “The Atlantic” website in August 2012, there are 439 cars for every 1,000 persons in the USA. That means the ratio can be drawn to 1 car for every 2.3 persons. These numbers clearly indicate that how essential a car is to Americans. Though there are different means of transportation in USA, people use their own cars instead of public transportation, irrespective of increase in gas prices. This is because cars are the most economical and convenient mode of transportation in USA.
As this is the situation in USA, the competition among the automakers in US is pretty high. There is demand for foreign cars in USA. This article discusses about the major car manufacturers of USA.
Major US car manufacturers
There are many major car manufacturers in USA and to name a few are Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Ford, Lincoln, General Motors, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet etc. Among them, the three big giants who are always on the top of the list and they are also known as the “big three” in automobile market of USA. They are:
General Motors
- Established on 16 September, 1908 by William C.Durant and Charles Stewart Mott.
- Headquarters in Detroit Michigan, USA.
- Working in 156 countries.
Chrysler
- Established on 6 June, 1925 by Walter Chrysler.
- Headquarters at Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA.
Ford
- Established on !6 June, 1903 by Henry Ford.
- Headquarters at Dearborn, Michigan, USA.
In 2012, General Motors stood first for highest number of production and sales of cars in USA, while Ford and Chrysler shared fifth and twelfth places respectively. Foreign companies like Volkswagen, Toyota and Hyundai topped the list with second, third and fourth places respectively. These rankings clearly show how strong the competition between the domestic and foreign automakers is.
Minor US car manufacturers
Apart from these major car manufacturers, there are some more car manufacturing companies that are small in size, but yet noticeable. Some of them are Anteros, Aurica, DeLorean, Fisker, Mosler, Electro, Shelby American, Tesla, Zimmer, etc.
Why foreign cars are sharing top rankings with domestic cars in USA?
The invasion of foreign cars into the USA started in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It all started with “oil crisis” in USA in the year 1973. This crisis made people opt for fuel efficient cars by some foreign manufacturers during that period. During the same period, domestic manufacturers had manufactured cars with design and manufacturing problems. This lead to the dominance of foreign cars over domestic cars and people are still in that belief that, foreign cars are better than domestic cars.
- In 1977, General Motors got a bad reputation by the revelation of the news that they installed Chevrolet engines in Oldsmobile.
- In the same period Ford released “Ford Pinto” and it was so vulnerable that there were reports and complaints from people that the tank exploded when it was hit from behind.
- Unfortunately, Chevrolet released a flop model “Chevrolet Vega” during the same time with aluminum engine that got rusted very quickly.
These are some of the examples that gave foreign companies a chance to prove themselves in the US market.
Downfall of oil prices in mid 1980s accelerated the US automakers and the success of minivan in 1984 by Chrysler and fuel efficient K-cars raised the hopes of domestic companies.
However, American car manufacturers including the big three have taken lessons from the past experience and are taking measures to produce good cars.