[Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Hudson was a viable car manufacturer until the mid 1950s, and in fact made some excellent cars in the late '40s and early '50s. By the mid-'50s, Hudson, like other single-line car makers, found itself without the necessary capital funds to introduce new models (sort of like SAAB in the late '80s), and started looking around for a partner to share costs with.
The president of Nash at that time wanted to combine Nash, Hudson, Packard and Studebaker into one company, sort of a mini-General Motors. Hudson and Nash merged in 1954 to form American Motors, but Packard and Studebaker would not join. The Hudson name continued for another year or so, but it was really a re-badged Nash. Then the Hudson name was dropped, and eventually the Nash name was dropped, too. American Motors continued to produce the Rambler (originally the Nash Rambler), and other models such as the Ambassador (larger than the Rambler), the Gremlin, Javelin (a muscle car), Marlin, the Pacer, AMX, Concord, Spirit, Eagle, etc.
In 1970, American Motors bought the Jeep division from financially troubled Kaiser-Jeep. This improved things financially for American Motors for a few years, but by the late '70s, American Motors was again in financial trouble. They unveiled an alignment with Renault in 1978, and the French automaker would eventually own 46 percent of American Motors, and invest over $150 million in the troubled automaker. In the early '80s, American Motors stopped producing their own cars, except Jeeps, and started selling Renault Le Cars and Alliances in their showrooms (Alliances were soon being assembled in American Motors plants).
American Motors continued to lose money, and in 1987 Chrysler Corp bought American Motors, primarily to get the profitable Jeep division, although the AMC plant at Kenosha had been assembling Chrysler Fifth Avenues, Dodge Diplomats, and Plymouth Gran Furys before the merger, and later added the Dodge Omni - Plymouth Horizan line (for those too young to remember, the Omni/Horizon were knock-offs of the VW Rabbit (Golf)). Chrysler quickly moved to stop production of all AMC models except the Jeep line, and the rest is history.
, Mon, 28 May 2001 12:20:56, Wed, 30 May 2001 13:11:36
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
