Pride and profit: The dilemma of quality and quantity in the early automobile luxury industry.

摘要

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop the histories of several prominent American luxury automobile companies manufacturing cars between the years of 1900--17, such as: Alco, American, Chadwick Lozier, Packard, Pope-Hartford, Simplex and Thomas. Two important questions will be addressed. Why were these companies, unable to adjust to the changing trends of early automotive manufacturing? Could these failures have been avoided?;At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, United States' automobile manufacturers were producing a limited number of vehicles while the demand for their product was high. A sellers market existed. This allowed the manufacturers to establish high prices for their product because of such market conditions the automobile was considered by the consumer to be a luxury item affordable only by the wealthy. Manufacturers produced what they considered to be high quality and expensive automobiles. Companies analyzed in this paper were not fly-by-night operations run by backyard inventors who assembled cars from parts purchased from outside sources. They were sophisticated manufacturers applying highly skilled techniques to the evolution of the automobile. Some of these companies were successful at adopting more efficient production methods, and were the leaders in the technical development of the automobile from a horseless carriage with a tiller steering wheel, to a aesthetically pleasing, powerful and efficient transportation vehicle that would revolutionize the American industrial landscape. Ironically, their research and development contributed to the automobile becoming a more assessable mode of transportation for the common man, an idea that numerous luxury car manufactures rejected.