The History Of The Top 3 Cars In America

The history of the top 3 cars in america started in 1908 when Henry Ford introduced the american made Model T, but by 1927 Model T production stopped and GM took off. In 1960 Detroit's big three introduced their compact cars. The big seller was Chevrolet's Corvair by GM, Ford introduced the Falcon, and Chrysler-Plymouth had the Valiant. After the domination of the Corvair in 1964 Ford launched the Mustang in retaliation with record sales. GM hit back hard by kicking off the "muscle car" era with the Pontiac GTO. By 1973 gas prices sky rocketed almost forcing Americans to buy Japanese made small and fuel efficient cars. In 1980 Chrysler went bankrupt and received a bailout. From 1980 -1982 UAW members agreed to "givebacks" to help the big three survive. In 1982 Honda became the first Japanese company to build cars in the U.S. After the big three enjoyed several years of success, in 1990 they take another big hit due to a recession, just as GM launches Saturn. In 1994 american SUV's take over killing Japanese car companies, in 1998 Germany's Daimler-Benz buy's Chrysler for $38 billion, and in 1999 Ford and GM reach record breaking sales. From 2002-2004 GM really focuses in on making pick up trucks and SUV's. In 2005 GM claims a loss of $10.6 billion, in 2006 Ford claims a loss $12.6 billion, and in 2007 Daimler-Benz sold Chrysler for just $7.4 billion ($31 billion less than what he paid for it 9 years ago). In 2008 american automobiles took yet another huge hit after the Lehman Brothers crashed the stock market. President George W. Bush agreed to a bank bailout to save GM & Chrysler. In 2009 GM filed the second largest industrial bankruptcy in U.S. history making the U.S. government majority owners of GM.