Friday, January 29, 2010

A little history about North American small cars

There was a nice article in yesterday's Globe & Mail paper about the (mostly failed) attempt of U.S. automakers to enter the small car market in the early 1960's. [article link] A quote from an auto journalist at the time still rings true today; it's taken a recession and high gasoline prices to start to change buying habits, and only slightly.
"Personally I go along with the thinking that America is basically a big-car country with big-car needs. I feel that unless we have a depression of major size or 60 cents a gallon gasoline, the so-called big cars will still grab off 80 per cent of the market.”
-- Tom McCahill, Modern Mechanix (circa 1960)

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