Auto Industry
Exposing a Crime
The U.S. Auto Industries Deception to America
Going back to the 1920?s, the U.S. automakers began to break away from Henry Ford?s philosophy of sticking with the same model, in the same color, at the same price. Instead, manufactures like General Motors changed models every year, to give the impression that there was something unique that the American Consumer needed to buy. But changing models constantly required large investments of capital for design and retooling. Detroit was planting the seeds of its own destruction if it didn?t keep up with trends amongst the buying public. A high demand for cheap attractive models would lead to one of the biggest muckraker stories in the mid 60?s.
In 1965 Ralph Nader published ?Unsafe at Any Speed: The designed-In- Dangers of the American Automobile.? He exposed how General Motors and the American auto industry were placing consumers? lives at risk by failing to design safe cars. Nader especially singled out General motors? Corvair which he labeled a death trap.
By the late 1950?s, the Big Three automakers were losing out to a public that was demanding smaller, less expensive cars, and was also increasingly attracted to imports, especially the Volkswagen Beetle. Imports, in fact
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