American automobile industry in the 1960s
The American automobile industry in the 1960s was a vibrant and transformative period marked by significant growth and innovation. This decade saw U.S. automakers produce over 8.2 million passenger cars in 1969, solidifying their dominance in the global market, with major players like General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler leading the charge. The design trends of the era reflected a shift from the extravagant styles of the 1950s to more compact, economical vehicles, influenced by the popularity of models like the Volkswagen. While the industry thrived, it also faced emerging challenges, including rising traffic fatalities and growing concerns about safety and environmental impacts, which prompted regulatory changes.
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader's activism brought automobile safety to the forefront of public discourse, leading to vital legislation. The decade's automotive landscape was characterized by innovations such as front-wheel drive and the introduction of the Mustang, which became a cultural icon. The increasing preference for cars over public transportation contributed to suburban expansion and changes in American lifestyle. However, the latter part of the decade hinted at struggles ahead, as the U.S. transitioned from a net exporter to a net importer of automobiles, setting the stage for the challenges that would arise in the following decades.
American automobile industry in the 1960s
The product of industry and technology that became central to life in the United States. During the 1960’s, automobiles brought much change in the nation’s economic and social life as well as in its culture.
Origins and History
Automobiles, a European innovation with no single inventor, are self-propelled vehicles designed to carry people or loads on land. Until about 1910, they were primarily experimental. However, improved roads, better technology, assembly-line production, and World War I stimulated the rapid development and standardization of the vehicles. Steam-driven and battery-operated electric models were soon replaced by vehicles powered by the gasoline-fueled internal combustion engine, which proved to be greatly superior to other power plants.
The majority of automobiles are driven by a water-or air-cooled multicylinder piston-type internal combustion engine mounted in the front or rear of the vehicle. Economical diesel engines are also employed in some automobiles but primarily in trucks and buses.
Detroit Dominates
Detroit and southern Michigan became the automotive center of the United States early in the twentieth century and continued to play a pivotal role in the 1960’s. By 1913, despite strong challenges from Western European manufacturers, the U.S. automotive industry had come to dominate the world market, producing 485,000 motor vehicles out of an aggregate 606,000. The founders of the “Big Three” automobile manufacturers William G. “Billy” Durant of the General Motors Corporation, Walter P. Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation, and especially Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company became part of American legend as their industry assumed a leading position in the economic life and culture of the nation. Passage of the 1956 Interstate Highway Act, which greatly increased the national road network, accentuated the country’s preference for automobiles over mass transit alternatives.
In the 1960’s, automobile design initially displayed a reaction against the excesses of the 1950’s flamboyant cars, custom-made vehicles, and hot rods but soon evolved into a style that reflected both larger disposable incomes and, paradoxically, the various social revolutions of the decade. Under the influence of the increasingly popular German Volkswagen, which was small, spartan, and styleless, U.S. automakers began to build more compact cars such as the Corvair, Valiant, and Lancer.
Overall, this was an ebullient time for U.S. automakers in hindsight, the calm before the storm. By 1969, more than 80 percent of families in the United States owned at least one automobile. In 1969, the U.S. automotive industry produced more than 8.2 million passenger cars compared with second-ranking West Germany’s 2.9 million and third-ranking Japan’s 2.6 million. The four major U.S. automakers General Motors (4.6 million cars), Ford (2.1 million), Chrysler (1.5 million), and the American Motors Corporation (0.26 million) grossed nearly $47 billion that year compared with $21.4 billion in 1961. Two-door hardtops were the best-sellers, followed by four-door sedans and four-door hardtops.
The decade also witnessed a number of innovations such as the use of plastics in cars’ interiors and exteriors, heralding a time in the 1970’s when lightweight metals, synthetics, electronic ignition devices, and sensors would be introduced to lower the overall weight and otherwise help meet government-mandated fuel economy standards. Other 1960’s novelties included front-wheel drive with variable-ratio steering, automatic level control, and front disc brakes. The casting of entire engine blocks as single units, drastically reducing the cost, had become commonplace. The use of air-conditioners and bucket seats also increased.
The Mustang and Other Successes
In 1961, the first V-6 passenger car engine was introduced by the Buick Division of General Motors. In 1964, Ford unleashed its Mustang, a remarkable success story. One million units sold in just under one year, catapulting the career of the Mustang’s creator, Lido A. “Lee” Iacocca, who later was to save Chrysler from bankruptcy. The Ford Mustang contrasted with the Ford Edsel, a marketing and financial disaster. Only 2,846 of the final 1960 model were built, capping total lifetime sales at 110,810 units. Some huge ten-mile-per-gallon gas-guzzlers, such as the 120-inch-wheelbase 1966 Cadillac Eldorado with fully automatic climate-control air-conditioning, were also marketed.
The lavishness of the times was also evident in other ways. For instance, the 1965 Chevrolet was offered in 46 models (out of a total of 348) with a choice of thirty-two different engines, twenty transmissions, thirty colors, and four hundred options thanks to new, automated, computer-controlled assembly lines.
Though the focus in the 1960’s was on the automobile industry’s successes, a few problems had appeared. By 1967, the United States had shifted from being a net exporter to a net importer of automobiles and allied products. In addition, traffic fatalities rose from thirty-eight thousand in 1960 to more than fifty-six thousand in 1969.
Impact
Americans’ love affair with the automobile expanded the trends already present in the 1950’s: the exodus of the middle class from the cities to the suburbs, the growth of suburban shopping centers, and the increasing traffic congestion and attendant air pollution. The use of public transportation declined as greater numbers of people bought automobiles. The greater mobility afforded by automobiles led more Americans to drive to vacation spots such as national parks, causing concern among many conservationists and environmentalists. The number of Howard Johnson restaurants and motels and similar businesses along the highways increased to accommodate these travelers. For better or worse, the automobile helped shape the contours of the American Dream.
However, the decade and its excesses also brought the government, at every level, more forcefully into the picture. Despite opposition by the automotive industry, the automobile became subject to regulations regarding emissions (Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act of 1965), safety (National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966), and later, fuel economy (Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975).
In the 1960’s, the question of automobile safety placed the industry on the front burner of the political agenda. Until this decade, safety had been subordinate to style, comfort, and marketing considerations in automotive design. A one-man crusade by consumer advocate and lawyer Ralph Nader focused primarily on the safety of Chevrolet’s aluminum, air-cooled, six-cylinder rear-engine Corvair, which had been involved in a few high-profile accidents because of its tendency to oversteer. Product liability lawsuits followed as did General Motors’ harassment of Nader and Nader’s final victory and out-of-court settlement. Nader’s crusade prompted several congressional and other investigations and the passage of legislation to protect drivers and passengers. Nader’s book, Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile (1965), became a best-seller. As a result of Nader’s activities and the withering competition of the Ford Mustang, the Corvair was discontinued after 1969.
Subsequent Events
The advent of the first Arab oil embargo in 1973 led to more automobile regulation. The concern in the 1960’s about air pollution, traffic congestion, urban sprawl, and environmental degradation, though continuing, became outranked by anxiety about dependence for oil on the foreign-controlled Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), escalating fuel prices, and the increasing Japanese penetration of U.S. and world automobile markets. Mass transit received renewed assistance from all levels of government, especially from Washington, D.C. In response to the long lines at gasoline stations and higher fuel prices, automobiles were reduced in size and weight, making them more competitive against the surging number of more fuel-efficient foreign imports. Earlier government automobile regulations relating to air pollution and safety were expanded, and gas mileage economy standards were set to cope with the politically sensitive oil shortage. In addition, to save fuel, the speed limit was lowered to fifty-five miles per hour in several states in 1973 and nationally in 1974, a change that also led to lower traffic fatality rates.
Automobile production became more decentralized as the Big Three opened new plants in the South, California, and also outside the United States in order to be more cost-effective. Despite U.S. automakers’ efforts to increase competitiveness, by 1972 the German Volkswagen Beetle had become the best-selling car of all time, and by 1980, Japan overtook the United States as the leading world automotive producer. Indeed, by that year, the U.S. share of the world aggregate market had fallen to below one-fifth from more than three-quarters in the 1950’s.
Additional Information
The Automobile Age (1988), by James J. Flink, provides a scholarly, illustrated all-round account of the automotive industry in the 1960’s. The Dream Machine: The Golden Age of American Automobiles, 1946-1965 (1976), by Jerry Flint, is a more entertaining work that intersperses functional with chronological chapters. Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile (1965), by Ralph Nader, is still one of the most influential though narrowly focused critiques of the industry. Ward’s Automotive Yearbook, by Ward’s Communications, published 1960 through 1970, presents comprehensive statistics and commentary about each year’s events and trends.