> Before the 1950s, though, there were a lot of other
> auto makers: Pierce-Arrow, Nash, Premier Motor
> Corporation, Essex Motors [Detroit], etc. The 1950s
> may have represented the culimination of US automaker
> monopolization. But before that, there were definitely
> more than just a 'big three.' It was a very active,
> lively market within the US.
>
> I happen to have a book in front of me that contains
> alot of ads from US auto-makers from the 1940s and
> prior, going back to about 1890. You'd be amazed how
> many there were.
>
> -B.
The Big Three have been just that since the teen's. In the 1950's the other makes were far smaller than most people imagine. Below is a list of sales for 1956 except I added Willy's and Kaiser sales for 1955 at the bottom of the list since they were gone in 1956. I chose 1956 because I like that years selection. Total number of cars sold in 1956 = 5,021,041 of which The Big Three accounted for 4,812,016 which is 95.8%.
It was pretty much the same story in earlier times. In 1919 Ford sold 419,452 cars, Chevrolet sold 149,904 cars, Buick sold 119,310, and Dodge sold 106,00 cars. These were the top four and they alone accounted for 78% of the market. Add in the other makes in the Big Three and you will see that they have been big for awhile. Never less than 80% of the market since 1912 except for one year, 1948, if memory serves. I would double check that last figure before quoting it anywhere since I'm going on memory alone with that one.
GM (total 2,113,319) Chevrolet 1,574,740 Buick 535,364 Oldsmobile 485,458 Pontiac 405,731 Cadillac 113,086
FoMoCo (total 1,789,293) Ford 1,408,478 Mercury 327,943 Lincoln 52,872
Chrysler (total 909,404) Plymouth 466,723 Dodge 205,727 Chrysler 118,119 DeSoto 108,207 Imperial 10,628
Studebaker 82,402 Nash 69,636 Packard 28,836 Hudson 28,151
Willy's (1955) 24,744 Kaiser (1955) 1,231
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