Wheels: Alliances

When Henry Ford perfected the Model T, he did so alone. Mr. Ford was one of those entrepreneurs who was decisive, focused and opinionated. He had his way of doing business and didn’t want or need anyone’s input or help. Many of his ilk were just such personalities, and they built the American automotive industry, if not the country, as the industrial age unfolded.

As auto manufacturing expanded, and the stronger companies rose to the top of the field, the weak perished or became absorbed, and so it was that many of the smaller producers came under the corporate umbrella of their former competitors or disappeared from the landscape entirely.