Katelyn Austin
MGT 499
“Small Cars Test Ford Resolve” Founded by Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company has become the third-largest automaker in the world. Based in Dearborn, Michigan—a suburb of the Detroit area, the company has been in operation since June 16, 1903. Ford receives credit for the innovation of the assembly line. He was able to save nine hours and fifty minutes in producing his Model T car with the assembly line. He ultimately reduced the time to one hour and thirty three minutes. By mass-producing these cars, they were able to flood the market with their product, increasing sales to 501,461 in 1915 and were expected to reach one million. Ford is not the only automobile manufacturer in Detroit. General Motors and Chrysler also exist, together with Ford comprising the Big Three. When the economy started to sink, GM and Chrysler could not change their systems quick enough to avoid bankruptcy; only Ford reversed their systems quickly enough to keep their company afloat. Before the bankruptcy crisis, Detroit’s Big Three would resort “to steep incentives and cut rates to rental companies to clear bloated inventories” (Ramsey, 2012). In the summer of 1995 an article titled “It’s A Buyer’s summer as Car Dealers Cut Prices, Clear Inventory” was written in The Day newspaper, by Richard Truett, began to explain as to why the auto makers created these cuts. At this time, due to higher interest rates to slow the economy and keep inflation at bay, many manufacturers offered big rebates and cut-rate financing to attract buyers to their products. The automakers would still produce the 60-day supply of vehicles but when the car lots became full, they would offer incentives to get buyers interested in their products—rather than another brands. I believe that during this time the automakers did not take into account the economy while mass-producing these