History Question

My daughter is doing a report for school about the shortest-lived American automobiles. Those American cars that had the shortest production run and sold the least amount while they were being manufactured. (She probably chose the topic since her dad owns an Edsel!). She is having trouble getting started and finding info on the internet, so I thought I would throw this out to all you old car buffs. I know the Edsel had three model years, but it only lasted over two calendar years and they only sold a total of 110,847 cars. Does any one know of other makes/models that were worse than this?

There are probably HUNDREDS of them! There was a time, not too long ago when only 4,000,000 new cars a year was the norm, not the 17,000,000 of today. Many manufactures only sold hundreds of cars a year, not thousands or millions. Go back to the twenties and you will find most sold only a few hundred cars a year and even fewer.

mike hunt

Take a look at the Tucker. Many feel that it was a car that was ahead of its time.

Fewer than 50 were built.

There is a movie available on videotape, and there is quite a bit of info available for them.

Bob Paulin - R.A.C.E. Chassis Analysis Services

Also, maybe, the Allstate? It was basically a 'Henry J' sold by Sears, Roebuck (by catalog).

By the way, I don't know about the Bricklin, but the DeLorean certainly wasn't an American car in my book. Made in Ireland, most of them with a Renault engine.

Bricklin was Aussie I believe.

rick

Bricklin was made in Canada. Nove Scotia if I remember correctly.

That's right. Was I thinking of the Jensens?

rick

The Bricklin was made in New Brunswick not Nova Scotia.

Try the book 'Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930-1980' ISBN 0-517-42462-2. Look in table of contents under 'Minor Makes'.

Here's some of the A's: Aerocar, Aircar, Airphibian, Airscoot, Airway, American Buckboard, Apache, Apollo, Argonaut, ...

Edsel isn't listed as a minor make. It is one of the bigger manufacturers. Also listed in the 'regular sections' are such as Hupmobile, Marmon, Excalibur, and Clipper. So imagine the production of 'Minor Makes'

Kevin B. Smith

Canadian...

She can really sink her teeth into the Tucker story!

Tucker even has a pretty good (and recent) movie about the car, the man, and the legend. I bet you can find it at a good (big) Blockbuster Video store.

Also, they are reviving the design! Apparently, some guy is making versions of the car using a restyled interior with a fiberglass body. He is even recording some pretty good track times.