The increasing automobility of Americans after the Second World War not only changed American geography and culture, but also benefited a set of key corporations that stood for American industrial power, and, later, its problems in global competition: “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” From its infancy in the early twentieth century, the automobile industry was characteristically entrepreneurial. Breakthroughs, such as the Five Dollar Day, which helped create a mass market, the assembly-line and parts standardization are attributed to the industry’s early years (1900–20). As it matured, consolidation put control into the hands of a few powerful automakers based in Detroit: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler became the “Big Three.” Along with foreign competitors, these have constituted an oligopoly, which uses its market dominance to price vehicles for maximum profit.

In the 1960s, the US auto industry felt the threat of foreign imports. By this time, the US industry had become complacent, producing large, gasguzzling hunks of steel targeted at the average American family. Furthermore, a strategy of planned obsolescence, wherein the Big Three produced technologically inferior cars in order to promote annual model changes, resulted in a perception that foreign cars were superior.

Niches developed for outsiders in the sports car, trucks and, most significantly the fuelefficient segments of the market.

At first, European automakers like Volkswagen, Mercedes and Fiat made inroads in the US. By the 1970s, Japan’s auto industry, protected domestically by governmental tariffs, brought its fuelefficient, inexpensively produced car to the US market. Foreign imports, which averaged 22.2 miles per gallon versus just 13.2 for domestics, became an attractive alternative during US oil shortages in 1973 and 1979. Although US automakers responded with compact, efficient cars of their own (Ford Pinto, AMC Gemlin), Japanese automakers Honda, Toyota and Nissan gained significant market share in the US. As these foreign companies built assembly plants in North America and as the Big Three have acquired interests abroad in their own manufacturers and acquisitions like Ford’s control of Aston Martin and Volvo, or the Chrysler—Daimler Benz merger, the limits of nation and globalism have become murkier.

In 1997, the Big Three accounted for 60.9 percent of US sales compared with 31.0 percent for Japanese automakers. Waning fears of energy shortages have led to a demand for “family trucks”—minivans and sports utility vehicles. American automakers have especially capitalized on the rising popularity of the new big car, producing 82 percent of trucks and sports utility vehicles.

The Big Three represent what many think of as big business—faceless corporations that stop at nothing to make a profit. Union strife, most recently at General Motors, has illustrated the classic battle between owners and workers. Roger and Me (1989) depicted the socio-economic devastation inflicted by plant closings in Flint, Michigan, a scene which has been repeated throughout the country. Auto workers are faced with the threat of lay-offs, downsizing and bankruptcy due to the mature nature of their industry.

Seven million Americans directly owe their livelihood to the automobile industry. By offering individual privacy and comfort, the automobile is both a status symbol and a necessity in modern American society. Its production and distribution as well are statements about American power and challenges in this century.