Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Why didn't anyone else do it?
During WW2 all automakers and other major manufacturers were required to work for defense. Automakers built trucks and tanks and aircraft and weapons of all types.
After WW2, Willys decided not to return to civvies. Willys simply kept making Jeeps, and expanded them to station wagons and pickups. The result was tremendously successful. Now, after 70 years and 6 changes of ownership, Willys is still in Toledo, still building Jeeps and station wagons and pickups.
Why didn't any other manufacturers 'civilize' their war products? Why didn't they amortize their acquired skills and tools? If Willys could do it, there wasn't a legal restriction. Packard would have done far better as a maker of luxury jets. Gulfstream should have been Packard.
Lack of imagination? I dunno.
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Later, remembered a partial exception. Buick developed a hydraulic transmission for a tank, then turned it into Dynaslush after the war.
Labels: skill-estate
¶ 6:31 AM
