Autos Of America History Page 8

“”McLaughlin Automobiles””

“”Mercury Automobiles””

Mercury division of Ford Motor Company was founded by Edsel Ford (Henry’s son) in 1939 as a mid-level Luxury car . The Mercury and Lincoln were separate divisions of Ford Motor Company until 1945 when they were joined .

“”Nash Automobiles””

Nash Motors began making automobiles in 1916 in Kenosha Wisconsin by Charles Nash , as a part of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation . Charles Nash who had previously been president of General Motors , acquired the Thomas Jeffery Company (the maker of a Rambler model) . Nash made cars only for the middle priced car buyers and were very successful in there early years . In 1925 Nash acquired the Mitchell Motor Car Company’s assembly plant in Racine Wisconsin and began the manufacture of a low priced automobile named the Ajax .

Under the Ajax Name this car did not sell very well and in 1926 it was renamed the Nash Light Six and the sales increased . Nash offered a no-charge kit , containing 4 hubcaps and a radiator decal , to Ajax owners to convert their Ajax to a ‘Nash Light Six’ to protect the resale value . This idea was also very good for customer relations . Nash Motors and Charles Nash were the share holders of LaFayette Motors , a high end luxury car maker so in 1924 when LaFayette was not selling well Nash took over the company . The LaFayette plant was used to build the Ajax model and then the Nash Light Six . The Nash LaFayette came out in 1934 as a low priced model of Nash .

The LaFayette was replaced by the unibody Nash 600 in 1941 . In 1937 Charles Nash Bought controlling interest in Kelvinator (appliance company) and hired Kelvinator CEO George Mason to take the position of CEO of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation . From 1949 on Nash directed their attention more toward aerodynamic compact automobiles to use fuel mileage as a selling point . In 1951introduced the Nash-Healey an American-British joint venture sports car .

In 1954 Nash-Kelvinator merged with Hudson Motor Car Company to form the American Motors Corporation . 1n 1955 Hudson became the big car part of AMC while Nash marketed compact cars like the Nash Rambler . The Nash Metropolitan was manufactured for AMC by Austin of England and came on the market in the 1955 model year . It was a 2 seater mid-luxury model . The Hudson and Nash names disappeared from the AMC line up after the 1957 model year and the only models names in 1958 were Rambler and Metropolitan .

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The Metropolitan ended production in 1962 and the Rambler ended in 1969 . In 1970 AMC and Kaiser-Jeep merged and in 1987 they became part of the Chrysler Corporation .