by Tuckerfan1053 » Mon Jun 01, 2009 4:48 pm
Indeed, much of the rest of the world was trying to rebuild from the devistation caused by WWII. Germany's car production was (temporarily) capped at 1936 levels, so any industry there would have been unlikely to make components for US companies. I don't know if Japan was under similar caps, but Toyota was in such rough shape in the years following the war that they were paying their employees in bread.
Tucker supposedly had everything he needed to build cars in Brazil, with the Carioca, but was extremely reluctant to build cars which weren't American. I doubt if Tucker would have been willing to use foreign made parts, even if they'd been available. (Given the incredible unreliability of electrical parts made by Lucas of England, I have a hard time believing that someone as obsessed with safety as Tucker was, would have wanted to use their parts.)