Why were the "Big 3" afraid of Tucker

[Lmt]

What elements occured to the downfall of the Tucker car?

[Guest]

I don't believe the Big 3 were afraid of Tucker. They had no more reason to be afraid of Tucker than McDonald's Restaurants has to be afraid of a kid with a lemonade stand.

Just the opposite. In the late 40s there was a lot of talk in Washington about breaking up General Motors under the anti trust laws to foster more competition in the auto industry. The major car makers did what they could (short of committing suicide) to keep the independents in business. They supplied them with parts and accessories, for example Hudson Lincoln Nash and Kaiser used Hydramatic transmissions bought from General Motors. The automatic transmission was an important feature and they could have prevented a lot of competitors' cars being sold if they simply never bothered to offer them transmissions.

Independents also bought complete electrical systems from Autolite (Ford) and Delco (General Motors). Not to mention such accessories as radios, heaters, spotlights etc. made by the majors and their subsidiaries

[Preston]

I wonder if it was he was doing too much too fast and counted on
too many people that fell through and let him down.
What if he hadn't had such a massive plant...what if the Tin goose
would have been complete with features it was to have had and not
built out of another car.
If they could have spent more time working out all the bugs before...
it may have turned out different.
I also would like to know if he ever thought of partnering with
anyone to help him out towards the end to keep it all going...
They were so close......

Wonder how many here that read all this would even be interested
in the Tucker if it had made it. So many other car companies died
a slower death... Studebaker, Nash, Packard.....
I'm a Studebaker guy myself.....
What a cool car the 50 & 51 model was... Their answer to the Tucker design......

[Guest]

Although there was no way of forseeing this at the time, the independents were doomed. Such old well established companies as Packard, Studebaker Hudson and Nash had all diappeared by 1960. The newcomers Kaiser, Tucker etc faded out even sooner.

The auto business was just too competitive. The big 3 offered too much for the money and took away all the customers. For those who wanted something different and unusual the imports became a huge factor in the 50s, and this was something that had not even been thought of before 1945.

The real killer was the massive sales competition between Ford and Chev to become the world's biggest selling car. To do this, they pulled every trick in the book including shoving cars on their dealers they hadn't even ordered, and forcing them to sell cars at little or no profit. In the end the thing became so blatant the government stepped in with new regulations about publishing the true price of a car (the Mulroney sticker) and new regulations against deceptive advertising, and deceptive financing.

But in the meantime they sold a lot of Fords and Chevs giving deals the independents couldn't match.