American Auto Manufacturers Quiz

Henry Ford is credited with implementing the moving assembly line in 1913 to build the Ford Model T in larger quantities for lower cost. The assembly line process spread throughout the auto industry.

Chevrolet has long been GM's highest volume brand.

Inspired by “Bullitt,” the 1968 film in which actor Steve McQueen drove a green Mustang fastback in one of the big screen’s greatest car chases, Ford has offered several “Bullitt” special edition Mustangs over the years. The latest came in 2019.

Ford neglected its Mercury diviison until the brand was selling nothing but thinly disguised versions of Ford vehicles with little marketing support. The last Mercury-branded car was made in January 2011.

Saturn cars became known for their plastic body panels, which resisted dents. The roof was made of steel, however. General Motors ended the brand in 2009.

Import brands became much more competitive in the luxury car market, forcing Cadillac to reinvent itself with more modern models.

As a last-ditch effort to save the Mercury brand, Ford reorganized Mercury and Lincoln under its Premier Automotive Group, which was eventually disbanded as Ford sold off the import luxury brands it had acquired since the 1990s.

Though Saturn didn't offer cars until 1990, the brand was conceived in 1982 to provide a domestic alternative to Japanese compacts.

The Plymouth car brand name, launched by Chrysler in 1928, was inspired by Plymouth Rock, the Pilgrims' landing spot, and, believe it or not, Plymouth binder twine, a product popular with farmers at the time.

Though historians are at odds over who actually said it, Henry Ford is usually credited with this quote. It means that consumers can't always express exactly what they want as a new product.

The Walter P. Chrysler Museum, which was located in Auburn Hills, Michigan, opened in October of 1999 but closed in 2012. It opened again briefly in 2016 but closed permanently in December that year.

Henry Martyn Leland was first part of the team that founded Cadillac, and then later part of the team that formed Lincoln.

The DeLorean Motor Company of Humble, Texas, founded by British expat Stephen Wynn to service and restore DeLoreans, bought the original Northern Ireland-based DeLorean company’s trademarks, intellectual property and vast stocks of remaining parts liquidated after its bankruptcy. Wynn is waiting for implementation of federal regulations passed in 2016 that would allow small manufacturers to build “new” versions of old cars without having to meet modern emissions and safety standards. As of fall 2019, the regulations were still on hold. Wynn could build up to 400 new DeLoreans per year once they’re in place.

General Motors brought its Pontiac and GMC divisions together to reduce the number of low-profit, single-brand dealership franchises, although they remained separate brands.

In 1933, as General Motors was debating whether or not to drop Cadillac, service executive Nicholas Dreystadt, a former Mercedes-Benz executive, implored the company to discontinue a horribly discriminatory policy that had dealers refuse to sell Cadillac to African-Americans. May were able to buy them anyway, by paying white men to act as fronts for them. The policy was dropped, and Cadillac sales soared by 70 percent for 1934. Dreystadt was made head of Cadillac that year.

Studebaker was founded in South Bend, Indiana, in 1852 as a maker of horse-drawn carriages. It began making cars in 1902.

Tesla originally worked with Lotus to build the Tesla Roadster, which was based on the small Lotus Elise chassis.

Chrysler Defense and Teledyne Continental also submitted proposals for the Army's vehicle project in 1979.

Don Panoz earned his wealth in the pharmaceutical industry; he headed the research group that developed transdermal drug delivery systems, including the "nicotine patch." Until he died in 2018, Don Panoz owned the comapny with his son, Dan.

Ford offered a Model A in 1903, and Cadillac's first car, also that year, was called Model A, as well. Ford reprised the Model A name in 1927-1931. Bonus trivia: Duesenberg, the American luxury car maker most famous for the Model J and SJ, offered a Model A in 1923.

Dodge rolled out the iconic ram head in 1932. In 2009, the company split off its pickup truck business into a new division called Ram.

Sir Herbert Austin's cars were already well-known in England when he went looking for investors to start building cars in America. The resulting company, American Austin, began building the tiny cars in Butler, Pennsylvania in 1930. The firm folded in 1935 but returned under new ownership in 1936 as American Bantam. The company would go on to develop the prototype for what became the first Jeep for the U.S. Army.

Chrysler's Plymouth division established itself as a solid rival to Ford and Chevrolet, holding the third spot in sales for more than two decades.

Oldsmobile made the most cars in America from 1903 until 1905. Volume was low: 4,000 cars in 1903 and 5,508 in 1904.

The Jeep was first used for military transport during World War II. The "civilian Jeep" became available in 1945, known as the CJ2A.

After running Buick for three years, Walter Chrysler left over disagreements about General Motors' company direction. He was hired to turn around ailing Willys-Overland in 1919 but left in 1921 to do the same for Maxwell Motor Company. He then made Maxwell part of his new Chrysler Corporation in 1925.

Fisker Automotive was founded by Henrik Fisker in 2007 to make high-end plug-in hybrid cars, but did not achieve the same success as some rivals and went bankrupt six years later. Mr. Fisker launched a new electirc car maker in 2016, with the first model, an SUV, due in 2021.

Chevrolet was conceived as a way for William C. Durant to elbow his way back into the GM fold. He formed Chevrolet in 1911, and in 1918, Chevrolet came under the GM umbrella, so his plan worked.

Although the Rendezvous was an early example of a crossover, it (and its Pontiac sibling, the Aztek) were both considered trucks or SUVs by General Motors.

David Dunbar Buick invented a process to coat cast iron bathtubs with porcelain enamel.