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 ABOVE:  In 1913, Henry Ford installed the first moving assembly line in his Highland Park factory (Detroit, Michigan) and startled the automobile industry by producing a car every 93 minutes. At the end of five years,

the Highland Park plant was turning out 10,000 cars a day.  BELOW:  Walter Chrysler (1875-1940), automobile magnate.

Japanese automobiles arrived in the United States at the end of the 1950s, and within 20 years the US manufacturers were forced to rethink their models to compete with the more fuel- efficient imports… especially following the Arab-Israeli war in 1973 and the ensuing oil embargo that saw gasoline prices rising disproportionately. By the end of the 1970s, Chrysler was in serious financial trouble and had to get a $1.5 billion loan guarantee from the US government. The automobile industry in the

United States was overtaken as the world leader by Japan in the 1980s, with more than 25 per cent of the 40 million vehicles produced worldwide. By 2011, this total production figure had grown to more than 80 million worldwide, with the US lagging in third behind China and Japan. By this time, the Big Three were all suffering financially and both GM and Chrysler had received bailouts from the US government. Restructuring and cost cutting was the order of the day, but would it be enough to survive? Only time will tell…