Oppo Asks: Most Influential American In the Auto Industry

"Amoore100" (amoore100) 05/28/2016 at 11:20 • Filed to: Oppo Asks, APUSH, Iaccoca, Musk, Ford

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Hey Oppo! I have a final APUSH essay due next Tuesday; the prompt that I have to write about is, basically, does America as a nation eventually ‘work’ or ‘not work’ (i.e. did we succeed in our original ideals, although given Trump lately, I’d say no). Anyways, I have to choose one individual to either represent the success or failure of America and its ideals as a whole and, seeing as my history teacher does seem to appreciate the history of the American automobile, I’d like to choose someone related to the car industry. This is where you guys come in: who do I choose? Henry Ford, the inventor of idea of the American car? Lee Iaccoca who gave us the Mustang and saved Chrysler (at least for some time)? Elon Musk who is turning the car into a modern technological must have?

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Amoore100 05/28/2016 at 11:24

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Preston Tucker! Oh wait...

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 05/28/2016 at 11:27

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*sad trombone*

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Amoore100 05/28/2016 at 11:34

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John Delorean had a long and illustrious career with GM before launching his eponymous car. He designed the original Pontiac GTO and as such is widely credited as the father of the muscle car.

Also, every time I hear Iacocca’s name I immediately think of this stupid Time cover:

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Amoore100 05/28/2016 at 11:37

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Elon Musk is neither the first nor will he be the last to turn cars in an era into the must-have. The trouble is, the must-have is always shifting, so just as it has shifted to a type of car before, it will shift away again. Only the lasting influence of the cars that enabled will be around - fashion is not permanent. See the last time that cars were a must-have and had to be updated every single year as strikingly as possible: the 50s helped keep the car a central point of the American Ideal (unconstrained transportation), but the actual trends set in that age haven’t been lasting.

Iaccoca, it seems to me, has always been about a certain way of handling a car in a business sense. Huge influence on car development and sale to the consumer, but perhaps more the God-King of industrial engineers than as much a car visionary as he’s represented. An artist at taking the simple, the cheap, and the trendy and rolling them all together. The Mustang, for example, takes the simple and the cheap (Falcon) and weds them to what was a trendy image - the Mustang concept. The K-car was an art in cheap and simple underpinnings with enough of an image graft in each class it was sold to make the sale... at the time. Not a bad topic, partly because he isn’t a pure visionary as such, but you’d make a mistake describing him as such. He mostly just repeated the same set of practices over a period of years in different scenarios.

Henry Ford strikes me as a good topic because his own vision blinded him to the visions of others. Within a limited scope, you might say he was the most visionary, but his lack of the grasping of trends and futurism, and the ability of the car *image* to grow and develop set him at loggerheads with his contemporaries including his son Edsel, and risked destroying Ford. Then again, like any good topic, he’s been done, a lot.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 05/28/2016 at 11:41

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And yet, I’d give the credit for vehicle father and grandfather of the muscle car to the Ford V8 and the Oldsmobile 88 respectively - not to mention the whole performance niche they enabled. Not saying DeLorean wasn’t capable, but turning a V8 two-door family car into a better marketed V8 two-door not-family car isn’t quite what I’d call the work of genius - that was more in the marketing.

Hoccy > Amoore100 05/28/2016 at 12:23

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Henry Ford is a good one, since he pretty much revolutionized the motor industry with the Model T production line. The way he treated his workers is also interesting to look at, not to mention his opinions during WWII.

Elon Musk is interesting because he’s not only a car person. It would be difficult to find someone that hasn’t heard of Tesla, SpaceX, PayPal, Hyperloop or any other of his activities. He is also a nice example of the American Dream, growing up in South Africa.

Lee Iaccoca? Probably a bit too narrow for history class..

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > Amoore100 05/28/2016 at 12:23

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Maximum Bob Lutz. no question

MultiplaOrgasms > Amoore100 05/28/2016 at 12:23

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Steve

Amoore100 > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 05/28/2016 at 12:32

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I have considered him too, yes.

AfromanGTO > Amoore100 05/28/2016 at 12:37

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John Z Delorean, Bob Lutz, Henry Ford, or Porsche.

Amoore100 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/28/2016 at 12:39

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Awesome synopsis! I’ll probably end up choosing Ford because as overdone as he is, I have a feeling I’ll be the only one in my class since we didn’t really cover him in our learning. Likely, the most popular ones will just be Lincoln, Washington, etc. so even Ford is a bit out there.

PetarVN, GLI Guy, now with stupid power > Amoore100 05/28/2016 at 13:05

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Henry ford would be the Go-To, considering he came up with the assembly line and such, and what he did for his workers (and how he policed them too...)

Musk is a good choice because current. you can find soooo much info.

Iaccoca Is left-field but an amazing topic since you can take like 2 pages and talk about the development of the Mustang/K-car!

You could do Preston tucker, and draw parallels to musk in trying to create the best car period. sure he failed, but he did so in spectacular fashion!

You could also do the dodge brothers, or one of them! they had a vision according to dodge's commercials

Berang > Amoore100 05/28/2016 at 14:48

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Ransom Eli Olds, and Charlie Nash are both incredibly interesting people.

But I might choose Ralph Nader. Because at least in the automotive sphere of our society, he is sort of the leader of the of the idea that the people of a society have the power to change things for the better, no matter how obstinate the establishment powers become.