This is a thread where I'll make an alternate history of motoring, starting with 1950. The original version had it as a forum game, but due to a lack of interest, I'll be doing it myself. So 1950: Americas: Most of the year goes as in our timeline. However, the start of the Korean War in September brings change. Customers, fearing more rationing, start slightly turning towards smaller import cars. While the usual fullsizes strongly remain king, cars like the VW Beetle or Morris Minor gain noticeable ground in the early '51 model year. Seeing that, the US makers start seeking solutions. By late November of 1950, GM and Ford already start their work. The Ford Anglia, Consul and Zephyr, as well as the Holden 48-215 and Opel Olympia, get federalized and open to decent sales for the Holden, Consul and Zephyr, and somewhat weaker for the Opel and Anglia. Still, by the end of the year, it's decided that the next generations of them will be developed with at least a partial focus on the US market. In the same vein, the sales of the Henry J rise, though not to British/Australian car levels. However, Chrysler and the independent makes are faced with trouble, not having such overseas divisions to import cars from. The only exception is Nash, which is already working on the American, a compact car. Chrysler decides to work around the problem by investing in diesel engines. The plan involves rolling out 3 diesels, a 100 HP 241 ci Hemi V8 (Plymouth, Dodge), a 115 HP 276 ci Hemi V8 (DeSoto), a 135 HP 331 ci Hemi V8 (Chrysler) and a 160 HP 405 ci Hemi V8 (large pickups). The engines are planned to be ready by 1952, shortly after the gas Hemis. A compact car is also in development, but on the back burner. Meanwhile, Studebaker, Packard, Hudson, Kaiser and Willys unite United Auto Manufacturing (UAM), in order to survive the competition. They start working on a new, unibody compact to fight the Consul, Zodiac and Holden. They decided to pull off a large gamble by hiring W.E. Deming, the statistician behind the concept of reliability as the main manufacturing axiom, and paying him more than the Japanese offered. (Yes, it means not-so-reliable Japanese cars.) The rationale is that if the UAM can't fight on prices, thet will fight on quality. Europe: Most automakers are now scrambling to make a car for the developed market. While many companies have different approaches, all the vehicles are quite similar - 1000-1300 cc of cubic capacity, 4-door sedan unibody (with some other body options), compact size. However, many companies approach it differently - for example, Citroen is making the Ami a flat-4 FWD car, the Saab 93 is going to be a 2-stroke FWD machine, while the VW Type 3 is going to have a Beetle-derived rear flat-4 transaxle, notably, with an optional diesel. The list of makers in that idea includes Ford, Opel, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, Simca, VW, NSU, DKW, BMW, Saab, Volvo, Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Austin, Hillman, Standard and others. Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo revolutionizes the performance world by making the Alfetta, a mid-engined performance coupe with a 235 HP 2.0 V6 supercharged engine in the middle. The car is the world's fastest, and achieves notable victories in performance. Other makers, like Jaguar or Aston Martin, start developing similar ones. Behind the Iron Curtain, the engineers of GAZ in the USSR start working on a relatively affordable, 600 cc small car, with the intent of it being cheap enough for most Soviet car owners. Asia: In Japan, the first kei cars, a class of cars limited to 200 cc and 280x120x130 cm, start being produced. Toyota, Nissan, Mazda and Suzuki all enter the class. China starts designing a similar sort of car, but larger and 300cc. While it is called a "people's car", the engineers slowly start seeing this goal as impossible, due to the Chinese society being seemingly too poor for that.
Part 2: 1951: Americas: As the war went on, (sub)compacts and imports retained their popularity, which was showed by the fact that Holden, Opels, Fords, VWs and Morrises all received new styling for 1952, as per US custom, and the ongoing projects kept running. However, seeing the new Alfa's fame, UAM decided to start working on a similar supercar. This was part of a larger development project, involving the development of a new range of fullsize cars - and the supercar was meant to have a similar suspension setup and V8 engine to the new Packards. But what shook the US auto industry were "Deming system" 1952 UAM cars, which were of better quality than their competitors, though it was offset by a higher price. While the original sales were just OK, an ad campaign and word of mouth helped them. These cars got especially popular in rural areas, where customers wanted simple, reliable cars. Mopar's new gasoline Hemi V8s were also a good development for the company, burning less fuel than the competors, while having better performance. Europe: The new midsize cars, like the Opel Kadett, BMW 1200, Standard 10 or Austin A50 started appearing, with more coming and decent perspectives on the US market. However, many of the automakers ended up spending a lot on them, and had trouble recouping the costs or continuing development - this especially touched small brands, like BMW, Borgward or Hotchkiss. Also, the sales figures were worse than expected. What actually sold well, though, was the Citroen 2CV van - a cheap, reliable vehicle that could haul a family. Citroen quickly found itself doing well, and even started exporting to the US, with quite limited success, and other companies started looking at their business model more closely. Another revolution were the redesigned Opels, Fords, VWs and Morrises - the practice started bringing image-conscious customers towards these brands, and made others think about new '53 styling. Also, as Hotchkiss started merger talks with UAM, the French goverment started working on its own Jeep-like vehicle, produced by Renault. The Hotchkiss Jeep was something they didn't want made by another country's company. Behind the Iron Curtain, the USSR temporarily abandoned its economy car project to focus on defense. Asia: China took a similar approach to the USSR - abandoned the "people's car" project to focus on defense. However, the kei car segment was booming - most manufacturers had at least one of these 150 cc cars, and smaller brands started feeling the competition from ones like Toyota, Hino or Nissan.
1952: Americas: Faced with rising unionism, UAM began looking into outsourcing production. Finally, in June, they started working on a new investment - a "Deming system" factory in Tijuana, Mexico, in order to bring better quality than the Big Three at lower prices. The factory was meant to produce compacts and subcompacts by Willys, Studebaker and Hotchkiss. The 1953 model year brought a lot of new stuff. For one, GM, Ford and UAM all had all-new compacts - the 1953 Holden line, with independent suspension (except for the ute), the FWD Ford Taunus and the Deming system Willys Aero/Studebaker Lark. They ended up selling like hotcakes, stealing buyers from cheaper fullsize models. Also, Mopar debuted all-new car designs and Hemi V8 diesels. The cars themselves caught on, and the diesels weren't doing bad either, although they were limited to buyers who did not care about the rough operation of these machines. However, on 28th November 1952, the market suffered a huge downturn. The reason? Well, President Truman authorized an atomic attack on Pyongyang. The world stood in shock, and the attack is often seen as the cause of Joseph Stalin's 7th December 1952 fatal heart attack. Car sales quickly fell, and makers lowered R&D expenses to almost zero. Europe: More midsize family cars were hitting the showroom floors, and smaller makers found themselves in trouble. Hotchkiss was bought by UAM and BMW went to Mercedes-Benz. Citroen could have suffered the same fate, but 2CV and HY orders were coming in quickly. Seeing that, other brands also started working on their own economy cars and vans. The French government, with Hotchkiss now being an US-owned maker, accelerated its work on a "light troop carrier". It was meant to be a Renault 4CV-based light amphibious vehicle, and its similarity to the Schwimmwagen led many to calling it "Le Schwimmwagenoix". It had a lot to do with Ferdinand Porsche working on it, following his late father's design work for Renault. On the sports car front, Mercedes-Benz and Lancia joined the fight against the Alfetta. The new 320RS and Stelvio were seen as great performance cars, and the Stelvio was exceptionally good, thanks to being engineered by Lancia's new recruit, Enzo Ferrari. Behind the Iron Curtain, the idea of a "car of the people" appeared in the form of the AWZ P70, a low-power, partially wooden, yet practical FWD minibus. The Western press even showed it as an example of a good car for so little money. Of course, the atomic bombing of Pyongyang made things... somewhat worse on the economic front. Asia: After the Japanese government gave significant incentives for company mergers, they started quickly happening. In fact, by the end of the year, only Toyota, Nissan, Isuzu, Suzuki and Hino were left on the scene. India started working on its "national car" program. It was meant to be conducted by Hindustan's factory, and the car design was strongly inspired by the new AWZ - and even the Pyongyang attack didn't stop them.
Fun fact: IRL, that nearly happened. In 1959, Dr. Hans Feith, chairman of BMW's supervisory board, proposed a merger with Daimler-Benz. But due to several reasons, that never happened. --- Post updated --- So, can I join? 1953: Americas: The first half of the year, as the Korean war is still looming, all of the automobile makers are concentrating making military equipment. But then on 5th June, the war ended in a South Korean victory, and automakers restarted automobile production later. Most of the new cars, however, were actually refurbished 1952 models. Car sales rose again after the war ended. Europe: The economic crisis have made most automakers in a harsh condition. Alfa Romeo and Mercedes Benz have declared bankrupt due to the war, although both companies were saved by Citroen. Swedish automaker Saab was acquired by Chrysler in July. Meanwhile, German automaker Borgward released the new Isabella, and thanks to the car's reliability, it became a big seller in Germany. Asia/Oceania: Australian automaker Holden was acquired by Australian businessman Charles Howard, and then Howard proposed a new plan to strengthen Australian car production. Japan's economy improved after the war, and Toyota released the brand new Crown saloon, which sold well in Japan. After the war, the newly-reunited Republic of Korea have started plans for a new national car, which involved Hyundai and Samsung.
1954: Americas: With the recovery of the companies, automakers have started to improve on their R&D of their cars. Ford have launched a new V8 to combat with the successful Hemi, the Y-series engine. UAM then introduced the 3.5 straight-6 engine, which have the performance of a V8, but consumes less fuel. The engine is really reliable, so it became an overnight success. Europe: German businessman Hans Newmark bought Mercedes Benz from Citroen (then Europe's largest automaker), and Volvo also join the battle against Borgward by releasing the PV444. Meanwhile, Enzo Ferrari, which just left Lancia in August 1954, started his own company. British automaker Lotus launched the brand new Lotus 7 sports car to fight against the successful Italians and Germans on the sports car front. Asia/Oceania: Holden then released the revised FJ, and started to import the cars overseas. Japan's Nissan rebadged the Holden FJ, and renamed it as the Nissan Gloria. Korea's Hyundai released the brand new Hyundai C-series compact, which sold well in Korea. China, thanks to improved economy, decided to restart car production by rebadging and improving the AWZ P70 and rename it the Red Flag Type 01. It sold well in China and Mongolia. --- Post updated --- 1955: Americas: The UAM straight-6 has improved, with upgraded internals raised the horsepower by 10 to 120 hp, and it has even better fuel economy. Meanwhile, Chevrolet decided to release the Corvette sports car to take advantage against the Europeans. Europe: Citroen now realized that the rise of Borgward hurts it's sales, so they launched the larger 4CV to compete against Borgward. Also, they launched the Citroen DS, which turns out to be a massive failure due to it's oversophisticated tech. Mercedes Benz then released the brand new 300SL sports car in respond to the Americans. Morris have acquired MG and Rover and both companies formed the British Auto. Asia/Oceania: Holden later released the Kangaroo compact and the Pioneer sports car to extend it's lineup. Toyota launches the Toyopet lineup of budget cars, with the Master became their first Toyopet. --- Post updated --- 1956: Americas: Ford launched the brand new Ford Thunderbird to compete with the successful Corvette. Chrysler then released the Imperial luxury car, and it became a new standard of luxury cars. UAM finally released their supercar, known as the UAM GT, and that time it became the world's fastest car at that time. Europe: With the failure of the DS, Citroen immediately halt production of the car, and replaced it with the more conventional VS. Still, it flopped hard, but not as hard as the DS. BA acquired Lotus, and they released the Morris Minor and became a major success. Borgward then released the Arabella subcompact, to compete with the 2CV and the Morris Minor. Volkswagen was later acquired by Borgward, and Enzo Ferrari's new company, Ferrari, released his brand new sports car, the 166 Inter. Asia/Oceania: Samsung released the brand new Samsung S1 compact to take on against Hyundai's dominance in the Korean auto market. In Japan, Honda was revived by Japanese oil mogul Aito Uzumaki and Soichiro Honda, and the company launched the Honda 200 Cub kei car. Holden have opened new factories in Malaysia and Korea, marking the first time the world's largest automaker (that time) to produce cars overseas. India launched the Hindustan Ambassador as a part of the national car plan, but sadly a massive drought and economy downturn led the car became a failure. --- Post updated --- 1957: Americas: The UAM straight-6 is now enlarged to a 4 liter, and horsepower increased to 130 hp, or up to 170 hp with a supercharger installed on some models. Thanks to the engine, UAM became America's best selling automobile brand. Meanwhile, Canadian industrialist Joseph Bruckell founded the Bruckell Motor Company, and they released their first car, the Bruckell Sprinter mid-size sedan with UAM's proven straight-6. Europe: Ferrari then released the Ferrari 250 GT to replace the unsuccessful 166 Inter, and to respond to the heated up sports car market. Borgward launches the Casablanca, a "off-road estate", which became the basis of the modern SUV. Although the car didn't sold well, but the car proves that Borgward made reliable and tough cars. Citroen then improves the VS sedan, replacing the horribly underpowered 1.8 V4 with a 2.5 V6, and sales of the car started to rise. Sweden's Volvo then replaces the outdated PV444 with the PV544, now with a more modern look and more comfy interior. BA on the other hand, planned to make a new gen luxury compact. That move BA did might change the market. Asia/Oceania: Honda released the 500 and 500 Ultra sedans. Even with the greatest looks, it was famous for it's unreliability, due to the infamous engine and bearings. Ford Australia released the brand new Anglia to compete with the successful Holden FJ.
To be fair, if you're doing it 5 years/day, and I aimed at 5 years/week, finish yours first. Just FYI, UAM also manufactures abroad (subcompacts/compacts in Tijuana), and Anglia is Ford's compact line; fullsize is Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac.
Well... remember that the 1956 GM cadet had a pretty good shot at actually being a real thing. Legend has it, that upon seeing the completed prototype in 1958, then-GM President Harlow Curtice stood up and killed the project with a single line: "GM doesn't make small cars." I think it would have done well - it was aimed at college students seeking an inexpensive new car, and the baby-corvette styling couldn't possibly have hurt.
Plus, UAM is comprised of separate brsnds (Hotchkiss, Studebaker, Willys, Hudson, Kaiser, Packard, Jeep)
Would these be feasible alternate histories? 1. The Pinto controversy puts Ford out of business. 2. Pontiac revives the Firebird and it is just as much of a hit as the Camaro is, effectively keeping them in business to this day.
1958: Americas: Canada's Bruckell releases the brand new Bruckell Moonhawk (sorry for the lack of imagination), to replace the somehow unsuccessful Sprinter. It became a massive hit thanks to it's extreme reliability, and it became Canada's best selling car. Dodge releases the updated HEMI engine, with more power and more fuel economy. Ford discontinued the poorly-rated and unreliable Thunderbird, at it's lifetime, only 200 units were sold. Chrysler launched the improved Imperial, and it became a sales success. Europe: Citroen's VS saloon became Citroen's best selling car of that year, due to it's reliability and durablity. Mercedes Benz launches the more comfortable 300SG to compete with Ferrari's newly launched 250 GTS. In Soviet Russia, the AWZ P71 was launched to replace the P70. Asia/Oceania: Holden self-developed the brand new V8 engine. Honda went out of business due to the bad sales of their cars. Toyota released the all-new Toyota Crown Royale to compete with the Holden FJ. In Myanmar/Burma, after seen the success of the Japanese and the Koreans, also plans to make a new car, based from the Holden FJ.
Just BTW, East German cars weren't widely exported to the USSR, and even for the worst-selling Big Three cars, figures were in thousands.
Gonna go back to continuing mine: 1953: Global politics: On 4th January, 1953,the USSR joined the Korean War by dropping a nuclear bomb on Seoul. This started the nuclear war stage of the conflict, with both sides using them. However, both countries’ leaders knew what dropping a bomb on the rival’s territory would mean and kept the attacks to Korean soil. Nevertheless, further economic stagnation ensued. What’s more, on 26th February, the Iranian prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, would nationalise the country’s oil, shaking the market. The US feared that for some time, but was too tied in Korea to stop him. Egypt, Jordan and Syria dealt another blow to the oil market with a joint operation to capture the Suez Channel in March, making it harder to export oil. When it comes to producing the black stuff, May’s Arab power struggles after King Ibn Saud’s death did not help. The country went through a 7-month-long civil war, ending with the victory of his son Turki, the continuator of the dynasty. This also let to the European NATO's near-downfall - the USSR threatened to cut oil supply to any NATO member. The only country to stay was Germany, supported by the US when it came to oil. 24th November brought the start of the peace movenent. A demonstration against the war and related draft in New York turned into a brawl with the police and an ostentatious burning of draft cards. Similar events happened in LA (7th December) and San Francisco (19th December). Americas: 1953 had some of the worst sales for years, and model year 1954 had the worst opening in years. Still, new car designs were significantly different, in order to draw customers. It also had compacts and subcompacts gaining even more ground, with Holden even outselling Chevy's debut (that said, Chevy's designs were rather old by the point). This made GM decide to start making Holdens in Van Nuys, and the Ford Taunus also got US manufacturing by the end of the year. Chrysler's new compacts, the Plymouth Lancer (Chrysler in Australia) and Dodge Coronet, as well as the company's diesels, including a new I6 one, and the purchase of Borgward gave it a well-needed boost. The compact commercial vehicle segment also shone, with Holden's Half-Ton Ute, Ford 's Transit and VW Transporter fighting for domination. Nash's compacts were buying it some time, together with redesigned fullsizes. Seeing that, GM and Ford started independently developing "senior compacts" - cars that would slot between compacts and fullsizes. Also, imports were making huge inroads in the US. Not only were Holdens, Opels, Fords of Germany , Hotchkisses and Borgwards (though the first had "gone native") sold through Big Four dealers, VWs, Saabs, Morrises, DKWs, etc. were selling better than ever. Despite the push for economy, a GM dealer from New Orleans, Mike Persia, fitted a Holden Deluxe coupe with Oldsmobile mechanical parts and widened wheelarches, as well as stripping the interior. The car was raced in NASCAR, and achieved great victories there, with Mr. Persia finally selling the design of the Holden TSC (Track Special Coupe) to GM. In the same year, after the Brazilian president's appeal, Ford and Chrysler pledged to biild factories there, while GM decided to build one in Chile. Asia: As in America, the market had a slump, yet the cars were greatly restyled to attract customers to them. Germany's decision to stay in NATO led to gasoline having to be rationed, which had a bad effect on the German luxury car market. While Mercedes-Benz and BMW survived, Borgward was bought by Chrysler and Ferdinand Porsche sold his company to work for Citroen. VW, meanwhile, scored a hit with the diesel-optioned Type 3,a Beetle-based, contemporary-styled 4-door sedan. Meanwhile, the center of luxury was moving to France, with the new Delahaye 400,boasting of a 4.0 V12 and Citroen-licensed hydropneumatic suspension, was launched. It was the fastest luxury car of the time. Also, Bugatti built the Type 302, a 4.5 V12 mid-engined supercar - the world's fastest, reaching 270 km/h and winning the 1953 LeMans. This overshadowed Jaguar's new, mid-engined XK170. What's worse, the Jag went through engine trouble during LeMans. France also completed its new, Renault-based light military vehicle - an amphibious one. However, many experts deemed such things irrelevant in the era of the atomic bomb. Competitors to the Citroën 2CV in the form of the Ford Brompton (UK) and Harz (Germany), small, yet 4-door FWD vehicles that sold quite well. The Portugese government decided to start a "national car" program to lower the country's foreign dependence. Poland also decided to work on such a thing, starting to test microcar prototypes. Asia: Japan's car industry kept on developing, with the new Toyota Crown, a contemporary-styled large sedan and rebodied Austin A70, seen as a reach beyond cheap kei cars. Still, the quality was what you could expect from an underdeveloped country. The Japanese makers started looking towards expansion - Toyota began estabilishing an assembly in Taiwan, and Isuzu had sights set on the French Indochina. Despite droughts weakening the economy, the Indian national car project kept on continuing. 1954: Politics: The Korean War continued, despite protests all across the US. Its continuing was helped by the fact that many African-Americans enlisted, hoping to use it for societal ascent. The viewpoint was reinforced by the GI Bill being extended to all servicepeople. While the US had the military upper hand, it was having funding problems, due to many politicians opposing further funding for it, sometimes for racially-charged reasons. In Europe, the Suez Coalition (Egypt, Jordan, Syria) restarted the sale of oil in March, and a month later, Iran did the same thing. Noticing their dependence on the Arab nations, European nations started diplomatic efforts to bring about the Euro-Arabian Oil Commonwealth, similar to the already existing one for coal and steel. Also, France and South Vietnamese forces won the battle of Dien Bien Phu, stopping the Vietcong, and started preparing an offensive. Americas: 1954 brought an end to the fuel crisis and saw a start to a scrappage scheme, meant to give the army more salvage steel and help the car market, as well as the GI Bill extended to car buying and loans. The biggest winners were compacts and subcompacts, cheap enough not to require a large investment besides the scrappage money, and light enough to get a good price reduction for using little steel. UAM, with its cheap Mexican manufacturing, and GM’s leasing benefited the most. Sales were also boosted by all of the Big Four rolling out new, striking fullsize designs for all brands, from Chevrolet to Packard (unibody at Ford and UAM), new GM, Ford and UAM V8s, UAM’s torsion beam suspension, as well as Nash abandoning the segment to focus on compacts and imported Peugeot subcompacts. That year is also seen as “the American performance car’s birthdate” - Packard rolled out the Talladega, a supercharged V8 supercar that debuted in the 1954 LeMans, and Holden started making the ASC with some roadworthiness changes. Cadillac began the development of the Eldorado, a sporty 4-door sedan/convertible to fight the new Delahaye. Opel was removed from the US market, and the Kadett and Olympia models were transferred to Holden, and added to their Australian offerings. Seeing how the Deming process was kept at a lower cost by Mexican manufacturing at UAM, the rest of the Big Four started working on their own Mexican assemblies. Europe: The Citroen 13CV, a groundbreaking luxury car, was released. Not only it had hydropneumatic systems all around, it had striking fastback bodywork with an opening rear window and a drivetrain tuned by Ferdinand Porsche and Maserati brothers. It was meant to be a prelude for the upcoming 6CV, 9CV and 16CV. At the same time, Delahaye began work on the 2500, a smaller luxury car and a 13CV rival. The British government instituted an antitrust law, which stopped the planned merger of Morris and Austin. However, these companies made their own mergers - Morris with Lanchester and Daimler, and Austin with Rover. Austin-Rover began adopting the Deming system. Still, their joint project, a 3-wheeled sub-Minor/A30 economy car, the Mini/A10, hit the market. Unfortunately for them, it was overshadowed by the Hillman Imp, an Alec Issigonis-designed FWD small car with surprisingly good handling. Jaguar, following financial troubles, went bankrupt, which was a surprise for the performance car world. Mercedes-Benz, with the new Delahaye, Packard and Bugatti on the market, as well as the Eldorado and 16CV in development, started working on the 400S and 400RS - “new standards in luxury”. Meanwhile, BMW, their subsidiary, started making a licensed version of the new Fiat 500 - a decision that helped the company’s finances a lot. The Fiat itself also was a success in its native Italy. The 1954 LeMans was the spot of fierce competition between the new Alfa Romeo Alfetta, Packard Talladega, Lancia Stelvio and Mercedes 320RS. However, the winner was unlikely - it was the Lotus 6, a lightweight mid-engined race car using tuned Jaguar XK120 mechanicals. After the race, Colin Chapman was approached with orders for a road-going version, and by the end of the year, there was one. Behind the big companies was TVR with its 2000, built in a similar way with Bristol parts, yet not as refined. Still, TVR ended up in a similar situation, and by the end of the year, there was a production 2000. Asia: India’s new “national car”, the AWZ-derived Hindustan Premier, ended up being quite successful. Still, it did not motorize the largely-undeveloped country, as its cost was still relatively high. Meanwhile, Japanese manufacturers Toyota and Nissan developed the Land Cruiser Series 30 and Nissan Patrol, two Land Rover-derived 4x4s. They were quite unrefined, yet successful in developing markets, thanks to the low prices. 1955: Politics: The war continued to draw ire, now on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Also, it was so damaging and costly that the participants wanted to end it. In July, the American scrappage scheme ended and finally, on 27th October, the Tokyo Agreement between 5 leaders, Thomas Dewey, Lavrientiy Beria, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-Sung and Syngman Rhee ended the war and drew the border on the 37th parallel north. By that time, the Franco-Vietnamese anti-Vietcong offense was already ongoing, with good results for the South. Americas: Good car sales continued. While the end of scrappage slowed down cheap car sales, the rest of the market made up for that. UAM showed some new things that changed the US car scene. The first was the '56 "Low Step" series of Studebaker pickup trucks, which used a less bulky frame design to give more space, also offering typical UAM quality, as well as good-value Mexican production. '56's UAM design also showed their new diesels, from Hotchkiss 4-bangers to Hudson/Kaiser V8s, which gave Mopars a run for their money. Chrysler was falling into financial troubles, as they couldn't get enough sales during the scrappage scene, as Borgwards were relatively expensive, and their cars were showing reliability problems. GM and Ford's new intermediate vehicles, the RWD Holden Superior (AU-only)/Chevrolet Chevelle/Pontiac LeMans/Oldsmobile 76/78/Buick Special and the FWD Ford Fairbank/Mercury Comet, were also hits, well-slotting between the compacts and fullsizes, offering both I6s and V8s. Meanwhile, the Holden ASC got a more "civilian" version, the Sport Coupe, with an SBC 281 ci V8, and competitors for either - the Studebaker Sport Lark/Super Lark, with a normal Studebaker V8 and a 374 ci Packard one, respectively. Also, GM began working on a cheaper, more mass-market alternative to the Packard Talladega, the Corvette, and Ford's Thunderbird was meant to be the same. Besides that, GM started working on recreating LaSalle as Opel captive imports, and Ford's new brand, Edsel, entered the drawing board. This year also had the first Japanese car stateside, the Toyotas: 200, Crown and Land Cruiser. However, all were derided for a lack of refinement, with very few sold in that only year of sales. Europe: Diesels kept gaining ground, with Borgward, BMW, Volvo, Peugeot, Citroen (Ami, 6CV, 9CV) and both Austin and Morris Group cars getting them. By then, not only fleet customers were getting such cars - they were getting more and more common on the average driveway. In the UK, Austin-Rover and Morris were taking two different routes - AR began improving their quality, while also making the '56 designs appealing and introducing the Rover P5, while Morris risked large loans for making new car designs for Lanchester and Daimler, neglecting the 1956s. Rootes Group bought Standard-Triumph. In Germany, the VW Type 3 was challenged by the new Opel Kadett. Meanwhile, both brands started working on sports csrs using these two's mechanicals. Citroen revealed the 6CV and 9CV, looking much like the 13CV, but with less complex styling and mechanicals, while work on the 16CV and the range-topping GT continued, with the Porsche-Maserati team leading them. In Italy, the new Fiat 600 had its premiere, stealing some 500 buyers. On the opposite end of the scale, the 2nd gen Lancia Stelvio surfaced, with a 4.7 V12. It was the fastest car in the world. However, LeMans had another Lotus victory on the track, showing that the Six wasn't a one-hit wonder. Lotus was working on its own, non-Jaguar engine. In Poland, the new microcar, Mikrus, debuted as a small 4-door sedan, and was directed to production. The USSR restarted its national car program after the war. Asia: China resumed its national car program, as defense was no longer as prioritized, and a symbol of the Great Leap Forward was needed. Meanwhile, in Japan, the economy was growing, and another company expanded - the Dutch colonies had a Hino factory set up, and Suzuki, now talking Citroen 2CV licensing, took its chances in post-nuclear-war Korea, or what was left of it in the south. A new relatively popular car appeared, the Isuzu 1500 (a licensed Ford Consul).
1956: Global politics: The Franco-South-Vietnamese anti-Vietcong offensive continued. However, in May, Chinese soldiers joined the war, turning a smackdown of the Vietcong into a stalemate on both sides. The US was urged to join the fighting, but its populace did not want another war. It didn't help that the new president-elect, Richard M. Nixon, pledged not to do that. His election also meant that the Interstate Project would get defunded, and the space program - closed. In April, a plot to assasinate the 1st Secretary of the Soviet Union Communist Party, Lavrientiy Beria, was discovered. As a result, Nikita Khrushchev, Georgiy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov, the triumvirate behind it, were executed. With no competition in the Party, Beria started a policy of liberalization. Moderate freedom-of-speech laws were established, a lot of spending was moved from military projects (including the cancelled space program) to civilian ones, and small enterprise was allowed. However, this resulted in the "Months Of Fighting" in Mideastern Europe. On 24th October, anti-commjnist demonstrations in East Berlin turned into outright fighting and a revolution. Insurgents started attacking the government buildings, and they soon got support from the American, French and British troops in the city, as well as aerial supplies from these nations. In December, West German, French and Austrian soldiers joined the insurgents in GDR. November brought figting in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Each nation had a different outcome. After a week, the Polish government decided to start conferences with the rebels - the decided outcome was that there would be a parliamentary election in 1957, with the Worker Party candidates getting a guaranteed 50% of seats. Two weeks later, the Hungarian goverment tried to flee Budapest, but they were captured and imprisoned, and the rebels took over. The only place where fighting continued was Czechoslovakia. The Red Army didn't intervene in these cases, as Beria strongly believed in his "socialism in one nation" principle. In December, street fighting began in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. It was still ongoing by the end of the year. Also, talks about the European Economic Commonwealth, European Atomic Commonwealth and Euro-Arabian Oil and Gas Commonwealth continued. Americas: 1956 was a wild year for the US car industry. As a result of opposition to Mexican manufacturing, strikes shook GM, Ford and Chrysler. This resulted in delays in car production, and the 1957 model year having trouble arriving at the dealers. In fact, Holdens, Opels, German Fords and Borgwards had to be imported from Europe. This was a golden opportunity for the UAM, as their union stopping meant there weren't such delays. They launched a campaign, "If the Big Three won't make it, we will", in which customers who cancelled their Big Three car reservations were able to get discounts for their cars. This made UAM #2 in US car sales, right behind GM. Another boost to their reputation was the Packard Florida, a V12 GT coupe/convertible with torsion bar suspension, another handling world-beater after the Talladega. The new Holden/Chevrolet/Pontiac/Oldsmobile/Buick and Ford/Mercury compacts, as well as their performance versions, were well-received by the press, but what do reviews matter for cars that you have to wait long for, and then receive them badly-built? Europe: The UK had quite a few important events on the car scene. Rolls-Royce-Bentley showed their answer to Delahaye and new US fullsizes, the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud and Bentley S12, V12-engined unibody luxury sedans, which were immediately dubbed "the new global standard" The Lotus 6 got a Lotus-built engine, giving better performance than the previously-used Jaguar ones, and, more importantly, not coming from a defunct brand. The MG MGA was shown, a "reasonably-priced" mid-engined sports car, using the new Oxford/Magnette's mechanicals. However, most importantly, the Hillman Imp, a transverse FWD small car designed by Alec Issigonis, showed up. It sold very well, and outshone the new GM small car, the Vauxhall Cornet, as well as Ford, Austin and Morris designs. Also, Morris' decision not to update Lanchester and Daimler designs was a bad one, with sales of these brands going down. New French designs also surfaced, in form of the Citroen 16CV, an innovative V8 luxury sedan, the Renault 3, a small economy car, and the Simca 700, the 3's competitor. Also, Bugatti showed the Type 312, which managed to go up to 286 km/h. The German car market was limited at the end of that year, due to fighting, and the Wartburg 311 had to have its production start delayed. In that year, the Portugese automotive industry started, with the PAF 1300, a diesel family sedan, entering production. Spain pledged to do a similar thing. That year's LeMons victory went to Citroen, with its purpose-built LM56 winning the race. Asia: Hino started producting the 500, a licensed 4-door version of the Fiat 500. It became a relative sales success, owing to its low (for non-kei-car standards) price. Also, by that year, all 5 Japanese carmakers were making pickup trucks around 1600cc - that car type really took off.
1957: World events: The French and Southern Vietnamese got the upper hand in Vietnam in June, thanks to the deployment of the first French nuclear bomb on the Vietcong and Chinese forces. The increased war effort in France, as well as metal from the scrappage scheme, also helped the French, to the point where by the end of the year there were only a few Vietcong/Chinese holdouts. In Germany, the Allied offensive continued, and by June, Berlin was taken by the capitalist forces. Next month, the German states reunited under the Federal Republic, and the capital was moved to (somewhat damaged) Berlin. The forces moved to Czechoslovakia, capturing Prague, the government seat, in September. In January, protests started in Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania. While the Albanian and Yugoslavian goverments stopped theirs, next month, the rebels captured the Romanian goverment, and the Bulgarian communists gave a similar compromise to the Polish one, but with them taking a guaranteed 30% of parliamentary seats and the president, in March. Surprisingly, in the July elections, the Bulgarian communists won 32%. In Romania, the postcommunists got 25% and lost the presidential race. February saw the Soviet government give up and plan independence referendals in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Disappointingly for the Soviets, the September voting showed that all three republics wanted independence. In April, elections were held in Hungary and Poland. In Hungary, the postcommunists were banned from competing, and their leaders arrested, despite protests. In Poland, the Workers' Party had to use its guaranteed 50% of seats, as they get 21% of the vote, and their opponents had their presidential candidate, Edward Raczyński, chosen. The European Commonwealths talks were set back by the need to discuss all the potential new entrants. In America, a new party, the Patriot Party, springs onto the scene, demanding import tariffs, right-to-work laws and continued segregation. In the same country, the Global News Network, a 24-hour news station, came to the market in October. Despite comments like "who the hell wants to watch/listen to the news all the day?", its success surprised everybody, with BBC in the UK even announcing the idea of BBC News, a similar concept. Americas: As GM, Ford and Mopar cancelled Mexican manufacturing plans, the strikes eased up. Still, there were a few setbacks in the introduction of new GM, Ford and Mopar fullsizes, with GM now joining the unibody club and ditching Pontiac due to low sales. The UAM's gains weren't reversed, and it kept its #2 spot even after the introduction of the new fullsizes and the Willys Eagle/Studebaker Corsair/Kaiser Vigor/Hudson Roamer midsize line. Still, GM had a few new tricks up its sleeve. The new FWD Cadillac Eldorado showed Delahaye that Americans can also build sporty luxury sedans, and the LaSalle line, comprised of the Series 40 (rebadged, more luxurious Opel Kapitan with a LaSalle V8) and Series 50 (a V8 FWD car, drawing a lot from the Caddy Eldorado) drew many import car customers. The new Chevrolet Corvette, a mid-engined supercar, used stock Chevrolet mechanicals to create a relatively affordable supercar. Finally, there was the Chevrolet El Camino, a midsize coupe utility for those upgrading from Holden and Ford utes. Chrysler decided to show the benefit of their full frames by making a line of three coachbuilt Imperials, the Saoutchik Roadster, the Vignale Coupe and the Park Ward Saloon. Despite the cars' high prices, the whole project lost money. It didn't help that quality troubles had put them low in sales and in the red. Ford, meanwhile, showed two new sports cars. The Thunderbird was a mid-engined supercar, similar to the Corvette, and the Mustang was a Taunus-based 2+2 sports car, topped by the TRS version, a Lincoln V8-powered NASCAR homologation special. The company also launched the Edsel brand, which, despite similarity to Fords, sold relatively well, and entered the diesel market with their new V8 and I6 diesels. As street-legal cars were seen as not good enough for NASCAR any more, the series allowed carmakers not to make homologation specials and have non-street-legal parts. This made the 1957 homologation specials gain value from the dealer gates, especially in case of the Ford Mustang TRS, 1957's NASCAR winner. Europe: The German car market of that year was quite small, due to the war. In fact, the lost sales made NSU file for bankruptcy - the company was bought by Ford for its production facilities. Meanwhile, in France, the small car market boomed, thanks to a scrappage scheme similar to America's 1954-5 one. However, the wartime "blacked-out" trim and saving made bigger cars a bit less popular, causing Citroen to delay the GT's market entrance and giving Peugeot financial problems. In the UK, Lanchester and Daimler showed new cars. While they were good designs, the improper build quality was bogging them down. The Italian car market showed substantial growth, allowing Lancia and Alfa Romeo to stay independent. Lancia showed the Monza, a smaller, V6 alternative to the Stelvio. Meanwhile, foreign automakers started setting up shop in newly-capitalist countries, and AWZ, Skoda and FSO were getting ready for entering Western markets. The Zaporozhetz ZAZ850, a small sedan with a 850cc engine, is released to great popularity, and as per govermental pledges, efforts are made so that demand is fullfilled. In LeMans, all the major companies now had special LMP prototypes, with the Alfa Romeo C57 being the winner. Asia: In Japan, new car licenses were bought - Isuzu went into a joint venture with Citroen,making the 4CV and 6CV, Toyota got a license for the Plymouth Belvedere and Nissan began making the soon-to-be-discontinued Mercedes-Benz 190.
I told you you can make your own after I'm done with all of mine (as in getting to 2020, or so). Agree? (Also, I have some plans concerning rotaries, but I'm not sure if history will spin the right way for it. After all, I'm writing it like Casablanca was - I have no idea what is going to happen next until it does).
1958: World events: The French colonists and Southern Vietnamese managed to quash Vietcong forces and assume control of the entire nation by February. Still, Northern Vietnam was left devastated by war, and the South is not much better. At the same time, the independent republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were established, and protests against communism started in the Karelian part of the USSR. Protests spread across the country, and Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia declared independence. Finally, on 10th October 1958, the highest officials of the USSR were captured and arrested, and the country was turned into the Russian Republic, with an election scheduled for 15th March 1959. However, this caused the start of independence movements in the other non-ethnically-Russian parts of the country. While most of these protests were stopped, Ukranians, Belarussians and Tadjikistanians were still protesting by the end of the year, and ZAZ factory equipment was being moved to Niznyi Novogorod, where GAZ was located. Meanwhile, in America, the ideas of continued segregation, import tariffs, union busting, isolationism and balancing the budget - the Patriot Party program - were getting more popular. In fact, many representatives and senators started promoting them, as Mexican and Asian outsourcing started taking US jobs. In Europe, the economic cooperation talks continued. There were some issues - the sides were divided about accepting the former Eastern Bloc, and Arab countries wanted freedom for Algieria if the whole thing was meant to include their oil. All of this was beneficial to GNN, which was doing 24 hour reporting on the events. The foreign events were reported on in a quite low-tech pre-satellite way - recorded on tapes and then sent by plane to the company's NY headquarters. Seeing the need for that and the defunding of state space programs, Lockheed Martin started a department that was meant to take part in commercialization of space. Americas: Volvo started working on its own factory in the United States. This was big news, as it was the first time a foreign company would open their own factory, not a joint venture, in the US. Meanwhile, despite all the political developments, which made UAM think about giving a larger role to US manufacturing, VW started working on one in Mexico. Brazil also had new developments - UAM and GM factories opened there. Ford set shop in Chile, while Mopar's Brazilian assembly kept being constructed. Meanwhile, Jeep began making the RJ-6, a closed SUV placed in size and equipment between the CJ-5 and Studebaker truck-based "station wagons", and based on Studebaker trucks. It became a great success, placing UAM above GM in sales for 1958. In general, it was partially due to cheap Mexican manufacturing, and partially due to their emphasis on quality. During the RJ-6's tests, UAM testers noticed that the SUV was faster around the snowed tracks than actual performance cars of the brand. This made them work on 4x4 systems for road cars. Seeing the relative success of the other Big Four brands' diesels, GM began work on theirs. Meanwhile, Chrysler's financial troubles kept on happening, despite the release of their new compacts. Europe: In the UK, the new Austin A30 and Rover P5 became sales successes in their classes, thanks to good engineering and quality. Also, Hillman released the Imp S, which,,thanks to its good handling, was a rallying success. Lotus released the 7, another supercar, with a high-revving DOHC V8 engine. It was very fast, thanks to its light weight. TVR built a similar, but bigger, car, the 5800, using a Mercury V8. The car wasn't that fast around corners, and couldn't break straightline speed records, but was more comfortable than other mid-engined supercars, and had a 2+2 layout. It showed other makers supercar buyers want comfort, too. The European GT market boomed - Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Bugatti and Citroen all got into the market, with Bugatti's car being the fastest 4-seater of the day. The more plebeian segments also were doing well, and some of the new cars, the new Hotchkiss Avanta and Opel Olympia, even took their good performance to the US market. Diesels kept proliferating, with more brands offering them. Luxury brands had some new stuff, too - Hotchkiss revealed the new 4200, meant to rival the new Rolls-Royces, Daimler reworked its entire product line, from the BMW 1200 to the Mercedes-Benz 400RS, and Rolls-Royce-Bentley showed the RR Silver Seraph and Bentley Continental, smaller I6-engined sporty sedans/coupes/convertibles. The former Eastern Bloc cars weren't selling badly in the West, but the low prices necessary to sell them in the postcommunist world necessitated low profit margins. Also, in Spain, SEAT started operating with the 1300, a midsize diesel wagon, and began exporting it to other European countries. Asia: UAM signed a joint venture agreement with Nissan, offering them licensing for some of their cars, while Nissan would sell UAM cars through their dealerships in Japan and other Asian countries.
Wait a minute - what happened to Czechoslovakia? I'm very curious to know if Tatra will rise again at some point. Keep in mind that Tatra survived both German and Soviet occupation IRL, in part due to its truck production arm. As long as I'm at it, whatever happened to Richard Teague? By 1952 IRL, he had been dismissed from GM, and switched to Packard, wound up under Chrysler during a buyout and eventually left to design for AMC by 1959, where he would go on to pen the AMC Cavalier, the Javelin, and the Pacer. He also headed up the team responsible for the 1977 AMC AM Van, a concept all-wheel-drive, turbocharged vision of the minivan that AMC had hoped to put into production by 1980. It didn't happen, and AMC was bought out by Chrysler in 1985. While Chrysler was preparing the Caravan, Teague was hard at work on one of his best-known designs: the four-wheel drive XJ Cherokee. Kind of funny how that all worked out, isn't it?
Tatra is selling luxury cars across Europe, with limited success. Teague is about to be Buick's chief of design since 1959.
