| Going back to the 1920's, the U.S. | | | | 1959 it came as no surprise when the Big |
| automakers began to break away from | | | | Three introduced three smaller models to |
| Henry Ford's philosophy of sticking with | | | | compete against the imports: the Ford |
| the same model, in the same color, at | | | | Falcon, Chevrolet Corvaire, and the |
| the same price. Instead, manufactures | | | | Plymouth Valiant. These cars, which were |
| like General Motors changed models every | | | | cheap to make, and appealing to the |
| year, to give the impression that there | | | | consumer would turn out to be unsafe and |
| was something unique that the American | | | | poorly constructed. |
| Consumer needed to buy. But changing | | | | Nader, being a consumer, himself was |
| models constantly required large | | | | outraged that the U.S. auto industry |
| investments of capital for design and | | | | could get away with murder. So he |
| retooling. Detroit was planting the | | | | published his book "Unsafe at Any Speed" |
| seeds of its own destruction if it | | | | to expose the automakers. Millions of |
| didn't keep up with trends amongst the | | | | people read his book. |
| buying public. | | | | For its part, GM was shocked that this |
| A high demand for cheap attractive | | | | young, unknown attorney would attack one |
| models would lead to one of the biggest | | | | of the pillars of American business. |
| muckraker stories in the mid 60's. | | | | General Motors trying to hide from the |
| In 1965 Ralph Nader published "Unsafe at | | | | problem was finally caught, and James |
| Any Speed: The designed-In-Dangers of | | | | Roche, president of GM, was forced to |
| the American Automobile." He exposed how | | | | apologize before the Senate Subcommittee |
| General Motors and the American auto | | | | on Traffic Safety. Also, thanks to |
| industry were placing consumers' lives | | | | Nader, the Consumer Product Safety Act |
| at risk by failing to design safe cars. | | | | was passed along with the Freedom of |
| Nader especially singled out the General | | | | Information Act. This forced the U.S |
| motors' Corvair which he labeled a death | | | | auto industry to redesign and overhaul |
| trap. | | | | their automobiles. |
| By the late 1950's, the Big Three | | | | America owes more than it may ever |
| automakers were losing out to a public | | | | realize to Nader and his research. If |
| that was demanding smaller, less | | | | not for him Automobile industries could |
| expensive cars, and was also | | | | still be building unsafe cars. The time |
| increasingly attracted to imports, | | | | and efforts put into "Unsafe at Any |
| especially the Volkswagen Beetle. | | | | Speed" has paid off for American |
| Imports, in fact accounted for 10 | | | | consumers and also for the US auto |
| percent of all sales in the U.S., | | | | industry. |
| exceeding 600,000 a year in 1958. So in | | | | Interested in this subject? |