Twilight of the Independents: America's "Small Five" Car Makers in the 50s

In 1954, if you'd wandered into a Kaiser showroom, you might have encountered a fiberglass-bodied 2-seater like the one above. It's a Kaiser Darrin*, a product of the 1953 merger that made Kaiser-Frazer into Kaiser-Willys. A 161 cubic inch Willys* F-head six mounted in Kaiser's compact Henry J chassis provided 95 horsepower, not enough to catch the Corvette from that year, or the Nash-Healey*, or the Jaguar XK120 that sold for a bit less than the Darrin's $3,700 and led this price class.  Styling by namesake designer "Dutch" Darrin, with odd sliding doors, was the main attraction here.  In '54, you could also walk into your Nash showroom and order a Pinin Farina-bodied coupe like the one below; it followed a PF-styled roadster that appeared in '52 to replace the British-styled effort from '51.

Why were America's independent car makers displaying so much interest in 2-seaters?  Well, they'd noticed there was a sports car boomlet going on, ignited by returning GIs who'd seen small roadsters in England, and by postwar prosperity, which allowed more people to purchase a 2nd car for weekend fun, which sometimes extended to amateur road races organized by the Sports Car Club of America.  Crosley had tried an answer to the MG TC with its Hotshot in '49 and Super Sports a year later.  They offered about half the power and the same sketchy weather protection as the MG, but weighed and cost lots less, and so Crosley sold a couple thousand before stopping car production in '52. In the meantime, Jaguar had caught Detroit's attention by offering the XK-120, which took over the market for high performance cars by offering the most speed and style for the dollar.  Enough were sold to prompt Nash to release the Healey in '51, and GM to release Chevy's Corvette in '53.  Both cars originally appeared with the same 102 inch wheelbase as the XK120.  Nash had released its compact Rambler in 1950, and hired designer Pinin Farina to give its 1952 big car line some European flair...

He applied his talents to the Nash-Healey in the same year. The new sports cars generated showroom traffic but not great sales; Nash sold 162 Nash-Healeys in 1953, and mighty GM sold only 300 Corvettes. But the smaller independents needed some way of attracting attention to any offerings with higher profit potential in this period, when a price war between Chevy and Ford was taking sales from entry-level cars from the independents.  The success of the low-priced but nicely-equipped Nash Rambler, about the same size as the expensive Nash-Healey, also suggested their might be an untapped market for smaller cars.

These included Hudson's Jet, introduced for 1953 as an effort to compete with that Rambler, which had sold 160,000 copies in the previous 3 years.  Hudson was best known for the "step-down" fastback sedans and the coupes that were then dominating NASCAR with their low center of gravity and torquey flathead six.  But that design (one is parked next to the blue Jet below) had originally appeared for 1948 and carried into 1954, the year Hudson was absorbed by Nash.  Hudson offered a stripped base model, but prices were not competitive with the Rambler, which offered more standard equipment, or with the "standard size" Chevy and Ford.  Jet sales were not helped by clunky, tall bodywork; Hudson chief A.E. Barit had insisted on headroom for tall men in hats, which gave the 105-inch wheelbase Jet awkward proportions. 

Hudson stylist Frank Spring, father of the "step-down" design, had a different demographic in mind than men in hats when he designed the Hudson Italia* in 1953. The name referred to bodywork built in Italy by Carrozzeria Touring, using their Superleggera system of aluminum panels carried on steel tubing.  The "production" version shared the Jet's 105 inch wheelbase and 114 hp, 202 cubic inch flathead six, which offered only adequate performance considering the car's $4,800 price.  So the Italia didn't appeal to the same crowd as the Jaguar or the Nash-Healey, which could boast of racing success.

Styling included a wraparound windshield, doors wrapping into the roof (at 54 inches tall, the Italia was 7 inches lower than the Jet), a concave deck lid, odd rocket-tube tail lights, and inside, contoured bucket seats facing standard Jet instruments and an inappropriate column shift.  "Production" is in quotation marks because only 25 Italias were offered to the public after Nash took over struggling Hudson in 1954; there was also a lone prototype on a shorter 100 inch wheelbase (which might have helped body flex issues) and one 4-door prototype called X-161.

The 2-seaters from Kaiser, Nash and Hudson were never intended as mass-production showroom draws, but Studebaker's 1953 Starliner* and Starlight coupes were.  The low, sleek, Italian-influenced coupes offered seating for 5 on a 120.5 inch wheelbase, and unlike those others, a modern V8.  Design for the landmark coupes was by Bob Bourke at Raymond Loewy's studios; Loewy stands with the car below.

Unfortunately, Studebaker management tooled up for more of the taller 2 and 4-door sedans than the sexy coupes, and could likely have sold at least twice as many of these as they did.  Still, 106,259 sporty coupes (pillarless Starliner and B-pillar Starlight, Commander V8 and Champion 6 included) is impressive for the two years it was offered.  Any of the other independents likely would've been thrilled by those numbers...

Packard, long associated with solidly built, conservatively engineered and styled cars, tried for a more youthful look on their Caribbean convertible, launched the same year at the Loewy Studebakers. Like Hudson, Packard had stayed with inline, side valve engines in the postwar era, and would only have their V8 ready for 1955. In the meantime, there was this jazzy convertible, a restyle of the new-for-1951 body shell by Richard Teague. No Caribbean hardtops would be offered until 1956, final year of the big Packards. Though they were  among the priciest Packards ($5,400-$6,100), the '53 and '54 Caribbeans were on the 122" Clipper wheelbase, and the '53 version got 180 hp from its 327 cubic inch straight 8 with 7 main bearings.  For '54, the last year for the inline 8, there were 9 main bearings, displacement rose to 359, and horsepower to 212.  Choosing a wheelbase 5" shorter than the big Patrician's was a wise design move, along with the restrained (for the Fifties) use of chrome, which nicely outlined the wheel arches, emphasizing the wire wheels.  The full rear wheel arch was unique to the Caribbean, as was the hood scoop.  

Along with the medium-priced Clipper, Packard offered the Patrician at the top of the line, including the $6,500 Derham-modified Formal Sedan below, one of the old coach builder's last special Packard styles, which featured a retractable divider window between the front and back cabins. Only 25 were built that year; Derham modified similar numbers each year from 1951-54.  Packard also offered a few limousines bodied by Henney.

Packard did better with the Caribbean, selling 750 of the '53 model, and 400 of the '54 shown below.  The '54 version was less effective visually than the '53, losing the full rear wheel arch, and gaining two-toning and chrome that ignored the fender forms.  Packard merged with Studebaker in October 1954; Packard would release its last major design effort, the big Packard with the long-awaited V8 and electric self-leveling suspension, in January 1955.  The merger was an unsuccessful move, as outside of an expanded dealer network, there weren't many cases where the either of the 2 companies could exchange elements the other needed.  And they both had something neither needed: lots of red ink.  It might have made more sense for Packard to merge with Nash, as the latter did not have a production-ready V8, and in fact Nash offered one of Packard's new V8s (the 327) in its 1955 Nashes and Hudsons.  And it would likely have benefitted both Studebaker and Willys to merge, but we'll get to that... 

Another independent that became more unprofitable as the Fifties wore on was Kaiser-Frazer, a company formed after World War II to challenge the Big Three.  Instead of a promised front-drive car, what Henry Kaiser and Joseph Frazer delivered in 1947 was a slab-sided, rear-drive sedan with an already outmoded side-valve six from Continental Motors, which sold the same engine to Checker for their cabs.  Kaiser had gained fame and credibility creating a production line for ships during the war, and Frazer had held top posts at Chrysler, Willys-Overland and Graham-Paige; this led some people to expect great things from the company.  In 1950, there was a spurt in interest (and in sales) when Kaiser-Frazer released the new 1951 Kaiser with body designed by Howard Darrin, who'd done some classic Packards in the 30s and 40s.  The new car was lower than most of the competition, with a low belt line and glassy greenhouse, and was offered in more styles than previous Kaisers. There were now two-door coupes (shown below) as well as two and four-door sedans. For a couple of years, Kaiser also offered a Traveler version, a sedan with a pioneering hatchback feature, because there was no station wagon.  There were no convertible or pillarless hardtop versions either; perhaps some of the money spent on tooling up the close-coupled (and rare) coupe below would have been better spent on those.

Instead, in order to secure a government loan, Kaiser entered the low-priced field with the Henry J. also for 1951. The separate-chassis fastback matched the 100" wheelbase of the unit-body Rambler, and though over 80,000 sales made for an encouraging first year, sales decreased greatly each year until the finale in 1954, when only 800 were sold, and when the chassis was used for the Kaiser Darrin 2-seater.  The Henry J was only offered as a fastback 2-door, with the Willys 161 cubic inch 6 in the DeLuxe, and the Jeep inline 4 (134 cubes) in the Standard.  This highlights a recurring Kaiser problem, the lack of its own engine...

                   

So you're probably wondering if the rumored Kaiser V8 finally arrived with the tasteful restyle of the Darrin body on the '52 Manhattan below, with its curved one-piece windshield above a padded dash, and restyled tail lights and bumpers nicely complimenting the curves. There is, for example, the "V" that's affixed to the deck lid.  But it doesn't stand for anything, because Kaiser couldn't afford to get their V8 engine design into production. Because of high production costs, Kaisers (and Frazers, discontinued after 1951), especially this top line Manhattan model, were forced to compete with makes like Oldsmobile and Dodge (and in '53, Buick), which offered modern V8s with more power than the old flathead 6 in the Kaiser. This wasn't "the world's most advanced new car", just a deft restyling effort.                                  

Kaiser management responded belatedly in 1953, spending $70 million to purchase Willys, which as we will see, gave it a more modern compact car to sell, as well as access to government contracts for Willys Jeeps and trucks.  It also readied a restyle of their big sedans for 1954, with a front end inspired by a Buick show car, a big, wraparound rear window, and a 140 hp supercharger option for the old inline 6.  The restyle made for a dandy future collector's item, but sales continued a downward spiral: 4,110 cars in 1954, and 1,291 in the final year, 1955.  

The Willys finally gave Kaiser dealers a modern competitor for the Rambler. The tidy, compact Willys Aero* below first appeared in 1952 and offered a unitized body on a 108" wheelbase (matched later by Chevy's Corvair, Studebaker's 109" Lark and even the Rambler), and a clever redesign of the Willys 161 cubic inch 6 with an F-head (inlet over exhaust) similar to designs then produced by Rover and Rolls-Royce. The Aero was relatively light and fuel- efficient, and before the small-block Chevy V8 appeared, offered one of the best power-to-weight ratios of a low-priced car.

Unlike Kaiser, Willys offered a pillarless hardtop by 1953.  The Bermuda shown below is from 1954, and shows the bigger tail lights and one-piece rear window added after the Kaiser takeover, which also prompted offering the 226 cubic inch flathead six from the Kaiser (not an improvement).  Studebaker might have chosen Willys for a merger, had they taken a good look.  They'd have gotten access to the Willys government contracts, both companies would have benefitted from a bigger dealer network (especially Willys), and Willys could have used Studebaker's V8 in its pickups and wagons (or in a hotter Aero), while Studebaker would have had a modern compact car to sell, 6 years before the Lark.  One of the Willys Aero models had already been named the Aero Lark.  So no problems with copyrights either...

While the Kaiser car line disappeared in the US after 1955 along with the Willys Aero line, Jeep sales provided profits for Kaiser-Willys, Kaiser Motors, and after 1963, Kaiser-Jeep.  The only other surviving independent of the Not So Big Five, American Motors, bought Jeep from Kaiser in 1970.  Jeep sales, including sales of the pioneering SUV, the Wagoneer introduced by Kaiser Jeep in 1963, generated income for AMC when their conventional cars struggled, and when Chrysler bought AMC in 1987, it was solely to get rights to the Jeep line, which survived under Daimler Chrysler ownership (1998-2007) and continued after Fiat purchased a stake in Chrysler (2009).  The Jeep line has continued to generate US sales for Stellantis since Fiat Chrysler and the French PSA group merged in 2021. The Willys name currently appears on special versions of the Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator pickup. It's the only surviving nameplate that was originally offered by an independent from our twilight era, and evidence that maybe Henry J. Kaiser wasn't so crazy to buy Willys when his own car company was losing money.

*Footnote:  

The Kaiser Darrin was featured here in "Kaiser Darrin:  It Could've Been a Contender", posted September 24, 2019. We told the Nash-Healey and Hudson Italia stories in "Italian Jobs from the Heartland, Part 1: Italian Bodies for Nash and Hudson", posted November 17, 2016. We recounted the history of the 1953-'54 Studebaker Starliners and Starlight Coupes in "Forgotten Classic: Sleeping Beauty from South Bend", posted Feb. 20, 2021.  The Willys Aero history appeared in "Willys Aero Saga:  An Afterlife in Rio", posted Aug. 29, 2019. 

Photo Credits:  

Top:  the author

2nd & 4th:  LCDR Jonathan Asbury, USN

3rd:  Nash-Kelvinator Corporation

5th:  Wikimedia

6th:  Hudson Motor Company

7th:  macsmotorcitygarage.com

8th:  the author

9th:  Raymond Loewy Associates

10th:  topclassiccarsforsale.com

11th:  Mecum Auctions

12th:  classiccardb.com

13th:  flickr.com

14th:  Hemmings Motor News

15th & 16th (Adjacent Henry J shots):  Wikimedia

17th:  Kaiser-Frazer Corporation

18th & 19th:  Barrett-Jackson Auctions

20th & 22nd:  the author

Bottom:  Wikimedia