Kaiser Motors
Kaiser Motors was an American automobile manufacturer based in Willow Run, Michigan, United States. Kaiser Motors was a part of the Group Kaiser Industries and existed from 1946 until 1963., The manufacturer was 1946 to 1951 known as the Kaiser- Frazer, and from 1963 to 1970 as Kaiser Jeep Corporation.
History
On August 9 In 1945 Henry John Kaiser, construction and civil engineering specialist and industrialist, and Joseph W. Frazer, director of the Graham - Paige automobile manufacturer in Nevada the Kaiser Frazer Corporation. The next year, automotive production first started in a work of Kaiser Industries in the western United States. First prototypes of a car model created with front wheel drive. But to a production run, it did not come. Later, all activities were transferred to Willow Run in Detroit. 1946 appear the models Kaiser Special K 100 and K 101 Kaiser Custom, flat, large, 4-door sedans with six - cylinder engine and rear wheel drive. Frazer markets its almost identical model in cooperation with his employer as Frazer - Graham - Paige ( about 6400 vehicles) and also simply as Frazer Sedan ( 30,000 vehicles). The Frazer were a bit more expensive and better equipped than the Emperor models. A total of 1947 and 1948 more than 200,000 vehicles of the Kaiser and Frazer were produced over the years.
In the following years, variations of the Kaiser K 100 / K 101 as a 5- door hatchback hatchback than 4-door convertible and as a 2- door sedan. 1949 Joseph Frazer left the company. His vehicles - always more luxurious versions of the same design Kaiser cars - were still to 1951 continued to be built by the Emperor, and then adjusted.
1952 Kaiser put on a compact car, a 2-door sedan that he (his name ) and offered as Henry J on the mail-order Sears Roebuck as Allstate.
1953 exacerbated the financial problems of Kaiser Industries. The "Big Three" (GM, Ford and Chrysler) had a multiple of the development funds available and also tried the independent automobile manufacturers, such as Kaiser to push with price dumping from the market. To provide customers with a special offer - that the "Big Three" until then could not provide - to make, Kaiser bought the also struggling auto manufacturer Willys -Overland in Toledo, Ohio, the next small car also produced the SUV Jeep. The new holding company called Kaiser Willys and Kaiser Motors also contained except the renamed Willys Motor Company.
1954 was built with the help of the designer Howard "Dutch " Darrin a 2-door convertible, whose special feature was a small fan-shaped grille. The Kaiser Darrin was only a year in the offer; 435 copies were sold. Later the car was then at Howard Darrin - even with a V8 engine - available.
1955 Kaiser Willys decided to abandon the production of cars. The rights for the car models and made about 1000 cars were still in 1955 to the newly founded Industrias Kaiser Argentina ( IKA) sold in Argentina, where the Kaiser Manhattan was continued to be produced until 1961, when Emperor Carabela; it originated there 10,282 copies. Kaiser Willys focused on the production of the Jeep.
In 1963, the company was renamed in Toledo in Kaiser Jeep Corporation and acquired in 1970 by the American Motors Corporation.