Is there some site that has a listing of the car companies that have been started in the US since the Duryea brothers built their first car? (And don’t think that you’re going to be able to list them off the top of your head, there’s something like 25,000 companies).
Well, within the past couple of years, they tore down the building where the Babcock was built. It was the one automobile make from my hometown; I used to ride my bike past the factory (free Paul Simon allusion), which was at that time owned and used by a papermaking-machinery manufacturer.
Doesn’t answer your question, but a bit of trivia I thought you might enjoy knowing.
At what point do you start the list Tuckerfan? Studebaker built bodies for conestoga wagons, the Dodge brothers were bicycle manufacturers and made parts for Olds & Ford- ?
Studebaker would count from the moment they started producing automobiles, and companies like Dodge would count from the moment they started producing cars under their own name. IOW, coachbuilders would be out, unless they also produced cars under their own moniker.
I know that there’s a book that has been published with this information, along with brief histories of the companies. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the title of the book, nor do I have the money to purchase it right now, even if I did remember the title (assuming that it’s still in print).
I’m asking because I think that I’ve got almost enough info to lay out the strongest case yet that it was a conspiracy which brought Tucker down, not simply a lack of financing which did it. Given I’ve found almost all of this information in some casual searches on the net in the past couple of days, I’m really interested in doing some serious digging on the matter.
Poly, never heard of the Babcock. Have you got any more info on the company? A shame they tore the place down. The Studebaker plant is either gone or about to be gone, one of the Packard plants was partially demolished, but managed to be saved after a court battle (the judge in that case had some particularly harsh comments for the folks doing the demolition work). A damn shame, since the buildings are historical sites. In a surprising move, the Nashville building which once housed the Marathon Motor Works (not to be confused with the Checker Marathon), is being rennovated, and the guy who owns the building is now the largest collector of Marathon automobiles in the world.
I’m not an expert, but I thought this was a darn good question, so I scrounged around and found a couple different pages that list numerous worldwide automotive manufacturers. There’s also a tantilizing Google hit from Second Chance Garage that purports to be “a list of every US automobile manufacturer who produced at least a few cars before going under” (at least from the snippet Google showed), but apparently you’ve got to be a site member to access the page, and I’m too lazy to do so, and plus it costs $$. Perhaps another Doper already has a membership, to see if this might be worthwhile.
Hmm. The Wiki entry for Marathon states that only one of the cars has survived, which is totally incorrect, since I’ve seen pictures of 4 of them, plus the owner of those cars has another 9 of them.