History of the Big Three
The history of the Big Three impresses Daren Metropoulos for a big reason: the Big Three represents American industriousness at its best. The other reason why Daren Metropoulos is impressed by the Big Three is that he loves cars. Daren is an avid collector of classic cars, most of which were manufactured by the Big Three.
Beginning of the Big Three
The Big Three refers to the major car manufacturers—General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford—that are located in Detroit, Michigan.
The beginning of the automobile industry in American actually started long before the Big Three were formed. The earliest vehicles, in the 1890s, were inspired by the bicycle. However, it didn’t take long before inventors experimented with electric powered carriages and then motorized vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.
Automobile manufacturing grew from there but, surprisingly, the earliest automobiles were not produced in Detroit. Rather, most of the early automobile companies were located in New England. However, by 1905 the automobile industry switched to Detroit due to that city’s wealthy capitalists who were looking for investment opportunities. Another reason that Detroit became home to the Big Three is that Henry Ford was a Michigan native.
In fact, Henry Ford, along with Ransom Olds, founder of Olds Motor Company, were both from Michigan. These two men helped centralize the automotive industry in Detroit because they were so highly successful at producing cars. For instance, both men (and companies) focused on producing cars quickly so that they could keep the costs low. This resulted in more people being able to afford to buy automobiles. (Daren Metropoulos is particularly impressed that these early entrepreneurs saw the benefits of producing a quality product at an affordable price). In time, the Big Three were able to grow bigger than any other automobile manufacturers.
Daren Metropoulos is proud to have benefited from the power of the Big Three, because he now owns many of Detroit’s most classic cars, such as the Barracuda and the Corvette.
Big Three Loses its Power
The Big Three dominated the American automobile industry with not much competition until the 1970s. In this decade, the oil embargo made energy efficient cars attractive to the American public. The big sedans of the Big Three were now out of favor with the car buying public, and Detroit could not easily start manufacturing small cars.
Another factor that played into their decline was the new EPA exhaust emission standards. Again, the Big Three would not easily adapt to these requirements.
In time, Japan began to dominate the American car industry. During the recession in 2008, General Motors and Chrysler filed bankruptcy so that they could reorganize their companies. Daren Metropoulos, however, has no doubt that this reorganization will allow them to come back stronger than ever. After all, what would America be without the Big Three?
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