Chronography oi Vehicle manufacturers and
models
Page last
modified 24/10/2021
See
also Road Traffic
�If I had
asked customers what they wanted, they would have said faster horses� Henry Ford
5/7/2017, Volvo announced that it would stop making petrol
and diesel only cars within two years, thereafter only manufacturing only
electric or hybrid cars, There were rising concerns over vehicle pollution,
exacerbated by the Volkswagen emissions scandal, and the Mayor of London, Siddiq Khan,
predicted that within eight years, all diesel and petrol cars could face a �24
charge to enter London.
17/3/2010, LTI, the last motor manufacturing plant in
Coventry since 2008, announced that it would be shifting production of its taxi
cab body and chassis to China, but still shipping them to Coventry for
the final assembly.
7/4/2005, MG Rover,
the UK�s last volume car maker, went
into receivership after a planned alliance with Chinese car manufacturer
Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation fell through.
31/1/1994 German car manufacturer BMW announced the purchase of Rover
from British Aerospace for US$ 800
million.
2/12/1993. A planned merger between Renault of France and Volvo
of Sweden fell through.
7/1/1993.� Ford unveiled its new family car, the Mondeo.
26/8/1989, The Mini
celebrated its 30th birthday. In 1959 just 20,000 were made; in 1970
the figure was 381,000, after the car had won several rallies and been adopted
by public figures such as John Lennon, Peter Sellers, Twiggy and Marianne
Faithfull.By 1992 5.3 million
Minis had been sold.
9/3/1987, The Chrysler
Motor Corporation announced its purchase of the ailing American Motors Corporation.
8/9/1986, In Sunderland, the Japanese car maker Nissan opened a factory.
1984, Jaguar (UK) was privatised.
8/10/1980. British
Leyland launched its successful Mini
Metro.
12/3/1980, The Ford Motor Company was acquitted of three
reckless-homicide charges, after a Ford
Pinto was involved in an accident in which its petrol tank caught fire.
17/2/1972, The German
Volkswagen Beetle outsold the US Ford Model T, with over 15 million cars sold.
1968, British Leyland was formed by Leyland Motors (commercial vehicle
manufavcurer, formed in 1898) absorbing Rover and the British Motor Corporation.
In 1975 the company was close to collapse and was bailed out by the Government;
due to poor industrial relations it continued to lose money until privatised in
the 1980s.
22/8/1963, Lord Nuffield, founder of Morris Motors, died, aged 84.
3/1/1961. The millionth
Morris Minor car came off the assembly lines in Britain.
19/6/1960, Jaguar
took over the Daimler motor company.
18/8/1959, The British Motor Corporation�s Mini car was launched. At �500
including Purchase Tax, it was short on luxuries, but affordable with a nippy
engine and its small size made it was convenient for town driving.
31/10/1957, Toyota
began exporting vehicles to the USA, beginning with the Toyota Crown and the
Toyota Land Cruiser.
1952, The British Motor
Corporation was formed by a merger of Austin and Morris. It was itself taken
over by British Leyland in 1968.
24/11/1951, British motor manufacturers Austin and Morris
announced a merger.
30/1/1951. German motorcar engineer Ferdinand Porsche died.
1948, Porsche sports cars were
developed by Ferry
Porsche, son of Ferdinand Porsche.
12/10/1948. First Morris Minor came off the production line at Cowley, Oxfordshire.� The car was designed by Alex Issigonis.
30/4/1948. First Land
Rover exhibited at the Amsterdam Motor Show.
1946, Vespa motorcycle scooters went on sale
in Italy.
6/6/1941, Louis Chevrolet, American car designer, died.
23/5/1941, Herbert Austin, British motor mechanic and
manufacturer of the Austin car, died near Bromsgrove.
4/4/1941, Andre Michelin,
French industrialist who built the first factories that mass-produced
tyres, died in Paris.
23/11/1940, The Willys-Overland company launched its new General Purpose vehicle, known as a jeep (GP)., for the US army.
26/5/1938, The first Volkswagen
came off the assembly line at the factory at Wolfsburg, Germany.
7/2/1938, Harvey Firestone, tyre manufacturer, died in
Miami, Florida.
26/2/1936 The Volkswagen
car factory in Saxony was opened by Adolf Hitler. The Volkswagen or �people�s car�
was designed by Ferdinand
Porsche of Auto Union.
3/7/1935. Death of the French engineer Andre Citroen.
8/3/1934. The new Volkswagen
was unveiled at the Motor Show in Germany, priced
at �61.
1933, The Nissan car company was founded in Japan.
22/4/1933,
Sir Frederick Henry Royce, English car manufacturer of Rolls
Royce cars, died.
1/8/1928, The Morris
Minor car was launched.
29/5/1928. In the USA, the
Chrysler and Dodge motor companies merged.���������
2/12/1927, Ford�s
Model A car went on sale as the successor to the Model T.
10/11/1927. General
Motors announced the largest dividend in history, US$ 62million.
6/6/1925. Walter P Chrysler founded the Chrysler Motor Company in Detroit.
28/3/1924, Total was founded as the Compagnie Fran�aise des P�troles
(CFP), the "French Petroleum Company". Petroleum was
seen as vital in the case of a new war with Germany.
1915, The Ford Motor
Company produced over 500,000 Model T cars this year. The second largest US car
manufacturer, Willys-Overland, produced 91,780 cars, up from 18,200 in 1910.
1913, The French motor car company Citroen was founded as a gear cutting firm by motor engineer Andre Gustave
Citroen (1878-1935). It began making low-price cars in 1919. It was
taken over by Peugeot in 1974.
28/3/1913. The first Morris
Oxford car left the factory at
Cowley, near Oxford.
1912, The
Ford Motor Company, which accounted for over 22% of total US car sales, was
producing 310,000 cars a year. The assembly line techniques introduced at the Ford Motor Factory in
1913 reduced the man-hours required to build a car from 12.5 hours to 1.5 hours.
4/2/1911, Rolls Royce
adopted the Sprit of Ecstasy
statuette on their cars, made in Derby, England.
1908, The first
Bugatti car was produced by Ettore Bugatti (1881-1947). However te first
famlous Bigatti, Type 35, was not produced until 1924.
16/9/1908. Buick and Oldsmobile merged to form General
Motors.
12/8/1908, The Model
T Ford began rolling off the production line. Priced at US$ 825, the cost was
kept low by mass production using standardised parts. Instead of one man
assembling an entire car, each worker preformed just one task as the car moved
along a conveyor belt. By this production line method, the time to assemble a
car was cut from 14 hours to 2. To motivate his workforce, Henry Ford raised
wages from US$ 2.34 for a 9 hour day to US$ 5 for an 8 hour day. Productivity
improvements meant Ford could reduce the car�s price to US$ 300. Over 15 million Model Ts were built and by the time
production ceased in 1927 half the cars in the US were Fords.
20/11/1906. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce formed the car company Rolls Royce Ltd. The Silver Ghost Rolls Royce was first produced, setting a standard in
luxury cars.
1905, The Austin Car Company was founded by Herbert Austin, at Longbridge,
near Birmingham, UK.
1903, The Vauxhall Car Company was established in Vauxhall, south London. In
1905 it moved to Luton, Bedfordshire. In 1925 the company was bought by General Motors, USA.
23/7/1903, The Ford
Motor Company sold its first car, a Model A that cost US$850 and could
reach 30 mph.
16/6/1903. The Ford
Motor Company was founded.
9/6/1903, In Germany, the Daimler Motor Company factory at Cannstadt was destroyed by fire.
16/1/1903, The first
saloon car, the Duryea, appeared at the Stanley Motor Show.
17/10/1902, The first
Cadillac car, made in Detroit, was
sold in the USA.
1901, The first Mercedes car was
produced.
1890, Daimler Motoren Geselschaft was founded by Gottleib Daimler at Bad
Cannstatt, Germany.
21/8/1901. In Detroit, USA, the Cadillac motor company was founded.
1898, The Renault car company was founded. It was nationalised in 1944.
1895,
The Czech car company Skoda was
founded, originally as a bicycle manufacturer.
4/3/1887, The first Daimler cars
appeared on the road.
1885, The Peugeot company was founded, originally making bicycles, by Armand Peugeot (1849-1915). Peugeot made its first steam car in 1889; in
1890 it produced its first petrol-driven car, using a Daimler engine. The
company bought the Citroen company in 1974, and bought out the European
operations of US firm Chrysler in 1978.
27/8/1877, Charles Stewart Rolls, partner of Rolls Royce,
was born in London.
3/9/1875, Ferdinand Porsche, motor car engineer, was
born.
8/11/1866. The Birmingham
car manufacturer Herbert Austin
was born in Little Missenden.
12/3/1866, Giovanni Agnelli, founded of the FIAT (Fabrica
Italiano Automobili Torino) was born. He founded the FIAT company in 1899.
27/3/1863. Sir Frederick Henry Royce, co-founder of the Rolls Royce Motor Company, was born in
Alwalton, near Peterborough, the son of a miller.
15/12/1861, Edgar Charles Duryea, US car manufacturer, was
born near Canton, Illinois (died 28/9/1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).