Large Dealer Buying Hudsons

[Deleted User]

I Own three Jets, And 5 Crosley's. I will admitt that the Jet is not the best looking one on the block, ( and the same for the Crosley!) But I have them because I LIKE THEM! I Like all old cars! I look at it this way, at least we are saving some automotive history, Dosen't matter to me what kind of car you like, Would you guys stop loving your wife if somebody said she wasn't as attractive as somebody elses wife? Beauty is in eye of the beholder.





Hoosiercrosley

Unknown

Again, Im jumping in on this a little late, but I couldn't resist...



From everything I've read, the major reason for Hudson's demise could be summed up in three words: ABRAHAM EDWARD BARIT.



Apparently, the man was a former bean counter with the imagination of a wart. Frank Spring had that step-down prototype since 1941 and could have beat Kaiser-Frazer to the punch with an all-new postwar car in late 1945!! They had the physical plant and the means right there, which K-F didn't have until August of 1945 and even then Henry and Joe had to rush like hell to get everything into place at Willow Run to build cars. Instead, the damn prototype sat on the factory roof throughout the war until Spring finally cajoled Barit into taking a ride in the thing.



Just imagine if Hudson would've unveiled that step-down in late '45 or even January '46. Take a look at a '47 Kaiser or Frazer, put yourself in that time period, and ask yourself which you would rather have had. Henry and Joe STILL beat Hudson to market only because they were able to get then out there first, knowing there would be a seller's market like the industry had never seen. Can you imagine if Hudson would've capitalized on that with a Step-Down model before anyone else even had a car in the showroom? They would've wound up the #1 independent, possibly even challenging Chrysler for the #3 spot. AND they would have had plenty of capital for some serious R&D in preperation for the seller's market's collapse in '49.



If Hudson had had a CEO with a real imagination and a finger on the pulse of the public, under my scenario they would have stayed the top independent, had a V-8 along with the six in '49 or '50, beat the @$$ off the other independents, including Nash--K-F wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in hell--and had enough capital to ride out the war between Ford and Chevy as Chrysler did. They also would never have taken a chance on the Jet, at least not the way it looks now. They would have either let Nash experiment with that niche market, or come out with a much sportier, sleeker-looking product that didn't look so stodgy, and with a V-8 would have been a muscle car 12 years ahead of time! (Entry/exit would've been made easier for a man with a hat by cutting the doors into the roofline, as Tucker and the Gen II Kaiser did.) Who knows--they might have still been around today.



Oh well, hindsight is 20/20, as they say. Just goes to show you that you don't hire for CEOs unimaginitive bean counters that are poster boys for the Peter Principle (i.e., in every organization, some will eventually rise to their level of incompetence).