While sales were initially strong because of a car-starved public, the company did not have the resources to survive long-term competition with the "Big Three" automakers: GM, Ford, and Chrysler. The original Kaiser-Frazer design was distinctive and fresh but the company was unable to maintain the price point it needed for long-term success. However, the company's problems started as early as 1948. That year, Joseph Frazer resigned as president of Kaiser-Frazer, but stayed in the position as a "lame duck" until April 1949 when Henry J. Kaiser's oldest son, Edgar, took Frazer's place as K-F's president. This was in part because Frazer's had warned Kaiser not to tool up for 200,000 cars for the 1949 model year, realizing that they could not compete against the new cars from the big three coming out that year. Unfortunately, Kaiser did not heed the warning, saying "The Kaisers never retrench." Only 58,000 cars were sold that year. The Frazer marque was discontinued after the 1951 models. Joseph Frazer remained as a sales consultant and vice-chairman of the Kaiser-Frazer board until 1953. At the 1953 annual stockholders' meeting, Kaiser-Frazer Corporation's name was changed by stockholder vote to Kaiser Motors Corporation. Shortly before meeting, Kaiser-Frazer's Kaiser Manufacturing Corporation division worked out a deal to purchase certain assets (and assume certain liabilities) of the Willys-Overland Corporation, makers of Willys cars and Jeep vehicles. The purchase was made by Kaiser-Frazer's wholly owned subsidiary company, Kaiser Manufacturing Corporation. After completing the acquisition, Kaiser Manufacturing Corporation changed its name to Willys Motors, Incorporated. During late 1953 and 1954, Kaiser Motors operations at Willow Run Michigan were closed down or moved to the Willys facility in Toledo, Ohio. Kaiser-Frazer was able to work out deals with General Motors not only to purchase GM Hydramatic automatic transmissions, but also had a signed deal for detuned Rocket 88 engines from Oldsmobile with deliveries starting in the 1952 model year. The deal was contingent on Olds being able to expand its Lansing, MI engine production facility; that expansion was cancelled due to factory expansion restrictions put in place by the government due to military needs during the Korean War. K-F had their own V8 engine development program that ran through 1949 but, as the lead engineers on the team stated to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) they found their work was leading down a "blind alley" and would not work as a production engine.