1950s American automobile culture
During the decade, many smaller manufacturers could not compete with the Big Three and either went out of business or merged. In 1954, American Motors was formed when Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation in a deal worth almost $200 million, the largest corporate merger in United States history at that time.
Byron Carter
In 1905, Carter found financial backing from Detroit for the Cartercar and relocated the company to Pontiac, Michigan. The Cartercar Company attracted the attention of William C. Durant, co-founder of General Motors. Durant liked the car’s friction drive, and thought Cartercar would have a great future, and so General Motors bought the company on October 26, 1909. But by 1910, Durant was ousted from GM. When the Cartercar failed to meet Durant’s sales predictions, GM limited production and discontinued the Cartercar after the 1916 model. GM converted the factory to production of Oaklands and the Cartercar name was automotive history.