The Freeman 1989 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

4THEFREEMANIDEAS ON LIBERTYThe Tucker Car: Did theBig Guys Do It In?by Melvin D. BargerAtfirst, I thought it was astonishing thatPreston Tucker and his fabled car fromthe 1940s should suddenly reclaim thepublic's attention, as a result of the new movieby Francis Ford Coppola. 1Thinking it over, I decided that the Tuckercar's second coming-if only on the screenisn'tso astonishing after all. Ever since Tucker'sshort-lived carmaking venture collapsed inlate 1948, myths about him have circulated inthe country. The myths have become part of alegend that strikes close to the opinions held bya lot of people. These myths are worth reviewingbecause they also touch economic fallacieswhich are part of the general folklore.It should be said at the outset that the Tuckercar was a poorly conceived venture that wasdoomed to fail from the start. Though PrestonTucker was a charming, persuasive person withnovel ideas, he lacked many of the qualitieswhich were needed for a successful entrepreneurialventure. Even had he possessed thesequalities, however, he was entering a businesswhich had become fiercely competitive andcost-efficient at every level. The U.S. automotiveindustry was already dominated by the BigThree in the late 1940s and would soon shakeout established companies like Studebaker,Packard, and Hudson.There was some concern about this situationby people who argued that it takes many producersto bring real competition. The truth,however, is that the Big Three reached theirMr. Barger was a business writer associated with Libbey­Owens-Ford Company and one of its subsidiary firms fornearly 33 years.positions because they performed most efficientlyamong the carmakers who still survivedas the industry grew and matured. The Big­Three efficiency was not only in designing andengineering cars, but also in mass-producing,marketing, and servicing them. Any would-becontender in this tough market would have hadto offer not only a great car at a competitiveprice, but also superb manufacturing and asound dealer network with servicing arrangements.The outlook for success was so forbiddingthat no really new car company had grownup since Walter Chrysler revamped the Maxwellconcern in the 1920s and then went on toacquire the formidable Dodge interests. Theone newcomer who did achieve some success inthe postwar car building industry was Henry J.Kaiser, who produced about 750,000 cars in hisnine-year attempt to crack the market. Amazingly,however, it's Tucker and his 51 cars thathave stayed in the public memory. Kaiser, anastute businessman with many successes to hiscredit, is largely forgotten.Preston Tucker burst upon the, scene in 1946with astonishing announcements which promiseda revolutionary new car. First called theTucker Torpedo, it purportedly had been undertesting and development fifteen years andsported amazing safety and performance features.It's hard to believe the response to thisincredible announcement. As a pair of magazinewriters recalled in 1982, thousands consideredTucker a genius, "an automotive Davidwho would slay the monopolistic Goliaths ofDetroit. ,,2For two years, Tucker's "Tin Goose," as it