(UPDATED FROM 12/18/2020)
A year before he died in 1995, former American Motors head George Romney made a presentation to an AMC convention. A two-part video of the talk was filmed by Paul Lehman. The below-linked videos were posted on YouTube and copyrighted by Lehman.
Romney, who went into politics after leaving AMC in 1962, devoted a portion of his talk to public policy issues. However, earlier in his presentation he offered an insider’s perspective on the post-war American auto industry and how he kept AMC from going out of business.
Romney offered high praise for his AMC predecessor
Romney lauded his predecessor, CEO George Mason, as a “real genius in this industry who has never been adequately recognized for what he did.” After World War II Mason predicted a growing need for smaller cars — and engaged in broad experimentation with four- and even three-wheeled concepts.
Mason was responsible for the original Rambler, which was unveiled in 1950. Romney saw prototypes of the car two years earlier, when he was being courted for two jobs — one as an assistant to Mason and the other as head of the Packard Motor Car Company. Romney said he chose to go with Mason because the compact Rambler looked to him like the car of the future.
Romney explained how he differed from Mason
In the second video, Romney discusses how his strategy with the Rambler had one crucial difference from that of Mason’s: Whereas Mason saw the Rambler as a supplement to American Motors’ big cars, Romney chose to focus solely on the compact car market.
This was partly because he saw significant growth potential for compacts. However, Romney also recognized the importance of maximizing economies of scale by narrowing the range of cars that AMC offered (see extended quote here).
In the video Romney argued that the Rambler could have continued to effectively compete against the Big Three and imports if AMC had maintained his basic strategy. Indeed, he goes as far as to argue that “American Motors would be one of the top, big automobile companies in this country today. But they didn’t do that” (go here for the extended quote).
That’s a pretty bold statement, but Romney had laid the groundwork for a corporate strategy not unlike that of Toyota’s, with its longtime emphasis on stolid but unusually good-quality products.
NOTES:
This is a story that was originally posted August 1, 2013 and updated on Dec. 18, 2020 and May 31, 2023.
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Lehman, Paul; 2011. “George Romney at the Nationals, July 7-10-1994: Part 1.” YouTube. Posted July 7; accessed July 15, 2013.
- ——; 2011. “George Romney at the Nationals, July 7-10-1994: Part 2.” YouTube. Posted July 7; accessed July 15, 2013.
Be the first to comment