Under president Alfred P. Sloan, and in the interest of efficiency, GM consolidated most of its operations, which included the divisions of Buick, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile. To further alleviate costs, only three basic car bodies were implemented, alongside an increase in interchangeable parts within the divisions. The company's reported net income fell to $164,979 in 1932, versus that of $248.3 million in 1929. General Motors was one of few automakers to deliver a profit each year during the Great Depression, unlike Chrysler who incurred major losses throughout it. By the mid-1930s, GM's sales began to increase as the Great Depression ceased. In 1936, they were able to sell just under 1.7 million new cars. Sloan claimed that GM's ableness to remain afloat during this period was because "We simply learned how to react quickly. This was perhaps the greatest payoff of our system of financial and operating controls." General Motors was quick to adapt to the situation with the economy, by shifting to become a more affordable and accessible brand for the lower-priced car market.
By consolidating its business practices and scaling back, General Motors was able to gain even more market share, becoming attractive to a new market with more accessible cars, even during the hardships of the Great Depression. This thus laid the basis and foundation for future endeavors, which established General Motors as a prominent leader in the US auto market for the years to come.
Sources:
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2010/growth-automakers-accelerated-out-great-depression.aspx
https://www.autonews.com/article/20080914/OEM/309149837/even-during-the-depression-gm-managed-to-make-money
https://www.carbodydesign.com/2012/06/gm-design-the-timeline/
First of all, appreciate the title. Second, I thought the statistics you gave pertaining to how much companies produced before and after the Depression created an effective contrast to how hard car companies were struck. I also found it interesting how in your second paragraph you focused on General Motors, a company that did not fail during the Depression, but continued to make a profit. To add on to the trend you depicted in your post, active automobile manufactures dropped from 253 in 1908 to 44 in 1929. This was largely due to the Great Depression and later World War 2.
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I thought this was a very interesting post! I think that the statistics regarding the significant car companies' net income and the price to invest in stock really put into perspective how everyone was negatively affected by the Great Depression, even major leaders in the automobile industry. It is also important to note how the failure or struggle of companies like General Motors led to much poorer working conditions that included major pay cuts and longer working hours. This eventually led to the unionization of automobile industry workers during the 1930s and 1940s like the UAW, which had a major effect on the way the industry would function in the future.
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