Saturday, November 29, 2008

A lot I'd never heard about the Tucker car, and why it didn't make it

I never knew that Preston Tucker had worked in sales for Studebaker, then Stutz, Chrysler, and finally as regional manager for Pierce-Arrow.

The car was designed to have an engine that was air cooled, and could be replaced in 18 minutes by three service techs. The front and back seats were interchangeable so owners could periodically swap them for even wear of the cloth fabric.

The leased factory he was using was wanted by the National Housing Agency to be used to build pre-fab homes. Long court battle.

In order to raise investment capital, but not lose control of his corporation, he sold dealer franchises to dstribute the car, and even presold accessories to the car that hadn't yet been built... this had the Securities and Exchange Commission auditing him for years.

For an ad, business card, and photos:
http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1948/tucker.html