American Car Spotters Guide - 1947

In 1947 the automotive industry was in full swing again and sold almost as many vehicles as in 1941, namely 3,558,178 cars and 1,239,443 trucks and buses. The latter figure was the highest ever, so far, 266,795 cars and 263,351 trucks were exported. Kaiser-Frazer Corporation had bought the automotive assets of Graham-Paige and produced 11,753 cars in 1946, 144,506 in 1947, thus becoming the largest producer outside the Big Three. Preston Tucker produced a few pilot models of his revolutionary rear-engined car.

Chevrolet opened new assembly plants in Flint, Michigan and Van Nuys, California, and introduced overhead assembly lines. Studebaker bought a wartime aircraft engine plant at South Bend. Two famous pioneers of the American automotive industry, William Crapo Durant (founder of General Motors) and Henry Ford both died in 1947. Canada banned import of US vehicles, but several makes were assembled or produced in Canadian subsidiaries of US companies. In the US, driving education courses were adopted in many high schools.

Next to bring out an envelope body-albeit with fender lines still accentuated, was Studebaker, when the 1947 models were presented in the Fall of '46. Those new Studebakers weren't as wide and as low as the Kaiser-Frazer cars, but they possessed a revolutionary styling concept nonetheless, with their wrap-around rear windows and crisp, uncluttered lines. The design, a portent of future styling, may be credited to an at-the-time relatively unknown designer, Virgil M. Exner, although Raymond Loewy was often incorrectly connected with its development.