Men, Motors, and Markets

During the early history of the automobile industry, practically every part of the car was produced by the independent manufacturers of parts. The automobile companies merely assembled the parts into a complete car. And as often as not, it was the parts manufacturers, instead of the automobile companies, who were responsible for dramatic improvements to the car curtains, windshields and wipers, electric ignition, lighting, self-starters, and so on. And still today, the automobile companies depend to a large extent on the engineering genius of the parts makers for new ideas on how to improve the manufacturing processes and quality of parts for each successive model.