09/14/2025
TOO LITTLE, TOO SOON
Powel Crosley's dream of America turning to the economy car finally came true - too late!
By Howard Harrison, CAR LIFE, November 1957
PRACTICAL-MINDED Americans flocked to foreign-car showrooms all across the country in 1956, pushing economy-car sales well over the 100,000 mark. This year, combined sales of VW, Fiat, Renault and Nash Metropolitan will probably double that total.
Yet, only five years ago, personal losses of over three million dollars forced industrialist Powel Crosley Jr. to abandon the idea of selling a domestic economy car to the American public.
When the Crosley car was premiered with great fanfare in May, 1939, at the Indianapolis Speedway,
Powel Crosley had every reason to believe that his namesake was destined for a brilliant success in a burgeoning auto market.
But his dream of a latter-day T dissolved 13 years later, after he had produced only 70,000 cars.
Today, the Crosley car is a very active ghost, tended by a die-hard group of confirmed believers. The Crosley Car Owners' Club lists over 1600 avid members, who own from one to as many as 15 Crosleys apiece. The youngest registered owner is eleven the eldest, a spry 85 years.
Some 200 dealers across the country still specialize in servicing the Crosley. And one ambitious outfit. Service Motors, of Long Island, New York, purchased the entire stock of parts from the factory when it closed down in 1952.
But these Crosley fans, active as they may be, are still a far cry from the sales and service organization Crosley envisioned in 1939 - 25,000 eager Crosley radio and refrigerator dealers establishing themselves as successful car salesmen.
What happened? Why did America's own economy car fall by the wayside? Certainly not from lack of drum-beating. From the start, Powel Crosley's showmanship in marketing the Crosley was as impressive as his six foot four inch, 210 pound frame.
The manufacturing whiz-kid from Cincinnati brought his first model to the World's Fair for display, and moved from there to Macy's Department store. This bright flash of merchandising genius netted Crosley 12 sales within the first two hours of showing the car.
Huge crowds filed past the $365 yellow and red convertibles. Macy's customers purchased the cars without driving them, then took delivery at a nearby garage. No trade-ins were accepted and the service was done by local Crosley dealers. A similar sales operation was organized in Bamberger's in Newark.
These early Crosleys were available only as convertibles seating two or four passengers. A two-cylinder. horizontally opposed air-cooled Waukesha engine supplied 12.5 horsepower to buzz the car along at a cruising speed of 40-45 mph.
The front mounted power plant gave 50 miles per gallon at cruising speed, with a phenomenal 60 miles per gallon promised to those willing to trundle along at 30.
Crosley dispensed with universal joints in the drive shaft by mounting the engine supports in flexible live rubber.
World War II halted production of this model before it had taken hold in the market.
Fortunately, Crosley's first experience with autos had tempered him to such temporary setbacks. In 1907, just barely out of college, 21-year-old Crosley had raised $10,000 for the development of the Marathon Six. The car was to sell for $200 to $300 less than the competing two and three cylinder models. However, the Wall Street Panic smashed that dream.
The quick rise and fall of the Marathon Six launched the career of Powel Crosley Jr., the auto super salesman. Within a short time, Crosley rose to the post of assistant sales manager for the Parry Automobile Company. From here, Crosley pursued a career in advertising as advertising manager for the National Motor Vehicle Company.
Even advertising proved tame for the fast-moving Crosley. By 1914, he was promoting another six-cylinder auto as an addition to the family of cycle cars he was selling for the Interstate Car Company. This time, World War I intervened.
Immediately after the war, Crosley founded the American Automobile Accessory Company as an outlet for his own automotive inventions. Crosley's dream of financial success with autos was postponed again with the advent of radio in the late teens. His son had begged for one of the new crystal sets, but the cheapest one available sold for over $100. Crosley was determined that he could make a better set for less. By 1922, his Model X had established the Crosley Radio Corporation as the world's largest radio manufacturer.
The lucrative lure of radio led Crosley far away from his prime love, automobiles, but it established him as one of the country's sharpest industrialists. His empire quickly grew to include America's most powerful radio station, WLW; a wide line of appliances, including the famous Shelvador refrigerators; and the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.
It wasn't until 1939 that he was able to devote his energies to automobiles; this time, Crosley threw all his know-how and enthusiasm into a brand-new product, a home-grown economy car.
When he showed his first 1939, Crosley stated: "I have been dreaming of this car for some 28 years. Radio and electric refrigerators, broadcasting and even baseball have sort of gotten in the way of this dream. I have always wanted to build a practical car that would not only operate at a low cost, but sell at a low cost, and I believe I have it here."
The rapid arrival of World War II prevented Crosley from successfully testing the breadth of his market and his marketing channels.
The first Crosley was discontinued by the war. But the dream still obsessed Crosley, resulting in a complete new line of water-cooled four-cylinder models, after the war's end.
Crosley was determined to put all his efforts into promoting the new models. He sold all his non-automotive interests except the Cincinnati Reds to the Aviation Corporation. which continued the Crosley appliance line under the name of Crosley/AVCO.
Crosley's new mighty-mite 44 cubic inch "Cobra" engine immediately drew the attention of Detroit engineers, for the block was fabricated from 125 various tubes and steel stampings copper-brazed instead of the conventional cast iron. The technique, an automotive first, resulted in an ultra-light engine weighing only 59 pounds bare, and pounds with all accessories, a light 120.
The horsepower rating of 26.5 at 5200 rpms was better than twice that available in the pre-war Crosley. Yet, the engine still promised the fantastic economy associated with Crosleys. Thirty mph delivered 50 miles per gallon, and 55 mph, the suggested cruising speed, delivered 35 miles per gallon. Maximum speed was up to 65 mph.
The engine was manufactured by a licensing agreement with Lloyd M. Taylor, who had developed it at the Navy's Annapolis Experimental Station. The Navy used the engines in light-weight generator equipment. They found the overhead cam engine delivered a high specific output while maintaining outstanding economy and reliability.
Still, many skeptics doubted that the engine would hold up as an automobile power plant. So, with the sure touch of the born showman, Crosley froze a water-filled engine and showed that the copper-brazed block suffered no ill effects. Part of this remarkable toughness was attributed to the sturdy ribbed aluminum oil pan.
The engine ran on only three quarts of oil, further stressing economy of operation. A fully pressurized lubrication system enabled the engine to operate with such a low oil capacity. Dimensions of the post-war modeis remained substantially the same as the first Crosley. Wheelbase was 80 inches and the tread 40. Springing remained semi-elliptic in front and quarter-elliptic in the tear. The 4:50x12 tires were in keeping with the overall 145-inch length of the car.
But the basic price had moved up from the original $365 to $905.
The general outlook for the postwar Crosley appeared outstandingly bright. In 1947, the factory delivered 16,637 cars, at a profit of $476,065 Production had reached 2.400 per month by September and was rising.
It appeared that Crosley's dream of providing a new car for practically every family was coming true.
fn 1948, sales of the Crosley rose to a peak of better than 30.000 cars. Production in the Marion, Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio plants reached as high as 3.800 cars a month. However, this wasn't even a third of the 150,000 yearly production goal Crosley felt was necessary for keeping costs and selling price low.
In the postwar years the Crosley line expanded to some ten models, ranging from the standard four-passenger sedans to the unique FarmOroads, miniature utility vehicles which resembled Jeeps.
Crosley's "Sports Utility" model featured an all fabric top and sides, with no rear seat. Stripped down, it was just a motorized chassis.
The Crosley pickups appealed to businesses as delivery vehicles. Convertibles and station wagons appealed to families as second cars, and sedans as family cars. All the models were minor body variations on a stock chassis - a set-up that simplified the construction of the bodies and kept costs down.
Crosley met the challenge of the British MG sports cars with his own sports models, the Hotshot and Super Sports, first introduced in 1949. These two-place roadsters featured slightly souped up engines. All body accessories, such as the windshield, headlights and bumpers were easily removable for racing.
The Super Sports outperformed any car then available in its class. It could go from 0 to 50 mph in only 13.9 seconds, and 0 to 60 in 19.7 seconds. Top speed was an honest 77 mph. And all this from only 44 cubic inches!
The Crosley Super Sports won the index of performance in the original Sebring 12-Hour Grand Prix.
George Schrafft and Phil Stiles entered a Crosley at Le Mans in 1951. The specially-prepared Super Sports was reaching 95 miles per hour on the straightaway stretches and leading its class when a voltage regulator failure forced it to retire. Nonetheless, Europeans were astounded by the showing of the brash American invader, and Crosley lovers sat back with a happy "I told you so" attitude.
Meanwhile the outlook for the Crosley passenger models was darkening. Materials shortages disrupted production schedules and upped costs.
By 1951, the price of most Crosley models had edged over the $1,000 mark. Only the Hotshot and business coupe sold for under $1,000. The station wagon which cost $929 in 1949 was up to $1,002 in 1952.
Production slowed to a trickle - 300 cars a month late in 1951. The yardstick of costs had shifted to the disadvantage of the small car.
Nevertheless, Crosley pumped over 3 million dollars of his own money into the company to perpetuate his dream. He used much of the money he had received from Avco in 1945 for his appliance interests in hopes of keeping the car alive.
In 1952, General Tire Corporation offered to purchase the facilities of the Crosley Car Corporation for its own use, and Crosley finally gave in.
Said Crosley, "In the last few years, I loaned the company three million dollars of my family's in addition to my stock rights. I tried to save it, but couldn't carry on indefinitely."
Although the Crosley car had passed on, the engine lived on as an auxiliary power plant in the Aero-Jet's Thermo-King truck refrigerator units and Lou Fageol's Fageol 44 marine engine.
Powel Crosley Jr.'s dream of putting a new car into every garage was unfortunately premature. Rising costs and uncertain production schedules forced America's only native economy car out of the automotive showroom only a few short years before the big invasion of foreign makes.
