Given his belief in the importance of new products, Mason ordered up fresh styling for the 1939-1940 Nash Ambassador and prepared to press on. With a "can-do" guy -- George Mason -- at the helm, Nash Motors wasn't about to let an economic recession slow it down in the late 1930s.
America's battle against the Depression suffered a setback in 1938, when the economy snapped with what Republicans were quick to label the "Roosevelt Recession." The sharp downturn hammered the U.S. auto industry, shrinking model-year sales by almost half from the 1937 total.
The recession proved a death knell for a few smaller automakers, but most every company felt the pain. That's one reason why you don't see many 1938 cars today.
The Nash Motors Division of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation took an especially big hit. Calendar-year sales plunged from 70,568 to 31,814. Model-year production withered from 85,949 units to 32,017. These drops were bigger than most, and would have been easy excuses for cutting capital spending.
But Nash had a recently arrived president named George Mason, charged with making the company much larger. Determined to keep moving despite the recessionary setback, he ordered up a brand-new Nash for 1939. It was a beauty.
By any standard, George Walter Mason was one of the most brilliant auto executives of the era. He started his career the old-fashioned way, selling cars during summer vacations from college.
After stints at several automakers, most notably as a manager at Chrysler, Mason joined Kelvinator, where he engineered a turnaround that saved the appliance maker from extinction.
Charlie Nash, acting on a strong recommendation from old friend Walter Chrysler, convinced Mason to become Nash president by agreeing to a Nash and Kelvinator merger, which was completed in January 1937.
America's battle against the Depression suffered a setback in 1938, when the economy snapped with what Republicans were quick to label the "Roosevelt Recession." The sharp downturn hammered the U.S. auto industry, shrinking model-year sales by almost half from the 1937 total.
The recession proved a death knell for a few smaller automakers, but most every company felt the pain. That's one reason why you don't see many 1938 cars today.
The Nash Motors Division of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation took an especially big hit. Calendar-year sales plunged from 70,568 to 31,814. Model-year production withered from 85,949 units to 32,017. These drops were bigger than most, and would have been easy excuses for cutting capital spending.
But Nash had a recently arrived president named George Mason, charged with making the company much larger. Determined to keep moving despite the recessionary setback, he ordered up a brand-new Nash for 1939. It was a beauty.
By any standard, George Walter Mason was one of the most brilliant auto executives of the era. He started his career the old-fashioned way, selling cars during summer vacations from college.
After stints at several automakers, most notably as a manager at Chrysler, Mason joined Kelvinator, where he engineered a turnaround that saved the appliance maker from extinction.
Charlie Nash, acting on a strong recommendation from old friend Walter Chrysler, convinced Mason to become Nash president by agreeing to a Nash and Kelvinator merger, which was completed in January 1937.
Employees in front of the car company Verkerk en Company in Batavia around 1939 Dutch East Indies. The car is Nash Ambassador 1939
Sources:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1939-1940-nash-ambassador.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/126991999@N05/15377112784
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