Vocabulary notes

to defeat наносить поражение; уничтожать

to promote повышать; производить (в чин)

trouble трудность, неприятность

quality control контроль качества

inventory control контроль наличия товаров

sale торговля

to be in charge of заведовать; отвечать за что-либо

consumer потребитель

customer покупатель

to advertise рекламировать

advertisement реклама

profit доход

to retire увольнять; оставлять должность

to drop понижать

EXERCISES

I. Read the text and translate it.

II. Give the Russian equivalents to the following words and word combinations:

was founded; major competitor; one of the greatest organizing geniuses; pretty successful; was promoted to; to experience big troubles; was forced out; management team; inventory control; main advantages; popular with consumers; to attract customers; made a huge profit; on the edge of collapse.

III. Use one of the following words in the sentences given below: competition; big troubles; variety; management; inventory.

1. There were … with quality control in General Motors Company.

2. General Motors has … of cars.

3. General Motors was the main … for Ford’s Company.

4. Sloan reorganized the company because … team was unorganized.

5. There were no … control in General Motors.

IV. Make up 10 questions and use them as a plan for the retelling of the text.

Chrysler

At the next level below Ford and General Motors, when the 1920s began, was a group of apparently well-established companies with some potential: Hudson (including Essex), Studebaker, Dodge, Maxwell (later Chrysler), Willys-Overland, Nash, Packard, and Durant Motors. From these only Chrysler emerged to form what became one of the Big Three of American automobilidom.

This was the result of a conscious decision on Chrysler’s part, along with an ability to grasp opportunities. He was aware that, despite its promising start, the Chrysler Corporation would be a minor and possibly short-lived member of the automobile world unless it could get established in the mass market. But the manufacturing resources were too limited to enable Chrysler to produce a low-priced car competitively, and the company still lacked the financial strength to build a new plant on the scale that would be required. The solution to the problem was found when the Dodge Brothers Manufacturing Company was put on the market in 1928. John and Horace Dodge had been victims of the influenza epidemic that followed the First World War, and their heirs subsequently decided to get out of the automobile business.

Consequently, after some dickering Dodge was absorbed by the Chrysler organization. The assets received by Chrysler were just what he needed: a first-class manufacturing plant with a well-equipped foundry and other facilities for large-scale production; a car with a well-known name and an established position in the medium-priced market; and a dealer network some twelve thousand strong that could be used as an outlet for other Chrysler products. The Dodge sales organization was considered to be one of the best in the country, and Chrysler’s autobiography makes it clear that he wanted the Dodge dealers as much as the Dodge manufacturing capacity. With these resources at his command Chrysler was able to introduce the Plymouth in 1928, a step neatly timed to take advantage of Henry Ford’s temporary disappearance from the mass market.

With the rise of Chrysler the developing structure of the American automobile industry became clearly appreciable. At the top were General Motors and Ford, between them out-producing the rest of the industry put together. Both were also international automotive powers. Ford had established manufacturing subsidiaries in Europe before the First World War and had regional assembly plants throughout the world. General Motors bought the British Vauxhall and the German Opel companies during the 1920s. Chrysler was well behind the leaders but definitely ahead of the rest of the field.

The total effect of the motor vehicle on American life has still to be measured, if indeed such measurement is even possible. Certainly the automobile brought major social changes, and some of these were becoming evident with the widespread extension of car ownership in the 1920s. It would be an exaggeration to say that the automobile made Americans a mobile people; the people who made their way across the American continent while the motorcar was still a dream were far from static. It would be more accurate to say that an already mobile people were given the means to travel farther, faster, and more freely.