1934 Austin American

I put up a photograph of a Ford Model T yesterday and commented on how small they were.  And they were small.

We are used to American cars prior to the mid 1970s being just gigantic. They didn't start off that way, although they had acquired considerably bulk by the late 1930s.  Even at that, it's worth remembering that there was the odd exception to the rule.  Here's one.

The Austin Car Company was a company that was founded in 1929, on the eve of the Great Depression, and which went out of business in 1956, which was at the height of the dominance of the giant American automobile.  It was always an odd exception to the rule.

Austin was the American expression of a British company, and it made small cars.  It was the company that introduced the Jeep, but after making over 2000 of them, it lost out to Willys and Ford for the Willys variety.  That was because it lacked production capacity to really put its Jeep, which was lighter, but less powerful, into the level of production the U.S. required.  Their Jeeps did see action in World War Two, but mostly in Soviet and British hands. 

This 1934 example is a real classic example in fine shape.  This car would have competed with the Model A, which was considerably larger.