The years leading up to World War II were shrouded in despair. The Great Depression had hit the country like a sudden, chilling winter storm, freezing everything and everyone in a sunless gloom. Most everyone. The average American was wrapped up in the economic uncertainty of the times and so too were many of the companies that catered to them.
It seemed that just as soon as the masses were being attracted to affordable automobiles, set free from their personal confines to explore beyond their reach, than their ability to purchase that freedom had dried up.
A large percentage of the automobile industry at this time was still geared toward those who were better off financially but even those people began seeing some of their disposable income slipping away even as they tightened their fiscal fingers. Luxury lines such as Cadillac and Chrylser, Pierce and Rolls still turned out their high end forms of transportation. But others, such as Packard, had a hard time keeping their doors open.
As the furrows of the Depression ran deeper and Europe fell victim to itself and into war, America's financial woes grew. When the war invaded the sanctity of the American Dream, dragging is headlong into the fray, most of the firms that had been making cars, like most of the manufacturing community, turned it's attention to building and maintaining the war machine.
Many of the smaller, less stable car companies never returned to manufacturing automobiles after the war ended. They either re-tooled themselves toward another line or simply melted into the history books.
Here are a number of magnificent cars that represent this era of auto making, from Lincoln, Pierce, Cadillac, Pontiac, Rolls and more, these are living, running pieces of history.
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