Henry J (Kaiser-Frazer Corporation)

History

The car was the brainchild of Henry J. Kaiser, who wanted to increase sales of his automaker by bringing out a car that was cheap to make and therefore affordable to the average American, such as Henry Ford's T-model before the First World War , The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation had been granted a state loan in 1949 for the construction of the vehicle, which was subject to conditions: the price of the car, including taxes and extradition fee, could not exceed 1300 US dollars; it had to be delivered by September 30, 1950 at the latest, provide space for at least five adults and reach a steady speed of at least 50 mph (80 km / h).

To achieve this, the Henry J was constructed from as few parts and had little special equipment. To save costs, early specimens had no trunk lid; the owners could reach the trunk only after folding the rear seat back. Another austerity measure was the interpretation of the car as a two-door sedan with fixed rear side windows. The basic equipment also lacked the glove compartment , armrests, the sun visor on the right and the ventilation system.

The engine of the Henry J had four cylinders and delivered 68 SAE-PS (51 kW); later versions were also available with an 80 SAE-PS (60 kW) six-cylinder engine. The engines were supplied by Willys-Overland , they had upright valves, the four-cylinder came with only a few modifications from the Jeep CJ-3 (the base engine can be exchanged between the two models).

From 1952 Kaiser Motors also sold Henry J via Sears-Roebuck under the name Allstate . The Allstate was very similar to the Henry J, differences existed only in the grille, the logo, the hubcaps, the interior trim, the tire (brand: Allstate) and the battery. After two years of disappointing sales, Sears-Roebuck discontinued sales. The car was also in Japan from 1951 to 1954 under license from East Japan Heavy Industries , a part of the Mitsubishi Corporation.

The Henry J proved to be a disappointment for Kaiser Motors. The Henry J was cheap, but for a few dollars more, you could buy a Chevrolet One-Fifty with a boot lid and rear side windows. The Chevrolet , the Fordand other cheap competition models were also larger and offered more space in the interior. From 1951, Kaiser-Frazer offered the boot lid, along with some other features, as an optional equipment package, with the advertising still targeting the vehicle's low operating costs, at a time when the gallon of petrol cost just 27 cents. Sales continued to decline year on year. Henry J. Kaiser wanted to make a profit with this car through high production figures, but the sluggish sales prevented that.

The compact Rambler from Nash sold much better, he was marketed as a well-equipped convertible and a practical small station wagon . The Henry J was a very simply equipped two-door sedan; the customers could well distinguish between "cheap" and "cheap" and for them the Henry J soon had a bad name.

After the acquisition of Willys-Overland in the spring of 1953, the management of Kaiser Motors decided to stop the production of the Henry J at the end of the model year 1953. The attempts to sell off the remaining cars in 1953, failed. So they made these vehicles to 1954 models, until all around the factory in Willow Run scattered cars were sold.