Fri Apr 08 2022

In 1924, the American market for cars became saturated. That meant that almost everyone who could buy a car had already bought one. In order to still sell about the same number of cars, General Motors suggested that new cars should look different every year. This way, at least some car owners would buy a new car every year. This idea was not new. It had already been tried with bicycles, but people say it was Alfred P. Sloan of General Motor's idea. He often used the words dynamic obsolescence, but people who did not like the idea called it planned obsolescence. This plan changed many things in the automobile industry, product design field, and eventually the whole American economy. Smaller companies could not afford to re-style their car models every year. Henry Ford did not like the idea either. Ford was an engineer, and he liked simplicity, economies of scale, and strong design. By 1931, GM sold more cars than Ford and became the strongest company making cars. Changing the desig...