Best Cars Of 1944 – The Greatest Cars In The World This Year

Automobile manufacturers began devoting ever greater amounts of production time to defense work, for export to Britain as well as for the United States.

The U.S. auto industry produced 20% of the total U.S. output of the material manufactured to fight World War II, with the total value of goods produced by the U.S. automobile industry in the war effort surpassed $29 billion. GM produced $12 billion of that or 41% the industry output and 8% of the entire American war economy.  Ford came in second with $3.9 billion, and Chrysler was right behind with $3.5 billion in war contracts.  Willys-Overland had $7.34 million for the nineteen wartime projects it had.  While the auto companies were the logical manufacturers of trucks, armored cars, jeeps and tanks, the product line was extensive and many of the items built were new to the industry.  Both Ford and General Motors both built entire warplanes for the conflict, and many aircraft components were produced by the industry.

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