ABSTRACT
The automobile industry, like the other industries addressed in this book, is important not just for its significant direct share of industrial production, but also for its linkages to other industries, such as steel, paint, road construction and oil, and for its role in transforming daily life through its contributions to the emergence of suburbia and to contemporary cultural enthusiasm for mobility and speed. In the US the automobile and auto parts industry contributed between 4 and 6.5 percent of manufacturing value added through most of the twentieth century. Even in countries that have not traditionally been major players in the auto industry, participation in the international auto industry has been seen as an important part of an industrialization strategy.
