The maritime car carrier industry has been entirely neglected by social scientists. This book examines globalization changes in cost structure and dynamics; in ownership, freight, labour and other markets; in technological innovation and ship design; and in relation to car manufacturers, ship management companies and crewing agents.

At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, automobile manufacturing was the largest, most profitable industry in the United States and residents of industry hubs like Detroit and Flint, Michigan had some of the highest incomes in the country. Over the last half-century, the industry has declined, and American automakers now struggle to stay profitable. How did the most prosperous industry in the richest country in the world crash and burn? In Wrecked, sociologists Joshua Murray and Michael Schwartz offer an unprecedented historical-sociological analysis of the downfall of the auto industry. Through an in-depth examination of labor relations and the production processes of automakers in the U.S. and Japan both before and after World War II, they demonstrate that the decline of the American manufacturers was the unintended consequence of their attempts to weaken the bargaining power of their unions. Today Japanese and many European automakers produce higher quality cars at lower cost than their American counterparts thanks to a flexible form of production characterized by long-term sole suppliers, assembly and supply plants located near each other, and just-in-time delivery of raw materials. While this style of production was, in fact, pioneered in the U.S. prior to World War II, in the years after the war, American automakers deliberately dismantled this system. As Murray and Schwartz show, flexible production accelerated innovation but also facilitated workers’ efforts to unionize plants and carry out work stoppages. To reduce the efficacy of strikes and combat the labor militancy that flourished between the Depression and the postwar period, the industry dispersed production across the nation, began maintaining large stockpiles of inventory, and eliminated single sourcing. While this restructuring of production did ultimately reduce workers’ leverage, it also decreased production efficiency and innovation. The U.S. auto industry has struggled ever since to compete with foreign automakers, and formerly thriving motor cities have suffered the consequences of mass deindustrialization. Murray and Schwartz argue that new business models that reinstate flexible production and prioritize innovation rather than cheap labor could stem the outsourcing of jobs and help revive the auto industry. By clarifying the historical relationships between production processes, organized labor, and industrial innovation, Wrecked provides new insights into the inner workings and decline of the U.S. auto industry.

In 2018 almost half of all vehicles made in North America were produced at foreign-owned plants, and the sector was on track to monopolize the market. Despite this, the industry has been overlooked compared with its domestic counterpart, both in scholarship and popular memory. Redressing this neglect, America’s Other Automakers provides a new history of the foreignowned auto sector, the first to extensively draw on archival sources and to articulate the human agency of participants, including workers, managers, and industry recruiters. Timothy J. Minchin challenges the view that the industry’s growth primarily reflected incentives, stressing human agency and the complexity of individual stories instead. Deeply human in its approach, the book also explores the industry’s impact on grassroots communities, showing that it had more costs than supporters acknowledged. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, America’s Other Automakers uncovers significant tensions over unionization, reports of discriminatory hiring, and unease about the industry’s rapid growth, critically exploring seven large assembly facilities and their impact on the communities in which they were built.

Automotive Technology: Principles, Diagnosis, and Service, Fourth Edition, meets the needs for a comprehensive book that covers all eight areas of automotive service, plus the soft skills and tool knowledge that must also be taught. Because many automotive systems are intertwined, presenting all systems together in one text makes it easier for the student to see how they are all connected. Topics are divided into 133 short chapters, which makes it easier for instructors and students to learn and master the content.

Make $100 here, $500 there, fixing cars in your spare time. People are too busy to take their car to a dealership for service. Being a self-employed mobile mechanic fills that need, and can provide you a substantial additional income. You already know how to fix cars. You're 95% of the way there. You just need to know the business of being a self-employed mechanic. The Happy Mechanic is your complete guide for that knowledge. Achieve financial independence by fixing cars part-time. Set your own hours. Set your own rates. Work as much as you want. Never answer to a boss. It's just you and the cars. No boss breathing down your neck, no rules other than fix that car right. If you can wrench on cars, the money is all yours. The Happy Mechanic is a complete step-by-step manual to fixing your money worries, getting extra income, and becoming a successful entrepreneur by fixing cars part-time.