|
:''For the defunct American automotive company see: Crosley Motors'' Crossley Motors was a British motor vehicle manufacturer based in Manchester, England. They produced approximately 19,000 high-quality cars from 1904 until 1938, 5,500 buses from 1926 until 1958 and 21,000 goods and military vehicles from 1914 to 1945. Crossley Brothers, originally manufacturers of textile machinery and rubber processing plant, began the licensed manufacture of the Otto internal combustion engine before 1880. The firm started car production in 1903, building around 650 vehicles in their first year.〔Nick Georgano (ed.), ''Britain's Motor Industry, The First Hundred Years'', (Yeovil: G.T. Foulis and Company, 1995), p.73; ''Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Manchester and Salford With Their Vicinities'', (Manchester: Isaac Slater, 1874 edn.)〕 The company was originally created as a division of engine builders Crossley Brothers, but from 1910 became a stand-alone company. Although founded as a car maker, they were major suppliers of vehicles to British forces during the First World War, and in the 1920s moved into bus manufacture. With re-armament in the 1930s, car-making was run down, and stopped completely in 1936. During the Second World War output was again concentrated on military vehicles. Bus production resumed in 1945 but no more cars were made. The directors decided in the late 1940s that the company was too small to survive alone and agreed a take over by AEC. Production at the Crossley factories finally stopped in 1958. ==History== Crossley Motors Ltd was first registered on 11 April 1906 (and re-registered with a different company number in 1910) as the vehicle manufacturing arm of Crossley Brothers. The first car was actually built in 1903 and exhibited at the Society of Motor Manufacturers' Exhibition at Crystal Palace in February 1904,〔Society of Motor Manufacturers' Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, The Automotor Journal, 13 February 1904, p180〕 but the parent company saw a future for these new machines and decided a separate company was required. In 1920 Crossley Motors bought 34,283 (68.5%) of the 50,000 issued shares of the nearby A V Roe and Company – better known as Avro. Crossley took over Avro's car manufacturing business but Avro continued its aircraft manufacturing operations independently. Crossley had to sell their shares in Avro to Armstrong Siddeley in 1928 to pay for the losses incurred in Willys Overland Crossley. After the Second World War the directors decided that the company was not large enough to prosper and looked for a partner. This resulted in a take over by Associated Equipment Company (AEC) in 1948.〔K. Bhaskar, ''The Future of the UK Motor Industry'', (London: Kogan Page, 1979), p. 240; S. W. Stevens-Stratten, ''Trucks in Camera: AEC'', (London: Ian Allan, 1984), pp. 19, 43〕 AEC's parent company changed its name to Associated Commercial Vehicles Ltd and Crossley became a division of this. Production of the Crossley range of vehicles continued at the Stockport plant until 1952. After that date the production was of badge-engineered AEC designs and bus bodywork, until the factory was closed in 1958 and sold in 1959.〔 Although no longer trading, the company was never formally wound up. In 1969 AEC's new owner, British Leyland, restarted the company with a new name – Leyland National – and production of single-decker buses recommenced. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Crossley Motors」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|