During the year 1939 automobile manufacturing plants in the United States and Canada produced 3,710,000 motor vehicles, of which 2,960,000 were passenger cars and 750,000 commercial vehicles. The wholesale value of cars was $1,815,485,000 and of trucks $486,071,000 making a total of $2,301,556,000. In addition the industry produced parts, accessories and tires for replacement purposes and also equipment for servicing motor vehicles to the value of $1,283,540,000. Thus the total valuation of automobile industry products for the year amounted to $3,585,096,000. Motor vehicles, parts and tires valued at $322,000,000, were exported from the United States and Canada during the year. They included 472,000 motor vehicles sold outside the United States (United States exports and the output of Canadian plants owned by United States firms), or 13 per cent of production.
At the end of the year there were 45,000,000 motor vehicles registered throughout the world, of which 30,710,000, consisting of 26,250,000 cars and 4,410,000 trucks (68 per cent of the total), were in the United States. Credited to motor vehicles in use was an estimated total of 250,000,000,000 miles of motor transportation, averaging 8,800 miles per year per car and 19,100 miles per year per truck. This required 20,787,000,000 gallons of gasoline, costing $4,050,000,000 (Federal, state and municipal gas taxes included). There are nearly 1,250,000 miles of surfaced roads in the United States, and on the principle of taxation for use, motor vehicle users paid $1,631,000,000 in special taxes, representing nearly 11 per cent of revenue from all sources for Federal, state and local governments. Of this sum $1,035,000,000 was levied for gasoline taxation alone. Thirty-seven states, however, diverted a total of $160,000,000 for other than highway purposes, among them general expenses, schools and relief.
There were approximately 5 persons in the United States for every passenger car, the ratio varying from 2.7 in California to 11.8 in Mississippi. In cities above 100,000 population, the average was 5.6 persons per passenger car, ranging from 3.2 (Oakland and Long Beach, Calif., and Miami, Fla.) to 10.4 (New York). Approximately two out of every three families in the United States owned a passenger automobile (85 per cent of farm families own cars), and about 60 per cent of passenger car use was for business purposes. Since automobiles were also widely used for recreation, it is estimated by the American Automobile Association that 52,500,000 people took motor vacations during the year, spending $5,000,000,000 for that purpose. Visitors to the national parks, traveling mainly by motor car, totaled 7,000,000. Motor cars now carry 91 per cent of travel in America. Due to special measures to increase safety in the operation of motor vehicles during the preceding four years, there was a reduction over that period in the accident fatality rate amounting to 37.3 per cent, equivalent to the saving of 29,000 lives and $1,000,000,000 in property damage.
As a whole, motor vehicles in use had an average aggregate power production exceeding 1,500,000,000 horsepower, or 33 times the aggregate energy production of all the central stations operated by utility companies. Passenger cars and trucks were sold through 40,600 dealers and serviced through 86,700 repair shops in all parts of the country, while fuel and lubricants were distributed through 380,000 outlets. In all, the industry generated employment in every state in the Union for a total of 6,380,000 persons, or one-seventh of all gainfully employed, distributed as follows: 713,000 in motor vehicle, parts and tire manufacturing plants and in petroleum refining; 1,103,000 in sales and servicing; 267,000 workers on Federal and state roads; 3,722,000 truck and bus drivers; 511,000 employees producing raw materials; and taxi-drivers, chauffeurs and insurance and finance company employees. Automobile, body and parts manufacturing plants employed directly nearly 380,000 persons at an average hourly rate of 93 cents for a 33-hour week. Weekly payrolls for the industry averaged $12,226,000. The industry was the largest purchaser of gasoline, rubber, steel, malleable iron, mohair, lubricating oil, plate glass, nickel and lead, among other commodities. Transportation of raw materials, parts and furnished products, gasoline and road building materials furnished 3,400,000 carloads of railroad freight.
With the introduction of 1940 model cars at the New York Automobile Show in October, the industry celebrated the 40th anniversary of that event. From the year 1900, when the first New York Automobile Show was held, until June 30, 1939, world production was 93,000,000 motor vehicles. Production in the United States and Canada was 78,000,000 units, or 84 per cent of the total, comprising 60,850,000 passenger cars and 11,150,000 trucks. In 1900 there were 8,000 cars in use and 4,102 were built during that year; commercial vehicle manufacture did not begin until 1904, when 700 business vehicles were produced. Innovations of design characteristic of 1939-40 models included: wider and lower bodies with easier entranceways; improved vision; improved safety glass with curved as well as flat surfaces and improved visual characteristics; gear-shift controls mounted on the steering column; hydraulic clutches; heaters mounted under the front seat with fresh-air intake and distribution to front and rear compartments; sealed-beam headlights; direction signals; sponge rubber seat pads and increased use of independent front wheel suspension.
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