Crosley Owners Group

Industrialist Powel Crosley, Jr., of Cincinnati, Ohio, owner of Crosley Broadcasting Corporation and the Cincinnati Reds baseball team, had ambitious plans to build a subcompact car and developed assembly plants at Richmond, Indiana, and Marion, Indiana. In May 1939, the first car was shown at the Indianapolis Speedway. It was a two-door convertible that weighed under 1,000-pound (454 kg) and sold for US$250. It did not achieve sales success, but in 1941 more body styles were introduced.

The chassis had an 80-inch (2,032 mm) wheelbase, half elliptic springs with beam axle in front and quarter elliptics in the rear. The power came from a two-cylinder Waukesha air-cooled engine that had the fan as a part of the flywheel. The engine was connected with a three-speed transmission and then directly via a torque tube to the rear axle, thus eliminating the need for joints. However, this arrangement was judged unreliable, and conventional universal joints were fitted beginning in 1941.

In 1941, the body styles available were expanded to include two- and four-passenger convertibles, a convertible sedan, a station wagon, a panel truck, a pickup, and two models called "Parkway Delivery" (a mini-panel with no roof over the front seat) and "Covered Wagon" (a convertible pickup truck with a removable back seat).

During World War II, the Crosley became attractive because of gasoline rationing and the good mileage it could achieve: 50 miles per US gallon (4.7 L/100 km; 60 mpg-imp). Crosley was the last company to cease production of civilian vehicles in 1942, partly to allow car buyers the opportunity to purchase as many Crosleys as possible to aid in fuel rationing, and partly because the War Production Board needed some time to determine a useful purpose for Crosley's small factories.


A 1950 Crosley station wagon on display at the Central Texas Museum of Automotive History.Civilian car production resumed in 1945 with the aerodynamic CC, but only at the Marion plant; the Richmond facility had been sold during the war years. Crosley introduced a number of "firsts" in the American automobile industry, including the first mass-market single overhead camshaft (SOHC) engine in 1946, first slab sided post-war car also in 1946, first all steel bodied wagon 1947, first American car to be fitted with 4 wheel disc brakes 1949, first American sports car, the Hotshot, also in 1949. 1950 brought the FarmORoad model, a 63-inch (1,600 mm) wheelbase utility vehicle predictive of the John Deere Gator and other UTVs.