Roy Abernethy

Roy Abernethy (September 29, 1906, Pennsylvania – February 28, 1977, Jupiter, Florida) was an executive in the American automobile industry, serving as CEO of American Motors Corporation (AMC) from February 1962 to January 1967.

Before his tenure at AMC, Abernethy had been with Packard Motors and Willys-Overland.

Abernethy replaced George W. Romney, who resigned from AMC to become Governor of Michigan.

Roy Abernethy was a native of Monterey, Pennsylvania, and his first job was caring for coal‐mine mules.

He moved to Pittsburgh to become an apprentice mechanic and he also took night courses in engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

He began his automotive industry career in 1926 as an apprentice mechanic at luxury automaker, Packard, earning 18 cents per hour.

He then moved up establishing success in auto sales, reaching US$1,000,000 in Packard vehicles in a single year from his dealership in Hartford, Connecticut.

Abernethy also held the post of vice president of sales at Willys.

He "may lack some of the eloquence of his predecessor, George Romney, who revived the company in the late 1950s, but he makes up for it with vocal volume."

One of the first tasks for the small automaker was to make its capital work harder in the face of competition with the automotive giants.

American Motors was formed from the merger of Nash Motors and Hudson Motor Car Company, and the company hired Abernethy in 1954.

During AMC's formative years, the company struggled with costs and sales.

Abernethy became vice president of sales and concentrated on building AMC's sales and distribution network.

He recognized that promotion and advertising are useless without a strong dealer organization, so his first task was to convert every Hudson and Nash dealer into an AMC dealer.

He then kept many of these dealers allied with AMC, thus helping to keep the corporation afloat, until AMC found its compact car niche under Romney's leadership.

He was known to fly 50000 mi a year to make AMC synonymous with the compact car.

Both took command of a financially strong company (working capital increased from a low of $46 million in 1957, to $103 million, and the firm eliminated all long-term debt), with sales increasing from $362 million (91,469 automobiles) in 1957, to more than $1 billion (422,273 total units) in 1960.

Abernethy continued Romney's prohibition on automobile racing, which had been instituted by the Automobile Manufacturers Association (AMA) in 1957.

He made AMC observe both the letter and spirit of AMA's resolution, and was against a renewal of the auto industry's horsepower race by offering ever more powerful engines, as well as corporate sponsorship of activities that glamorize speed and performance.

Abernethy achieved sales successes for the company and by 1962, Rambler was number three in sales rank among all the brands of cars sold in the United States.

The "rigidly conservative" Romney resigned from running AMC in February 1962, to be elected governor of Michigan.

On February 12, 1962, the AMC board of directors selected the 56-year-old Abernethy to replace Romney.

This was the first time the company had separated the position of president from the chairperson of the board.

Abernethy became responsible for day-to-day operations as president, while Richard E. Cross, the automaker's legal counsel and new chairman, was now called AMC's Chief Executive Officer.

Abernethy predicted a total of 450,000 Ramblers to be delivered for the 1962 year, despite increasing competition from the new domestic-made compact cars offered by the Big Three.

However, Abernethy "was more or less given an anchor and told to swim" after taking over the automaker from Romney.

Nevertheless, in mid-1963 AMC announced a new 287 CID V8 option in the Rambler Classic models (which were previously available only with I6 engines, and the V8s reserved for the Ambassador line) as well as made a partial attempt to tap into the rapidly growing muscle and performance car image by introducing the sporty Rambler Marlin midway in the 1965 model year.

The mid-sized fastback model made the public "aware of changes in Rambler's styling - the reaction is favorable."

However, Abernethy is now known for reversing Romney's plans for AMC that involved maximum parts compatibility for all lines of AMC vehicles.

Abernethy was a big man of 237 lb — smoking ten corona cigars a day — and had big ideas for the company.

He was convinced that with the right marketing AMC could take on the “Big Three” ([Ford, Chevy, and Plymouth, the Low priced big three]) model for model, if the company could shed its "economy car" reputation.

Chevy was able to introduce the Caprice, Ford the LTD, and Plymouth the Fury VIP.

In contrast to Romney, who thought only of compacts, as the automaker's new head, "Abernethy looked at the company's volume and decided it meant that AMC should go toe-to-toe with Ford, Chevy & Plymouth."

Abernethy said repeatedly that AMC's "main problem was its image lag — the fact that too many people still thought of American Motors as the builder of plain Jane compacts."

He also started to move the Ambassador upscale to compete with other manufacturers' full-size cars.

AMC's market performance reached record levels in 1964, placing the Rambler brand in third-place position in the domestic sales race.

At the same time, AMC publicly disavowed any interest in automobile competition.

Corporate advertising answered the question "Why don't we enter high-performance Rambler V-8s in racing?"

with "Because the only race Rambler cares about is the human race."

The "messianic fervor with which both former AMC president George Romney and his successor, Roy Abernethy, spread the message of fundamental motoring" helped solidify the image of the "Rambler driver" - a market segment that finds "any forms of performance repugnant."