The automobile industry is a giant, serving both public and private sectors of the economy and consuming enumerable amounts of goods used in production, accounting for numerous additional jobs. The complexity of the industry has grown over the years along with the complexity of the products it produces. New means of advertising and other market strategies further complicate this already hugely intricate industry. On top of this, the industry continues to evolve on an almost yearly basis with the introduction of new “essential standard features” that one would not have even considered putting in a car five years earlier. Despite it’s relatively recent rapid growth in the past 100 years, the automobile industry, had a somewhat slower start. Once the industry was set in motion it unquestionably continued to grow and develop amazing machines that provide a great service to society and a great profit to its manufactures, but the first 130 years the automobile industry took to establish itself as an important part of the economy are just as important to fully understand the industry. The first self-propelled street vehicle was invented by the French engineer and mechanic, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, in 1769. It was a military tractor used by the French army to haul artillery. It was destroyed later that same year in what is considered the first automobile accident; it crashed into a wall.2 The engine, like most of its time, was steam powered. Steam was the main source of power used in engines until about 1839, when Robert Anderson of Scotland invented the first electric car. However it was later determined that the electric engine severed a much better purpose in the use of tramways and streetcars, situations that made it possible to maintain a constant supply of electricity. It wasn’t until 1864 that the first gasoline-powered engine with a crude carburetor was