Into a booming seller’s market for new cars in the USA, the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation launched the boldly designed 1947 Kaiser.

With his Liberty ships and steel plants in support of the USA’s World War II effort, Henry J. Kaiser earned a reputation as a can-do guy. So when the war ended and Kaiser announced his next ambitioius project—to compete head-on with the Detroit auto industry—the plan had real credibility. After all, he was partnered with Joseph Frazer, a vastly experienced auto man who helped to build the Chrysler Corporation, which added even more weight to the enterprise.

The original plan included two cars: a conventionally built, premium-priced Frazer, and a radically conceived Kaiser with unit construction, torsion-bar suspension, and front-wheel drive. (See our feature here.)  But the advanced engineering was too much for the start-up automaker to execute, and the Kaiser that went into production in the summer of 1946 was a totally standard vehicle with a ladder frame, rear-wheel drive, and an off-the-shelf Contiental L-head six for power—features shared with the deluxe Frazer. They were virtual clones.

To modern eyes, the Kaiser (and Frazer) may appear boxy, bland, and slab-sided. But at the time, the design was bold, even a little shocking. Stylist Howard “Dutch” Darrin eliminated the fenders as separate elements, pulling the body out to its full width from front front to rear and creating the first full-envelope body on a volume-production American car. Among other benefits, this enabled a wide, roomy cabin. The rear sear was slightly more than five feet across (above).

Compared to all the pre-war cars then in production, the Kaiser came off as strikingly modern. But probably the new carmaker’s biggest advantage was in timing: Newly prosperous Americans, denied new cars all through the war years, were now ready to buy anything with wheels. Kaiser-Frazer ads boasted of more than 100,000 advance orders for “the most talked-about car in America.” The booming economy and pent-up demand generated a seller’s market the Detroit auto industry has never experienced before or since.

From its giant plant at Willow Run, the former Ford B-24 bomber factory 30 miles west of Detroit, the freshly minted carmaker pounded out more than 70,000 Kaisers in the 1947 model year, along with another 68,000 Frazers. Incredibly, Kaiser-Frazer reported a profit of $20 million in its first year. Sales remained strong in 1948, with more than 90,000 Kaisers produced in the two trim levels, base Special and upmarket Custom.

But by 1949, Kaiser-Frazer no longer had the wind at its back. With prices in the $2,000-$2,500 range, Kaiser was never really cost-competitive with the Detroit three, and in ’49 both Ford and GM launched their first real post-war cars. Sensing the change in the weather, Frazer called for a cutback in production, while the always bullish Henry Kaiser wanted to double it. Losing the argument, Frazer stepped down, and the automaker never really recovered from Kaiser’s ill-timed expansion. The last U.S. passenger car to wear a Kaiser badge was offered in 1955.