Kenneth,
Let me give you some insignt into Kaiser-Frazer history, and the economics of the 1950's.
Students going off to school in the 1950's normally had to have their parents buy them a car, if they got one at all! They ended up with (hopefully) a reliable used car, or other basic transport. At best, they might end up with a 4 cylinder Henry J sedan.
Had it not been for the Korean War, 1952 Kaiser Manhattans would have offered an optional V-8 engine, produced for K-F by Oldsmobile. This GM division was willing to set aside at least 25,000 blocks a year (for mating to the GM Hydra-Matic already offered on Kaisers and the last Frazer Manhattans built) for this activity. However, the deal hinged on GM expanding production of the Rocket 88. The plan was in place, contracts were being let for construction, then the government began issuing edicts on plant construction/expansion for non-defense production. Olds had to put the expansion on hold until 1953. They offered Kaiser Motors (name change from K-F earlier in 1953) Rocket 88's for the 1954 model year, but by than other events made the offer moot.
As for Kaiser-Frazer's own V-8, I suggest anyone interested read the 1955 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) paper about the American Motors V-8 engine. This was the climax of 3 years research at Kaiser-Frazer and 5 years at Nash Motors & AMC. The two engineers leading the K-F project left for Nash and took their work with them. It was while at Nash that they discovered their original engine design (the one they did for K-F) was not practical and the men had to literally start over from scratch. they lost between 5-6 years of the total 8 figuring out that their idea didn't work!
Would Kaiser-Frazer had survived if they had all this. Studebaker had a V-8, a convertible and seasoned industry veterans backing up a well established veteran dealer network...look what happened to them. DeSoto's best sales year in its history was the 1957 model year and was backed by one of the biggest auto manufacturing organizations in the world. In 1960 Chrysler announced the marquee would no longer be in production. Had you told anyone in 2000 that the biggest of the big-General Motors--would go into bankruptcy a decade later, you would have probably been laughed out of the room. In short, if bigger operations than K-F failed, Kaiser-Frazer followed the best course action, acquiring the Willys-Overland operations in 1953. Jeep and related products (rather than passenger sedans) could have kept a Kaiser vehicle manufacturing operation going to this day because they've done just that!
