Some of the motors and chasis were imported from the UK Austin; the bodies were made at the American Austin factories in Detroit, Michigan and Butler, Pennsylvania.
In the 4 years they produced just under 20,000 autos. Most famous was the Bantam one of the first compact cars mass-marketed in the US. Another was the American Austin.
In 1935 Roy Evans bought out the bankrupt company, which was reorganized under the name American Bantam. All ties to UK Austin were severed. Production was resumed in 1937 and continued through 1941.
The first prototype Jeeps were made by American Bantam.
To expand the market smaller cars were introduced with the 1661 cc Twelve in 1922 and later the same year the Austin 7, an inexpensive, small and simple car and one of the earliest to be directed at a mass market.
With the help of the Seven Austin weathered the worst of the depression and remained profitable through the 1930s producing a wider range of cars which were steadily updated with the introduction of all-steel bodies, Girling brakes, and synchromesh gearboxes but all the engines remained as side valve units.
The principle of a transverse engine with gearbox in the sump and driving the front wheels was carried on to larger cars with the 1100 of 1963, the 1800 of 1964, the Maxi of 1969, the Allegro of 1973 and the Metro of 1980.
The Austin Motor Company was founded in Longbridge, Birmingham by Herbert Austin, the former manager of the Wolseley Tool and Motor CarCompany in 1905.
Around the 1920s the company produced the Austin 7, an inexpensive, small and simple car and one of the earliest to be directed at a mass market.
In 1952 Austin merged with the Nuffield Organisation (parent company of Morris) to form the British Motor Corporation (later British Leyland).
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