production in the United States in 1942, Crosley had produced 5,757 cars. After World War II ended, Crosley resumed building its small cars for civilian use. His company's first post-war automobile rolled off the assembly line on May 9, 1946. The new Crosley "CC" model automobile continued the company's pre-war tradition of offering small, lightweight, and low-priced cars. It sold for $850 and got thirty to fifty miles per U.S. gallon. In 1949 Crosley became the first American carmaker to put disc brakes on all of its models. Unfortunately for Crosley, fuel economy ceased to be an inducement after gas rationing ended, and American consumers also began to prefer bigger cars. Crosley's best year was 1948, when it sold 24,871 cars, but sales began to fall in 1949. Adding the Crosley "Hotshot" sports model and an all-purpose vehicle called the "Farm-O-Road" model in 1950 did not stop the decline. Only 1,522 Crosley vehicles were sold in 1952. Crosley sold about 84,000 cars before closing down the operation on July 3, 1952. The Crosley plant in Marion, Indiana, was sold to the General Tire and Rubber Company. War-production contractor Crosley's company was involved in war production planning before December 1941, and like the rest of American industry, it focused on manufacturing war-related products during World War II. The company made a variety of products, including proximity fuzes, experimental military vehicles, radio transceivers, and gun turrets, among other items. Proximity fuzes The most significant Crosley's wartime production was the proximity fuze, which was manufactured by several companies for the military. Crosley's facilities produced more fuzes than any other manufacturer and made several production design innovations. The fuze is widely considered the third most important product development of the war years, ranking behind the atomic bomb and radar. Ironically, Crosley himself did not have U.S. government security clearance and was not involved with the project. Without government security clearance, Crosley was prohibited from entering the area of his plant that manufactured the fuzes and did not know what top-secret products it produced until the war's end. Production was directed and supervised by Lewis M. Clement, the Crosley company's vice-president of engineering. James V. Forrestal, U.S. Secretary of the Navy said: "The proximity fuze has helped blaze the trail to Japan. Without the protection this ingenious device has given the surface ships of the Fleet, our westward push could not have been so swift