[anamax]

The all in one list doesn't include the countries that had lots of car companies, such as the US. US only list (which was the biggest) has over 1800, from 1896 to 1930.

The US wikipedia entry claims that very few car companies were started after 1930. I know a couple from the 60s that didn't make the list which were literally a couple of guys in a garage. No, they weren't casting their own engine blocks but neither does Lotus for some of their models.

> But I can't figure out how to tell how many of them meet my original criteria of manufacturing outside of "freestanding factories".

Most made very few cars so it's unlikely that they had significant factories.

> I don't think that was a huge part of the economy.

There were two separate claims. The first was that small scale manufacturing was a significant part of manufacturing. I haven't addressed that.

The second was that lots of car companies had almost nothing in the way of "factory". That's the claim that I've supported.