automationgame.com

Hey. Probably too much work for not enough benefit but, what about pre 1940 cars? It would be cool to struggle to make a reliable V8 with more than 100 hp at a reasonable price for the average family. Or, you could try to make a some crazy long nosed, V12, luxury cars of the '20s and '30s for the New York bigwig on Wall street.

This would be good only if the game had a timeline progression.

It will have a timeline progression of course. It'll start in 1946 and time passes from there

If it had timeline progression? Eh.. how do you make a car company tycoon game if without that?

I'm referring to technological advancements, not just time moving forward.

They will have tech advancement too. They are starting in 1946 because it's easier and faster to have the game start in the modern era. I think pre 1946 will come in addons or DLCs later on.
Think about it, many early cars were steam driven, electric and the petrol cars had very primitive motors which are different than the modern ones and would take a lot of time to model and code. There is also the issue with WWII. It's about a 5-6 year period in which not many new cars were built. What would the player do in game; start building tanks or fast forward over that period?
It would mean to much work for the initial realese of the game.

Well, of course the available technology will advance from 1946 - 2020, and if you invest money in research you'll be able to get technology ahead of time.