 | |
| Industry | Automobile |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1921 |
| Defunct | 1931 |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Headquarters | Lansing, Michigan, United States |
Key people | William C. Durant |
| Products | Vehicles |
| Divisions | Durant Flint Star/Rugby Mason Truck |
| Subsidiaries | Locomobile Company of America |
Durant Motors Inc. was established in 1921 by former General Motors CEO William "Billy" Durant following his termination by the GM board of directors and the New York bankers who financed GM. [1]
Durant Motors attempted to be a full-line automobile producer of cars and fielded the Flint, Durant, and Star brands, which were designed to meet Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland, and Chevrolet price points. Billy Durant also acquired luxury-car maker Locomobile of Bridgeport, Connecticut, [2] at its liquidation sale in 1922; [3] in theory, Locomobile gave him a product that would compete against Cadillac, Rolls-Royce, and Pierce-Arrow. Durant Motors had a relationship with the Dort, Frontenac, and DeVaux automobile name badges. The Rugby line was the export name for Durant's Star car line. However, from 1928 to 1931, Durant marketed trucks in the US and Canadian markets under the badge Rugby Trucks. The Princeton, a model aimed at the Packard and Cadillac price points, was planned but never realized; also planned was the Eagle car line, but it never made it off the drafting tables.
Durant co-founded a truck-making subsidiary, Mason Truck, and also acquired numerous ancillary companies to support Durant Motors. In 1927, the Durant line was shut down to retool for a brand-new, modernized car for 1928, re-emerging in 1928 with Durant, Locomobile, and Rugby lines in place, and dropping the Mason Truck and Flint automobile lines and the top-selling Star car in April 1928. In 1929, Locomobile went out of production.
Initially, Durant Motors enjoyed success based upon Billy Durant's track record at General Motors, where he assembled independent makes Chevrolet, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac. However, when sales failed to meet volumes sufficient to sustain Durant Motors holdings, the firm's financial footing began to slip. As a result, Durant Motors began losing market share and dealers. The final Durant-branded models rolled off the US assembly line in August 1931 at Lansing, but continued in Canada into 1932 under Dominion Motors, which also built the Frontenac. [4]
The Lansing, Michigan, Durant plant on Verlinden Avenue opened in 1920. After the demise of Durant, it remained closed until GM purchased it in 1935. It restarted production for GM's Fisher Body Division, later becoming the Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac factory. It was finally combined with another Lansing plant to become Lansing Car Assembly. That factory was closed on May 6, 2005.
Durant's Flint, Michigan, factory was bought by the Fisher Body Division of General Motors, and built mostly Buick bodies until its 1987 closure. [1] [5]
Durant's Oakland, California, plant, located at the northeast corner of East 14th Street (now International Blvd.) and Durant Avenue (also the boundary between Oakland and San Leandro), later became a General Motors parts warehouse. Part of the plant survives as loft apartments and the Durant Square shopping center. [6]
The company's Canadian Leaside, Ontario, plant later became a factory for the Canadian Wire and Cable Company, though it was later demolished and is now a neighborhood shopping center.
Durant's former plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, housed one of the first supermarkets in the 1930s, and then was used as a cookie bakery by Burry Biscuits for many years. It was in use as a warehouse when it was destroyed by fire in December 2011. [7]
Billy Durant died nearly broke at age 85 in 1947, the same year as Henry Ford, aged 83. [8]
Buick is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American automobile brands and was the company that established General Motors in 1908. Before the establishment of General Motors, GM founder William C. Durant had served as Buick's general manager and major investor. With the demise of Oldsmobile in 2004, Buick became the oldest surviving American carmaker. Buick is positioned as a premium automobile brand, selling luxury vehicles positioned below the flagship luxury Cadillac division.
William Crapo Durant was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, founder of General Motors and co-founder of Chevrolet. He created a system in which a company held multiple marques – each seemingly independent, with different automobile lines – bound under a unified corporate holding company. He also founded Frigidaire.
LaSalle was an American brand of luxury automobiles manufactured and marketed, as a separate brand, by General Motors' Cadillac division from 1927 through 1940. Alfred P. Sloan, GM's Chairman of the Board, developed the concept for four new GM marques - LaSalle, Marquette, Viking and Pontiac - paired with already established brands to fill price gaps he perceived in the General Motors product portfolio. Sloan created LaSalle as a companion marque for Cadillac. LaSalle automobiles were manufactured by Cadillac, but were priced lower than Cadillac-branded automobiles, were shorter, and were marketed as the second-most prestigious marque in the General Motors portfolio. LaSalles were titled as LaSalles, and not as Cadillacs. Like Cadillac — named after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac — the LaSalle brand name was based on that of another French explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.
The Rugby was a brand of automobiles assembled by the Durant Motors Company of New York City, New York (USA). Beside badges and right-hand drive for some models, the vehicle was identical to Durant's Star car, and was assigned to export markets by Durant Motors, due to the name Star being under copyright by the Star Motor Company in the British Commonwealth.
The Oakland Motor Car Company of Pontiac, Michigan, was an American automobile manufacturer and division of General Motors. Purchased by General Motors in 1909, the company continued to produce modestly priced automobiles until 1931 when the brand was dropped in favor of the division's Pontiac make.
Fisher Body was an automobile coachbuilder founded by the Fisher brothers in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan.
Lansing Car Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Lansing, Michigan. It contained two elements, a 1901 automobile plant in downtown Lansing, and the 1920 Durant Motors factory on Lansing's Far Westside.
Buick City was a massive, vertically-integrated automobile manufacturing complex in northeast Flint, Michigan, which served the Buick home plant between 1904 and 1999. In the early 1980s, after major renovations were completed to better compete with Japanese producers, the plant was renamed to "Buick City".
Wilmington Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Wilmington, Delaware. The 3,200,000-square-foot (300,000 m2) factory opened in 1947, and produced cars for GM's Chevrolet, Pontiac, Saturn, Opel, Buick and Daewoo brands during its operation. GM closed the plant on July 28, 2009.
Linden Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Linden, New Jersey, United States. The plant operated from 1937 to 2005 and made cars, trucks and SUVs for various GM automotive divisions.
Leeds Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Leeds, Missouri. It was closed in 1988. The factory produced the A-bodies and J-bodies.
In the late 1920s, American automotive company General Motors (GM) launched four companion makes to supplement its existing lineup of five-passenger car brands, or makes. The companion makes were LaSalle, introduced for the 1927 model year to supplement Cadillac; Marquette, introduced in 1929 for 1930 to supplement Buick; Pontiac, introduced for 1926 to supplement Oakland; and Viking, introduced for 1929 to supplement Oldsmobile. GM's fifth existing brand, Chevrolet, did not receive a companion make. With the exception of Viking, each of the companion makes were slotted below their "parent make" in GM's pricing hierarchy.
Flint, Michigan is a city which previously relied on its automotive industry, and still does to an extent. Over the past several decades, General Motors plants in Genesee County have experienced re-namings, management shifts, openings, closures, reopenings, and spinoffs.
The Chevrolet Superior Series F was manufactured by Chevrolet from 1923 to 1926, with a different series per year. The 1923 model was known as the Series B, the 1924 model was the Series F, for 1925 it was known as the Series K and the 1926 Superior was known as the Series V. It was replaced in 1927 by the Series AA Capitol. It was the first Chevrolet that didn't have a larger companion model and was the only car sold by Chevrolet in several body style configurations all supplied by Fisher Body. Each year new mechanical changes, appearance updates or optional features that became standard in subsequent years became expected of all GM products including Chevrolet. Body styles were separated into open and closed which meant closed included retractable glass in the doors and glass surrounding rear seat passengers. Standard items included tools, a jack for tire removal, speedometer, outside lockable door handles, ammeter, oil pressure gauge, dashboard light, choke pull knob, electric horn, ignition theft lock, and a two piece vertical ventilating windshield that allowed fresh air to enter the passenger compartment. Wheels were 30" and came standard with hickory wood spokes or optional pressed steel discs. For 1925, bumpers were offered optionally along with outside side view mirrors, heater for passenger compartment and a clock.
Pontiac Assembly was one of four General Motors assembly plants in Pontiac, Michigan located along Baldwin Avenue. It served as the home factory for GM's Pontiac Motor Division since it was built in 1927. It was across the street from the currently operational Pontiac Metal Center, which was the original location for the Oakland Motor Car Company, which Pontiac evolved out of.
The Sheridan was a brand of American automobile manufactured from 1920 to 1921. Manufacture of the car was based in Muncie, Indiana. The Sheridan nameplate has the distinction of being the first automotive brand started from scratch by General Motors. Prior to the Sheridan, General Motors, under William (Billy) Durant, grew its automotive marques Chevrolet, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac, by acquiring independent manufacturers and then folding their operations into the GM structure.
The Chevrolet Series AA Capitol is an American vehicle manufactured by Chevrolet in 1927. Launched in the year Ford changed from the Model T to the Model A, Chevrolet sold 1,001,820 Series AA cars, and under the direction of General Manager William S. Knudsen Chevrolet would overtake Ford’s dominance in the market internationally. The GM introduction of the GM A platform also introduced yearly appearance changes while using a corporate appearance from the newly established Art and Color Section headed up by Harley Earl which meant the Chevrolet Capitol and the Cadillac Series 314 shared a common appearance as both cars, as well as Oakland, Oldsmobile and Buick used Fisher Body, now owned by GM, as the sole provider of coachwork. Individuality between the brands was defined by the manufacturer of the engine, which was brand exclusive, and badging on the radiator. This model documents that the accelerator pedal was introduced as previous generations used a throttle installed in the center of the steering column along with the installation of a gas gauge installed in the dashboard and a centrally installed rear view mirror.
GM C platform, also known as the C-Body, was a front wheel drive (FWD) automobile platform used by General Motors' Cadillac, Buick and Oldsmobile divisions for their full-sized automobiles from 1985 through 1996, sharing unibody construction, transverse engine configuration, rack and pinion steering and four-wheel independent suspension.
Chevrolet Assembly Division was a designation used from 1933 to 1965. Fisher Body produced trimmed out bodies and then passed the bodies to the Chevrolet Assembly Division which completed the assembly of the vehicle. To streamline production, the General Motors Assembly Division was created that incorporated both divisions. From 1965 to 1972, GMAD was given responsibility for former Chevrolet / Fisher Body assembly plants.
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