Durant Motors

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Star Touring (1922)
Star Model F Touring (1924)
Durant sedan (1929)

The Durant Motors Inc. was founded in 1921 by former General Motors -Director William Crapo Durant founded, had been after that at the request of the New York bankers who financed GM GM fired.

car brands

Durant Motors tried its hand at being a full-line supplier in the automotive sector, bringing out cars under the Durant , Flint and Star brands . They should compete with Buick , Chevrolet , Oldsmobile, and Oakland cars . William Durant also bought the luxury car manufacturer Locomobile after its liquidation in 1922; Theoretically, this company provided him with a product with which he wanted to compete against Rolls-Royce , Pierce-Arrow and, above all, Packard . Starting in 1923, there were plans for a new brand called Princeton , targeting the same segment of the market. But they were given up shortly before the launch in 1924. Durant had since the time together in their Carriage Company Durant There , a carriage maker in Flint ( Michigan ), with Josiah Dallas, where friends. This cooperated with his Dort Motor Car Company with Durant. Rugby was the name of the export star automobiles, and from 1928 to 1931 Durant sold Rugby trucks in the United States and Canada.

In June 1923, the launch of the Eagle brand was announced. Four- and six-cylinder models were planned. Until 1924 only a few prototypes with six-cylinder engines were made.

production

William Durant was a co-founder of the truck manufacturer Mason Motor Truck Company , officially a subsidiary of Durant, which also manufactured many supplier parts. Durant maintained plants in Lansing ( Michigan ), Elizabeth ( New Jersey ) ( Long Iceland ) ( New York ), Grand Rapids (Michigan) and Oakland ( California ). The engines were mostly obtained from Continental and to a lesser extent from Herschell-Spillman . The construction of the series bodies was outsourced to suppliers. The Hayes-Hunt Corporation in Grand Rapids (Michigan) built closed bodies for Durant, Star and Flint automobiles , which was also taken over in 1922. Under the brand name Frontenac (not to be confused with the earlier brand of the same name by the Chevrolet brothers Louis and Gaston ), Durant cars were also built at Dominion Motors in Canada.

In 1927 the production of Durant automobiles was stopped to convert the production line to a completely redesigned model that came out in model year 1928 (similar to what Ford did with the T-model in the same year ). In 1928 models from Durant, Locomobile and Rugby were still offered; Mason Truck, Flint and the very well-running star disappeared in April 1928. In 1929 the production of the Locomobile was also stopped.

collapse

Initially, Durant Motors used the concept developed by William Durant for GM to produce various brands (Chevrolet, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac). But when sales of Durant brands did not reach the expected highs, the company's financial foundations shook. So Durant Motors lost market share and dealers. The stock market crash of 1929 and the economic crisis that followed hit Durant Motors and its founder particularly hard.

The last models with the name Durant left the production lines in 1931. In Canada, Durant Frontenacs continued to be built for a while. The plant in Oakland was taken over by De Vaux , which built a further development of the Durant with its own engine here and in Grand Rapids (Michigan).

Another story

The Durant plant in Lansing opened in 1920. In 1921 Durant acquired the Sheridan Motor Car Company on Willard Street in Muncie, Indiana . He had bought the equipment previously used by the Inter-State Automobile Company for General Motors two years earlier. After his departure at the end of 1920, there was no longer any interest in the Sheridan . Instead of the Sheridan , the Durant Six was manufactured here from 1922.

After the collapse of Durant Motors, the Lansing plant remained closed until it was purchased by GM in 1935. Then bodies were built there for GM's Fisher Body department , and later Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac automobiles. Eventually it was merged with another plant in Lansing to form the Lansing Car Assembly . This factory closed its doors on May 6, 2005.

The Durant plants in Grand Rapids and Oakland were taken over by De Vaux in 1931 . The De Vaux 6-70 built here was derived from the Durant Six. De Vaux was taken over by the Continental Motors Company as early as 1932 and incorporated into its subsidiary Continental Automobile Company . However, the Continental , which is still based on the Durant Six, turned out to be not competitive; In addition, their own customers reacted not very pleased about the competition from a supplier. The Grand Rapids plant then also went to GM. De Vaux and Continental were made without the involvement of William Durant. Dominion Motors also built versions of it.

Willam Durant died in 1947 at the age of 85, almost completely impoverished.

An overview of US car brands that begin with Eagle

brand Manufacturer Marketing start End of marketing Location, state
eagle Eagle Automobile Company (New York) 1905 1905 Buffalo, New York
eagle Eagle Automobile Company (New Jersey) 1905 1907 Rahway, New Jersey
eagle Eagle Motor Carriage Company 1908 1908 Elmira, New York
eagle Eagle Automobile Company (Missouri) 1909 1909 St. Louis, Missouri
eagle Eagle-Macomber Motor Car Company 1914 1915 Chicago, Illinois
eagle Eagle Electric Automobile Company 1915 1916 Detroit, Michigan
eagle Durant Motors 1923 1924 Lansing, Michigan
eagle Eagle Manufacturing 1978 1984 Campbell, California
eagle Eagle Coach Work 1980 2001 Amherst, New York
eagle Eagle (US car brand) 1987 1998 Detroit, Michigan
Eagle Macomber Eagle-Macomber Motor Car Company 1916 1918 Sandusky, Ohio

literature

  • George Nick Georgano (Eds.), Naul, G. Marshall: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles ; MBI Motor Books International, Osceola WI, 1979; ISBN 0-87341-024-6 (English)
  • Kimes, Beverly Rae: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America ; Editor SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions, Warrendale PA (2005), ISBN 0-7680-1431-X (English)
  • Madsen, Axel: The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant made General Motors , John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1999; ISBN 0-4713-9523-4 (English)
  • Burness, Tad: 1920-1939 Car Spotters Guide , Motorbooks International
  • Kimes, Beverly Ray & Clark Jr. Henry Austin: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI (1996), ISBN 978-0-87341-428-9 ISBN 0-87341-428-4 (English)
  • Kimes, Beverly Ray & Clark Jr. Henry Austin: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805–1942 , Krause Publications, Iola WI (1985), ISBN 0-87341-045-9 (English)

Web links

Commons : Durant Motors  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 1248 (English).
  2. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 512 (English).
  3. ^ Madsen: The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant made General Motors , 1999, p. 224
  4. ↑ a b Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog. 1996, p. 1346 (Sheridan).
  5. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog. 1996, p. 771 (Inter-State).