Marquette (make of car)

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Marquette was a General Motors brand of automobiles .

origin of the name

The group traces the brand name back to the French explorer, missionary and Jesuit priest Jacques Marquette (1637–1675). General Motors used it twice, first for the luxury four-cylinder cars of the Marquette Motor Company, which existed from 1909 to 1912 . Their Marquette Buick , driven by Louis Chevrolet and Bob Burman , were successful in early motorsport. The second use of the brand name relates to the Buick subsidiary brand described below.

description

Marquette Model 34 Sport Roadster (1930)

In the mid-1920s, General Motors (GM) decided to add sister companies to established brands, which should offer other, usually somewhat cheaper models in order to better cover all market segments. Oakland started with the cheaper Pontiac in 1926 and Cadillac with the LaSalle in 1927 . Both were very successful, and so it was decided to create similar brands for Oldsmobile and Buick (none was planned for Chevrolet). In 1929 the Viking from Oldsmobile and the Marquette from Buick appeared for the 1930 model year .

Models

The Marquette Series 30 - its official name - was a solid (US) middle class automobile. Its six-cylinder engine developed 67.5 bhp (50 kW) at 3000 rpm from 3488 cm³ (212.8 ci) displacement . One of its peculiarities is that it was not developed by Buick, but was derived from an Oldsmobile design. The engine with side- mounted valves (“L-head” “flat head”) was atypical - Buick used more complex engines with valves hanging in the cylinder head (“valve-in-head”). The wheelbase was the usual 2896 mm (114 inches)

1930 model range

Marquette Model 37 Sedan (1930)
model body List price in US $
30th Two-door sedan 1000
34 Sport roadster 1020
35 Phaeton 1020
36 Business Coupe (2-pass.) 990
36S Special Coupe (2/4-pass.) 1020
37 Sedan 1060

The following are the new prices of comparable models in a four-door sedan version.

model body List price in US $
Chevrolet Universal Series AD Sedan 625
Chevrolet Universal Series AD Special Sedan 675
Pontiac Big Six Model 8920 Sedan 845
DeSoto Six Model CK Sedan 885
DeSoto Eight Model CF Sedan 995
Oldsmobile F-30 Sedan 995
Dodge Six Series DA Sedan 995
Marquette Model 37 Sedan 1060
Dodge Six Series DA Deluxe Sedan 1065
Hudson Great Eight Sedan 1150
Oldsmobile F-30 Special Sedan 1190
Buick Series 40 Sedan 1330
Viking Eight Sedan 1595/1695

DeSoto CF, Dodge DA, Viking Eight and Hudson Great Eight were eight-cylinder, the latter also significantly larger. The six-cylinder DeSoto and Dodge as well as the Oldsmobile Standard Sedan were significantly cheaper at under $ 1000. It is surprising that the Marquette initially sold so well - the Viking had a harder time, it was (like the LaSalle) positioned between Buick and Cadillac.

Sales of the Marquette started on June 1, 1929 for the 1930 model year. The production number between 1929 and 1931 reached 35,007 units in the USA (including 4437 bare chassis) and a further 6535 units in Canada ; the last ones were built in 1931 from existing parts. So there are 29, 30 and 31 Marquettes, but they are all identical and are considered model year 1930.

There are a number of reasons why the Marquette may be hired quickly. The most important one also concerned the other newcomer, the Viking: On October 29, 1929, the stock market collapsed, which led to a sudden slump in the market in practically all areas. The positioning of the Marquette had the effect that Oldsmobile lost customers to Marquette. At Buick there was the aforementioned internal resistance to the "cuckoo egg" of Oldsmobile. The management was also of the opinion that Marquette was not selling enough vehicles to survive the difficult economic times.

And the Marquette no longer had a place in Buick's product philosophy, because from 1931 only eight-cylinders were to be produced.

literature

  • Standard Catalog of American Cars, 2nd Edition, Beverly Rae Kimes (editors) and Henry Austin Clark, Jr., Krause Publications, Iola WI 54990 ISBN 0-87341-111-0 , pp. 890-891
  • Encyclopedia of American Cars from 1930, Editor: Consumer Guide, Publications International (1993) ISBN 0-7853-0175-5
  • The Specification Book For US Cars 1930-1969, Marshall G. Naul (editors) and R. Perry Zavitz, Motorbooks International (1980) ISBN 0-87938-068-3
  • The Production Figure Book For US Cars, Jerry Heasley, Motorbooks International (1977) ISBN 0-87938-042-X
  • American Car Spotter's Guide 1920-1939, Tad Burness, Motorbooks International (1975) ISBN 0-87938-026-8

Web links

Commons : Marquette  - collection of images, videos and audio files