Paige-Detroit Motor Car Company

Paige from 1915

Paige 6-66 sedan 7 seats (1922)

Paige-Detroit Motor Car Company was a United States automobile manufacturer . From 1909 to 1910 the brand name was Paige-Detroit and from 1911 Paige . The seat was in Detroit , Michigan . In 1927 it was taken over by the Graham-Paige Motors Corporation . The brand name Paige was not given up until 1928.

description

Behind the Paige-Detroit brand was businessman Harry M. Jewett , who invested US $ 100,000 in his own and borrowed money. He was convinced of the advantages of a design by Andrew Bachle and appointed Fred O. Paige , previously President of the Reliance Motor Car Company , which was taken over by General Motors , in the same position.

The car, released in 1908, was called Paige-Detroit Model 1 and was a two-seater roadster with a 2.2 liter three - cylinder two-stroke engine . The power was 25 hp according to the calculation method at that time. The car had a wheelbase of 2794 mm (110 inches) and cost $ 800 (about $ 22,892.15 today, adjusted for inflation). Inexperienced in the automotive business, Jewett soon learned that this car was not performing well. In order to save his investment, he ordered a production stop in 1910, fired Paige, took over the office of president himself and began to bring new models onto the market under the name Paige .

Until 1914, Paige only built solid, conventional mid - range cars with melodious names such as Kenilworth Roadster , Sultan-Sedan , LaMarquise Coupe or Meadowbrook Runabout . The prices for open versions were initially just under, later a little over $ 1000. In 1915 a 29.4 hp six-cylinder appeared with prices around US $ 1400. In the following year, a smaller six-cylinder with 22 hp replaced the four-cylinder, and the company only produced six-cylinder cars with a displacement of 3.7 and 4.9 liters in the middle and upper middle class. The Paige competed with brands such as Oakland , Studebaker , Oldsmobile and Nash .

In 1914 Paige had built 4,631 cars, in 1915 there were 7,749 and in 1916 12,456.

With the model 6-66 Paige tried to gain a foothold in the upper class . The car remained an outsider, however, despite Ralph Mulford breaking a record of 102.83 mph (165.49 km / h) over a mile with a stripped-down version at Daytona Beach . This resulted in the probably best-known Paige in 1922, the 6-66 Daytona made to order ; a sporty three-seater roadster with a 6-liter engine. The third seat could be opened from the right footboard of the vehicle. In 1923 a successor version 6-70 Daytona followed , after which the model was discontinued.

Paige advertised it made "America's Most Beautiful Cars".

Jewett

A better idea was the Jewett introduced in 1923 , named after the company's president, of course. The founded Jewett Motors, Inc. was 100% a subsidiary of the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Company , and the vehicles ran off the same production lines as the Paige. The Jewett was an attractive six-cylinder with 50 bhp (37.3 kW) power and a wheelbase of 2845 mm. The car was around $ 1000. A pioneering achievement was the introduction of hydraulic brakes in this class in 1926 - a “new day” for his car, as the namesake put it. Hence the last models were called Jewett New-Day . The car was only able to stabilize Paige for a short time and was discontinued as a brand in 1926. The following year it was offered as Paige 6-45 .

In 1925, the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Company was 10th in the US auto industry. From 1927, there was also the eight-cylinder 8-85 in addition to the six-cylinder models . When it became clear that the annual loss this year would amount to US $ 2.5 million, Jewett sold the company to the Graham brothers. This renamed it to Graham-Paige Motors Corporation and built automobiles under the names Graham-Paige (until 1930) and Graham (1930-1941) in the next few years .

literature

Kimes, Beverly Rae (Editor), and Clark, Henry Austin, Jr.; The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 , 2nd edition, Krause Publications, Iola WI 54990, USA (1985), ISBN 0-87341-111-0 (English); Pp. 750 and 1102

Web links

Commons : Paige-Detroit Motor Car Company - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files