Durant Motors

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File:1923 Durant A-22 (14529785592) (cropped).jpg

Durant touring car 1923

File:1923 Durant A-22 (14550914843) (cropped).jpg

Durant touring car 1923

File:Durant Motors, Inc. 1925.jpg

Share of the Durant Motors, Inc., issued 6 March 1925

Durant Motors is a defunct American multinational automobile manufacturer, previously headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It was incorporated on January 12, 1921 by William C. Durant, who was the former founder and CEO of General Motors.

The company introduced three automobiles originally, Star, Durant and Flint, but also acquired Locomobile shortly after the initial founding. In addition, Durant Motors added Mason Truck and created a rebadged version of the Star for international markets, called the Rugby. Five production locations were established: Lansing, Michigan, Flint, Michigan, Elizabeth, New Jersey, Oakland, California, and Leaside, Ontario, Canada.

While the company initially amassed good success, slowing sales and poor stock positions<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> up to and subsequently following the 1929 stock market crash caused the company to cease all production in August, 1931. The company went into liquidation in 1933.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

History

William Durant founded Durant Motors on January 12, 1921,<ref name="general" /> which came four months after his resignation from General Motors. After his leave from General Motors, he was able to quickly raise over $5 Million from New York banking friends and colleagues<ref name="flint">Template:Cite news</ref> to provide enough capital and planning to start the corporation.<ref name=":0" />

Durant 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,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> at its liquidation sale in 1922;<ref name="Naldrett">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.

File:1929 Durant (5784724289).jpg

A 1929 Durant sedan

Production

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.<ref name= "leaside">Template:Cite news</ref>

Subsequent history

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.<ref name= "flint" /><ref name= "fisher">Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name= "fire">Template:Cite news</ref>

Billy Durant died nearly broke at age 85 in 1947, the same year as Henry Ford, aged 83.<ref name= "general">Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

File:1930 Durant R E Olds Museum Lansing MI 2-9-2008 072 N (2254142858).jpg

1930 Durant sedan

• Flint (automobile)
• Rugby (automobile)
• Star (automobile)
• Mason Truck
• List of defunct United States automobile manufacturers

Further reading

• Tad Burness, 1920–1939 Car Spotters Guide, Motorbooks International

External links

• Durant Motors Automobile Club