American Classic - An Auto Review book by Rod Ward (Auto Review No. 181)

Author: Rod Ward, Paperback, 31 pages,

As the Auto Review series works it way through the many American car brands produced by the various groups, some important makes are left as ‘orphans’. The main US car-making groups were General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors, along with smaller groupings already covered by Auto Review including Studebaker-Packard, Cord Corporation and Kaiser-Frazer. Other attempts to create car-building conglomerates along GM lines included Hare’s Motors, Durant Motors and New Era Motors. Described in these pages are 11 classic US car marques; Mercer, Stutz, Marmon, Jordan, Ruxton, Kissel, Moon, Hupmobile, Locomobile, Crane-Simplex and Gardner. Many of these classic US marques fell under the control of one or other of those rickety organisations, and failed in the process.

Other companies were vulnerable to speculators like Allan Ryan, seeking to asset-strip firms whose saleable assets were worth more than their stock market valuation. Some car manufacturers, however, managed to stay independent to the end. There are so many other ‘American Classic’ marques still to cover that we will revisit this topic in a future Auto Review publication.