1923 Durant A-22 (14529785592) (cropped)

1923 Durant A-22 (14550914843) (cropped)

Durant Motors Inc. was established in 1921 by former

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

CEO William "Billy" Durant following his termination by the GM board of directors and the New York bankers who financed GM.

Corporate relationships

Durant Motors attempted to be a full-line automobile producer of cars and fielded the

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

, Durant, and

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

brands, which were designed to meet

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

Oldsmobile Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it produ ...

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, and

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

price points. Billy Durant also acquired luxury-car maker Locomobile of

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

, at its liquidation sale in 1922; in theory, Locomobile gave him a product that would compete against

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

, and

Pierce-Arrow The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company was an American motor vehicle manufacturer based in Buffalo, New York, which was active from 1901 to 1938. Although best known for its expensive luxury cars, Pierce-Arrow also manufactured commercial trucks ...

. Durant Motors had a relationship with the Dort, Frontenac, and

DeVaux Devaux is a French surname that may refer to * André Devaux (1894–1981), French sprint runner * Antoine Devaux (born 1985), French association football defender * François-Antoine Devaux (1712–1796), French poet * Jean-Christophe Devaux (born ...

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 Packard or Packard Motor Car Company was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana in 1958. One of the "Thr ...

and

price points, was planned but never realized; also planned was the Eagle car line, but it never made it off the drafting tables. 1929 Durant (5784724289)

Production

Durant co-founded a truck-making subsidiary,

Mason Truck Mason Motors, founded by A. C. Mason in cooperation with William C. Durant, was a U.S. truck manufacturer based in Flint, Michigan. As a subsidiary of Durant Motors Durant Motors Inc. was established in 1921 by former General Motors CEO ...

, 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.

Subsequent history

The

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, making ...

, 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 Fisher Body was an automobile coachbuilder founded by the Fisher brothers in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan. A division of General Motors for many years, in 1984 it was dissolved to form other General Motors divisions. Fisher & Company (originally Allo ...

Division, later becoming the Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac factory. It was finally combined with another Lansing plant to become

Lansing Car Assembly Lansing Car Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Lansing, Michigan. It contained two elements, a 1901 automobile plant in downtown Lansing, and the 1920 Durant Motors factory on Lansing's Far Westside. The Lansing plant was the ho ...

. That factory was closed on May 6, 2005. Durant's

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...

, factory was bought by the Fisher Body Division of General Motors, and built mostly Buick bodies until its 1987 closure. Durant's

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, 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. 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 Elizabeth is a city and the county seat of Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New J ...

, 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. Billy Durant died nearly broke at age 85 in 1947, the same year as

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

, aged 83.

Production model specifications

Durant Touring Car The Durant Touring Car was manufactured by Durant Motors, Inc. Durant Touring Car specifications (1926 data) * Color – No. 9 blue * Seating Capacity – Five * Wheelbase – 109 inches * Wheels – Disc * Tires - 31” x 4” cord * Se ...

References

External links

Durant Motors Automobile Club
{{Durant Motors Defunct manufacturing companies based in Lansing, Michigan Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Michigan Defunct manufacturing companies based in Michigan Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1921 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1931 1921 establishments in Michigan 1931 disestablishments in Michigan Companies based in Flint, Michigan