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 ...
,
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 pro ...
,
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 ...
, 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 ou ...
price points. Billy Durant also acquired luxury-car maker
Locomobile
Locomobile may refer to:
Transport
* Locomobile Company of America, a US company that made automobiles under the brand name "Locomobile" from 1899 to 1929
* Steam-powered agricultural and haulage vehicles:
** Traction engine
** Portable engine
* ...
of
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the 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 fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequo ...
, 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 ...
,
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. 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 "Th ...
and
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 ...
price points, was planned but never realized; also planned was the Eagle car line, but it never made it off the drafting tables.
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.
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, makin ...
, 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 All ...
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 ...
, 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 port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...
, 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
Leaside (/'liːˌsaɪd/) is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located northeast of Downtown Toronto, in the vicinity of Eglinton Avenue East and Bayview Avenue. The area takes its name from William Lea and the Lea family, who se ...
, 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
, 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 ...
, aged 83.
Production model specifications
*
Durant Touring Car
See also
*
Flint (automobile)
The Flint was an automobile marque that was assembled by the Flint Motors Division, Flint, Michigan between 1923 and 1927. Flint Motors was a wholly owned subsidiary of Durant Motors Company (United States).
Assembly
The Flint was considered ...
*
Rugby (automobile)
The Rugby was a brand of automobiles assembled by the Durant Motors Company of New York City, New York (USA). Beside badges and right-hand drive for some models, the vehicle was identical to Durant's Star car, and was assigned to export markets ...
*
Star (automobile)
The Star was an America automobile marque that was assembled by the Durant Motors Company between 1922 and 1928. Also known as the Star Car, Star was envisioned as a competitor against the Ford Model T and Chevrolet. In the United Kingdom, it ...
*
Mason Truck
*
List of defunct United States automobile manufacturers
This is a list of defunct automobile manufacturers of the United States. They were discontinued for various reasons, such as bankruptcy of the parent company, mergers, or being phased out.
A
* A Automobile Company (1910–1913) 'Blue & Gold' ...
References
Further reading
*Tad Burness, ''1920–1939 Car Spotters Guide'', Motorbooks International
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