1923 Piedmont 4-30 Touring Car -- Virginia Museum of Transportation

The Piedmont was a

vintage Vintage, in winemaking, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product—wine (see Harvest (wine)). A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certa ...

automobile made by the Piedmont Motor Car Company of

Lynchburg, Virginia Lynchburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner John Lynch (1740–1820), John Lynch, the city's populati ...

from 1917 to 1922.

History

The Piedmont was produced in a variety of

closed Closed may refer to: Mathematics * Closure (mathematics), a set, along with operations, for which applying those operations on members always results in a member of the set * Closed set, a set which contains all its limit points * Closed interval, ...

and

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body styles and was powered by

4-cylinder The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized. Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categorize ...

Lycoming and 6-cylinder Continental engines. The company also made cars for other companies, such as the

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

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, Norwalk and Lone Star. These were Piedmonts, but fitted with badges, hubcaps and other identification of the company who ordered the cars. This

badge engineering In the automotive industry, rebadging is a form of market segmentation used by automobile manufacturers around the world. To allow for product differentiation without designing or engineering a new model or brand (at high cost or risk), a manu ...

for other companies had a direct impact on the cars actually marketed and sold under the Piedmont name. With the outside orders taking priority, Piedmont dealers in Virginia were sometimes unable to provide a car for customers who placed an order, which gave the make a poor reputation, thus hindering further sales. In December 1920 the company attempted to increase publicity and sales by advertising in the ''Lynchburg News'' ten Model 4-30 and ten Model 6-40 cars for sale to residents of Lynchburg, Campbell, Bedford, Amherst and Appomattox only, with prices reduced by $500 for each car. Sales manager George Hay also persuaded the Lynchburg Police Department to use Piedmont cars, as it would "look better for the company" if they did so.

Closure

In anticipation of an ever-increasing flood of orders from outside producers, Piedmont had overstocked its inventory, which with the Depression of 1920-1921 led to the company going into receivership in October 1922. There was over $225,000 worth of parts in stock.

Surviving cars

In June 2010 the Virginia Museum of Transportation received a donation of a 1923

touring car, which was built by Piedmont.

References

External links

Piedmont Motor Co - a heritage siteLynchburg Museum - Story of the Piedmont
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Lynchburg, Virginia Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1922 American companies disestablished in 1922 1922 disestablishments in Virginia Defunct manufacturing companies based in Virginia {{Commons category, Piedmont (automobile) Vintage vehicles 1910s cars 1920s cars Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Virginia Cars introduced in 1917 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1916