The Rugby was a brand of automobiles assembled by the

Durant Motors Durant Motors Inc. was established in 1921 by former General Motors 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 t ...

Company of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, New York (USA). Beside badges and right-hand drive for some models, the vehicle was identical to Durant's

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 ...

car, and was assigned to export markets by Durant Motors, due to the name Star being under copyright by the

Star Motor Company The Star Motor Company was a British car and commercial vehicle maker based in Wolverhampton and active from 1898 to 1932. At its peak Star was the UK's sixth largest car manufacturer and produced around 1000 cars a year.Collins, Paul & Stra ...

in the British Commonwealth.

History

The Rugby was built from 1923 based on the Star car and production ended in 1928 together with the Star. The Star name was changed to Durant and all 4-cylinder Durants exported carried the Rugby name until the end of the Durant line in Canada in 1932. Commercial cars were marketed based on the Rugby. Some Durant commercial vehicles were badged Rugby's and sold in the US for 1928. Commercial trucks from January 1928 were Rugby's to the end of production in 1933 at Dominion Motors in Leaside. The last remaining US plant in 1931 was

Lansing 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, maki ...

which stopped in August 1931. Leaside became Canadian owned in January 1931, as Dominon Motors, Ltd. and they chose to continue the Durant into 1932 and Rugby into 1933. REO cars were also built there beginning in 1932. In August 1931, Dominion made the Canadian Frontenac car to the end of 1933. All production stopped in December 1933. The company charter was finally surrendered in 1944. Production of the Rugby occurred at the following plants: * Elizabeth, New Jersey (Star and Rugby) * Lansing, Michigan (Star and Rugby) * Long Island City, New York (Star) *

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 ...

(Star and Rugby) * Leaside (Toronto), Canada (Star and Rugby)

External links

Homepage of the Durant Motors Automobile Club
* Th
Rugby catalog
a
Durant Cars

References

{{Durant_Motors Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Canada Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1924 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1933 Durant Motors Vintage vehicles Pre-war vehicles 1920s cars 1930s cars Cars introduced in 1924