Cars and Races: RitzSite

Car of the Month - July 2010

Durant_618_DeLuxe_coupe_1932

Durant 618 - DeLuxe coupe body - manufactured in 1932

The Durant car may be almost forgotten now but the man behind it certainly isn't. William Durant can be regarded as a legendary figure from the late 19th and early 20th century, characterizing American enterprize and industrialism during that era. He was born in 1861 as a grandson of a very wealthy lumber salesman and proved to be a born businessman himself at a very early age. At the age of 25 he got first involved in selling vehicles, after having set up his first business about 7 years before, producing the Flint cart. It was a huge success and, renamed to the Durant-Dort Carriage Co. in 1895, was in a way the early forerunner of car manufacturer Durant Motors Inc.
William Durant's eventful career in car manufacture started in earnest in 1904 when he became general manager of Buick. Soon after that Buick became America's best selling car maker and Durant rapidly started to acquire other manufacturers and suppliers until in 1908 he merged all these companies with Buick into the General Motors Company. This was the start of an industrial giant which endures to this day. Unfortunately for Durant he soon failed to effectively organize this varied amalgam of subsidiaries and bankers forced him to leave General Motors in 1910.
Obviously Durant resented this and he immediately started planning to regain General Motors. True to his manner he bought, started and backed various car makes and suppliers, most importantly Chevrolet, and accumulated enough money to gradually buy more and more General Motors stock. By 1915 he was able to crash a General Motors board meeting in triumph and announce "gentleman, I control this company". Now Chevrolet became the parent company of General Motors and after some sorting all companies were reorganized into the General Motors Corporation in 1918, the GM we know today. Again more and more companies were added by Durant, overextending the GM budget and in 1920 Durant had to resign.
Still, Durant hadn't had enough. Though he was already sixty he started again. He had given up on controlling General Motors but felt that he at least could give them some competition. Durant Motors Inc. was registered in 1921 and William Durant did what he was used to by now: starting, buying and backing companies, factories and suppliers. Soon the Durant company was spread out around the country and counted several makes. Basically it was formed around the makes Star, opposing the Ford models; Flint, aimed at the Buick and Chrysler models; Durant, in the segment of Chevrolet and Oldsmobile; and Locomobile, competing with Cadillac. But there were additional makes as well.
This time around however the Durant strategy didn't work as well as before. Times had changed and so had the car market; the cars Durant offered were a match for the competition but to gain an edge they had to be better or at least offer something others didn't and this was hardly the case. Financial troubles started around 1926 and William Durant had to start selling parts of his empire. Year after year makes disappeared or were rebadged into Durant models. The slogan for Durant was "just a real good car" which was both true and exactly the problem. There were plenty of other good cars on the market, why should the customer choose for Durant?
The stock market crash of 1929 and the following crisis proved to be the end for Durant Motors Inc. By using his own fortune William Durant managed to settle debts and to continue his company until 1932. In 1933 the Durant Motors Inc. was liquidated after suffering continuously dwindling sales. Adding insult to injury William Durant was declared personally bankrupt in 1936, owning no more than the clothes on his body. He suffered a stroke in 1942 and died in 1946, in almost proverbial poverty.

At the time the heights and especially the depths in the career of William Durant were sneered upon but in hindsight he was a man who made an enormous mark on an emerging industry and achieved amazing results. Since he used up all of his personal fortune in his efforts it was clearly not the money that motivated him; I guess it was the thrill of creating something bigger than yourself, outlasting your own existence that drove him. Something that's lost in the current era of personal gain above all.
The car shown here is one of the last Durant models that was taken into production. It was introduced for model year 1931 for the medium price range and powered by a 6-cylinder Continental engine. As special features it had 4-wheel brakes, free-wheeling transmission and double-acting hydraulic shock absorbers, which made it a relatively advanced car. It's not quite clear how many were made. In total Durant produced 7229 cars that year and the production of this model was continued by Dominion Motors in Canada in 1932, of which the car on the picture is an example.
Cars of the Durant Motors period are relatively rare nowadays, especially outside the US, but they do enjoy an active following who have of course a great story to tell about the heritage of their cars. More info about these cars can be found on the very informative Durantcars site.