Autos of America page 10 By PB Gill
Peerless Automobile
The Peerless Motor Company was founded in Cleveland Ohio in 1900 . Peerless built a race car they called the
Green Dragon which was driven in speed races by Barney Oldfield to show the Durability of the Peerless automobile . World speed records were set by this car . Peerless was a very high Quality Luxury Automobile that would last many years but was very plane compared to other automobiles . Peerless Automobiles ended in the very early 30s and the company began making beer instead !
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Pierce-Arrow Automobiles
In 1903 George Pierce of Buffalo New York , began building very luxurious automobiles at his Pierce Motor Company . He named the automobile the Pierce-Arrow . The Pierce Arrows were run in some races to gain the public
s notice and won some of those races . The company was renamed the Pierce-arrow Motor Car Company in 1908 . In 1909 2 Pierce-Arrows were sold for use by President George Taft to become the first Presidential vehicles in history . Pierce-Arrow grew to be a symbol of Status and were purchased by many movie stars , wealthy people , companies and royalty . Only Peerless and Packard were considered to be in the same league . These automobiles were nick named the three Ps of Motordom .
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In 1928 Studebaker bought controlling Interest in The Pierce-Arrow Motor Company but both companies still operated separately . By 1933 Pierce-Arrow was loosing its popularity and in that same year the Silver Arrow Model was introduced . During the Great Depression most wealthy people thought it wise to save their money , and the price of Pierce Arrow automobiles was very high . As Pierce Arrow was the only company that did not make a low price car to make money in hard times , the company had to close in 1938 .
Packard Automobiles
The Ohio Automobile company was founded by William and James Packard and George Weiss of Warren Ohio and began building automobiles in 1899 . Packard built high priced Luxury automobiles in 1902 the Ohio Automobile Company was renamed the Packard Motor Car Company . In 1903 The Packard Motor Car Company moved to Detroit Michigan were they built what was the most modern manufacturing plant in the world at the time .
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Packard
s Luxury automobiles were competitive to the top luxury cars of that time and were one on the Three Ps of Motordom along with Peerless and Pierce-Arrow . Packard automobiles as well as the trucks they built gained a reputation for quality durability and dependability and the company enjoyed good sales and great success until the thirties . In 1932 Packard introduced their most luxurious and most expensive model yet , the Packard Twin Six which they renamed the Packard Twelve . In 1932 they also brought out a middle priced car called the Light Eight but only made it for that year . Most of Packards competitors did not survive the Great Depression but Packard did .
In 1937 Packard built the
Packard 115C which had a 6 cylinder engine and had much less luxury than previous Packard automobiles . This appeared to do harm to Packards high status for automobiles . During WWII Packard built Rolls-Royce Merlin for the P51 Mustang fighter airplanes and also built engines for PT boats .
Financially very stable after the war and eager to cash in on the post war Market , Packard introduced a new body style in 1948 . Though the new body sold well it , made all models look very similar and the top luxury model did not stand out any more .
In 1951 the Packard body was changed again but this body still did not make the luxury models stand out from the mid- luxury models . In late 1954 Packard bought Studebaker . In1955 and part of 1956 Packard built engines and transmissions for American Motors . In 1955 the production of Packard
s in the factory was very poor and most had to under go extensive repairs in the dealers before they were fit to be sold . This hurt the sales of Packard in 1956 and things went down hill until 1959 when the Packard ended production .
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Packard Peerless and Pierce-Arrow were refered to a the Three Ps of Autodom in the their day .
Continued on Autos of America History page 11
