Sunday, February 11, 2018

This is how crazy big the Durant Motor Car company was...

the New Process Gear Company, was the 3rd largest gear producing concern in the United States.
The axle, transmission, differential and steering gear plants owned by Durant were only surpassed by plants owned by General Motors and Ford.

The American Plate Glass Company is exceeded in size by only four plate glass companies in the entire world.

William Durant was the organizer of General Motors and is credited with having brought about the outstanding success of such automobiles as Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Oakland. He has also created or fostered a number of other important enterprises, among them Frigidaire, a General Motors product.

The Durant company was only 25 years in business when it bought up well respected competition like Star, Chandler, and Hupmobile

Durant had dealerships in Australia, Manchuria, and Chile for example. All over the world

Hemmings Dec 2010 issue
and http://dmacweb.com/documentation/articles/DMC%20Sales/SALES.htm

3 comments:

  1. New Process Gear was located in Syracuse, NY. First in greater downtown Syracuse, then out in a suburb, DeWitt... While in DeWitt, it was under Chrysler control. They closed in 2012, after 124 years. (Chrysler was not its owner at the time, Magna Powertrain had purchased it from Chrysler)

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  2. A few historical statements there are incorrect. Durant was thrown out of GM in 1920 and set up on his own in 1921. He created Star as a low price line to compete with Ford and Chev. Chandler and Hupmobile remained independent of Durant, but Hupp bought Chandler in the late '20s and closed it down. Durant was certainly a good organiser but was obviously not easy to work for. There is a very good biography about him.

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    Replies
    1. They are from the magazine as I said, and also from http://dmacweb.com/documentation/articles/DMC%20Sales/SALES.htm which I forgot to include

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