American Classic Part 1

As the Auto Review series works its way through the many American car brands produced by the various groups, some important makes are left as ‘orphans’. The main US car-making groups were General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors, along with smaller groupings already covered by Auto Review including Studebaker-Packard, Cord Corporation and Kaiser-Frazer. Other attempts to create car-building conglomerates along GM lines included Hare’s Motors, Durant Motors and New Era Motors. Described in these pages are 11 classic US car marques; Mercer, Stutz, Marmon, Jordan, Ruxton, Kissel, Moon, Hupmobile, Locomobile, Crane-Simplex and Gardner. Many of these classic US marques fell under the control of one or other of those rickety organisations, and failed in the process.