Auburn – The Eckhart company was founded in 1874 by Charles Eckhart as a
carriage company. In 1904 his sons Frank and Morris built their first 1 cylinder
2 speed touring car under the name Auburn, named after the small city they
were situated in. In 1910 they started using a four cylinder engine and in 1912
the Auburn was also available with a six cylinder engine.
In 1924 they had accumulated large number of unsold cars which forced them
into bankruptcy. Cord, one of America’s top car salesmen was asked to take
charge of reviving the company. He quickly got rid of the 700 unsold cars by
lowering the roof and repainting them in attractive colours to make them look
more appealing. In 1925 Cord produced a sporty looking fast car with a new
Lycoming 8 cylinder engine. The production figures increased quite quickly
from 2’226 in 1924 to a remarkable 22’000 in 1928.
Cord manipulated the share price and managed to acquire a large number of
Shares. In 1928 Auburn built the 8-115 boattail, one of their most beautiful
cars. Due to the world wide depression sales of the expensive Auburn cars
dropped dramatically. In 1936 Auburn produced only 4’830 cars. Due to the
increased losses Cord decided to close the factory that same year.
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