Auto Car: Hemmings Find of the Day

Just in time for the Great Depression, Buick introduced the Marquette, a lower-cost line of cars built for one model year – 1930. Marquettes were offered through Buick dealers in six body styles, all perched on 114-inch wheelbase chassis and powered by reworked L-head six-cylinder Oldsmobile engines. GM spent $26 million to launch Marquette and built 35,007 cars, 27,821 of which were sold in the U.S. Buick abruptly pulled the plug citing slow sales due to the Depression and in part because the unproven Marquette was competing in a crowded marketplace with some established brands — including GM’s own Oldsmobile. So the venture wound up being a huge money loser despite Marquettes being excellent cars and very reasonably priced, between $990-$1,060, new. Tooling for the Marquette’s 212.8-cu.in. “Oldsmobuick” engine (it was actually 15.3 cubic inches larger and ran smaller main bearings than the Olds) was shipped off to Germany where it lived on in Opel-Blitz light trucks, many of which were used by the Axis powers in WWII. Buick’s 40 series roadster in 1930 used a Marquette body and chassis as did the 1931 Buick 50 series. Marquette still has a following and its own registry. The cars turn up for sale frequently too, like this clean-looking restored 1930 Marquette coupe for sale on Hemmings.com. From the seller’s description:

This car will cruise at 60 mph with a top speed of 70 mph. This car has just been striped to bare metal and completely repainted including the chassis. There was no rust and the car has a beautiful new paint job. The interior is like new. The engine runs smooth and starts easily. Car goes down the road straight and has no rattles. The doors and rumble lid fit perfectly. The wood is all like new. The chrome is overall in good condition with a couple of minor defects. I have many pictures of the body when it was disassembled and bare metal.