Sunday, June 12, 2011

The 1936 PIERCE ARROW A great color advertisement and a last gasp of a dying company.

The Pierce Arrow was a great maker of luxury cars and had been making such cars since the dawn of the 20th century. In fact the cars used by President Woodrow Wilson, Harding and for a time Coolidge were all Pierce Arrows. The company was one of prestige and class.

The cars themselves were built like battleships with a wooden white ash frame and paneled with 19 gage steel. This was very time consuming process and a very lengthy process for manufacturing.

But the cars were built to provide the safest and most luxurious performance of any car then on the market. The cars weighed in at around 3 tons. Gas consumption was extreme. But once again if you could afford a ten thousand dollar car in the height of the great depression...did that really matter?

But this was one commodity that could not survive a great economic downturn. By the 1930, Studebaker and Pierce Arrow has joined forces, but there was little hope for a company that in it car department made only luxury cars.
This last attempt in 1936 was to bring out a V8 to V12 luxury car that was the safest and best car you could buy. It was!
But who could afford it? Sadly in 1938 the company closed out it production of cars and the last maker of cars in Buffalo New York was gone.

So here is a late advertisment for the last great Pierce Arrow that did not change the fortunes of the company. A new frame, a better engine, a fantastic car....and an economic depression.