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It’s another sad automotive story, the story of the Cord automobile. E. L. Cord, born in 1894, started from humble beginnings and dropped out of school to become a used car salesman. He also worked as a mechanic, a service station manager and for a car rental business that just had one car.
He was approached by Jack Quinlan, who had just signed up to distribute the Moon automobile. By 1924, Cord had accumulated some serious bucks and started working for the Auburn Automobile Co., which was having financial challenges. He worked out a deal that gave him 100% of the decision-making power, 20% of the profits and an option to buy controlling interest in the company — if he could save Auburn.
He did save Auburn and then bought out the other owners in 1925 and also bought Duesenberg, Checker Cab, Lycoming Engine, New York Shipbuilding and other smaller companies. In December of 1929, Cord formed the Cord Corp. as a holding company for the 150 companies he then owned. Also in 1929, he brought out the first Cord car, the model L-29.
It was American’s first front-wheel-drive car and offered features competitors didn’t have, but with the stock market crash in October 1929 and the high price of the car at about $44,000 in today’s dollars, low sales caused production to end in 1931. But that wasn’t the end of Cord.
The more famous Cord, the sad story Cord, is the one pictured above. In 1935 the Cord 810 and 812 were introduced at the New York Auto Show as a 1936 model. It was styled by Gordon Buehrig, formerly the chief designer for Duesenberg. It was a front-wheel-drive car powered by a 125-horsepower Lycoming V8 engine (Lycoming still makes aircraft engines today) teamed with a semiautomatic four-speed transmission designed by Bendix. The Cord was low, long and without running boards. In many ways, this car was not just years ahead of competition, but generations ahead.
Moraga resident Tom Straus has been the owner of this issue’s rare 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton since 1996. When new, this car sold for $2,195, or about $39,140 today. The previous owner’s widow had parked this Cord along with a 1937 Cadillac in a building in Oakland, and neither car had been started for 25 years. The cars had been covered and surprisingly, when Straus first saw them, both cars could be started and he got to drive them both. The widow was very nice and asked for $35,000 for the Cord.
“That’s too low,” Straus told her. “She pulled out Hemmings (the book/magazine on car values), and she said, ‘I know what I could get, but I would get every nut job from all over the world and if you don’t sell it, you can have it.’ ”
Straus readily agreed to the condition. Even though this Cord was in good condition, Straus had it restored.
“I had everything done to it. I wanted to do it once, drive i, and know I had a good driver,” he said.
The restoration work was done at Antique Auto Restoration in Seaside, California.
“He works on cars for Pebble Beach, and I knew if I took it there it would be expensive but it would be done right.”
As far as the car’s value goes, Straus said the car has decreased in value over the years he has owned it.
“At its peak, it was probably worth about $250,000 after the restoration, but now the value is closer to $150,000 to $175,000. The next generation doesn’t want cars from the 1930s,” he said, “They want cars from the 1960s.”
In the 23 years Straus has owned this Cord, he has driven it 35,000 miles. While it is in fantastic condition, he prefers just to drive and enjoy the car but does stop in from time to time on Sunday mornings at the Lafayette Cars and Coffee gathering, where I met him. The car attracts a lot of attention. It has some very unique features, like front-wheel drive, independent front suspension, suicide doors and concealed headlights.
There’s a manual crank on each side of the dashboard to open and close the headlight covers individually. The variable-speed windshield wipers are individually controlled, and there is even a locking fuel filler door, probably a first. It has a beautiful engine-turned dashboard with complete instrumentation and an optional AM radio, years before most other American cars did. But the distinctive styling feature was the “coffin nose,” with a wraparound grille. On each side of the grille are two bright chrome exhaust pipes.
So if it was such a great car, what happened? The Depression and the sad fact that there is no substitute for cash. Hupmobile and Graham-Paige tried to save their companies by using the same body dies from the Cord in 1940, but their efforts were unsuccessful too.
Have an interesting vehicle? Contact David Krumboltz at MOBopoly@yahoo.com. To view more photos of this and other issues’ vehicles or to read more of Dave’s columns, visit mercurynews.com/author/david-krumboltz.
