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Nearly identical to the full size Nashes, the Lafayette 400 had a shorter hood and front fenders, horizontal grille bars, a unique hood ornament and chevrons decorating the fenders. While all of Nash’s products were base priced under $1,000, the Lafayette 400 was a low priced car. The lowest priced offering was the business coupe at $595, while the highest was the cabriolet at $740.
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Company
Nash-Kelvinator Corporation
Make
Nash
Model
Lafayette 400, 3712
Body Style
Business coupe, 2-dr, 3-pass.
Body ManufactureNA
Model year
1937
Wheelbase
117 inches
Length
194.5 inches
Engine
inline-6, L-head, 234.8 cid
Horsepower
90 hp @ 3400 rpm
Transmission
3-speed manual
Original Base Price
$595
Brand Production
85,949
This Car Production
NA -
The Lafayette nameplate has an eye-brow raising history. The Lafayette Motors Company was founded quietly in Indianapolis, IN in 1919 by none other than Charlie Nash. Nash purloined a number of key Cadillac people and founded LaFayette as a luxury brand separate from his own Nash Motors Company. But, the timing couldn’t have been any worse. Introducing a luxury car just as a major recession was hitting proved a disaster. In August of 1923, a letter circulated to the shareholders recommended the sale of the company for $225,000 to the Ajax Motors Company. What the letter did not say was that Ajax was a new concern owned entirely by Nash Motors.
When the last Lafayette cars were completed in early 1924, the factory was packed up and shipped to the Ajax factory in Racine, WI. The Ajax was a low priced car, sub-$1,000, which came out in 1925. One year later, Nash concluded the car would sell better with the Nash name plate attached and it became the Nash Light Six. Ajax disappeared.
Fast forward to 1933 and Nash was again facing a major economic hurdle, this time the Great Depression. Nash had been doing well in the mid-priced market and was trying to go more upmarket when the depression took hold. They needed to go down market quickly and bring out a lower priced product. The new car introduced in 1934, would again be called Lafayette and marketed as a separate mark sold by Nash dealers.
Lafayette as a separate mark lasted through 1936. In 1937, with the closing of the deal for Kelvinator to acquire Nash and George Mason to step in as President, Lafayette was combined with the low priced Nash 400 to create the one-year-only Nash Lafayette 400. In 1938 the car would become the Nash Lafayette and by the end of 1940 the Lafayette name would disappear, apparently this time, forever.