1937 McLaughlin-Buick Limited Limousine 🇮🇹

Most of the McLaughlin Canadian Buicks were built for export and with right hand drive, aimed at markets in countries such as South Africa and Britain. This exclusive 1937 limousine joined the Nicola Bulgari Collection in June 2006 and showed up with the body painted in yellow (not original), but with the upholstery in the back already restored in Beige cloth. It was therefore decided to completely repaint the body in Black and later, in 2014, the front interior upholstery (the driver’s seat for the chauffeur) was renovated in vinyl Gray.

The Buick Limited Limousine series was produced in just 720 units for the year 1937, but the McLaughlin models are even rarer and more exclusive.

Company
General Motors

Wheelbase
138in

Interior trim
Gray vinyl/Beige cloth

Brakes
front and rear drums

Make
McLaughlin-Buick

Length
216.5in

Engine
inline 8 - 320.2cid

Tires
7.50x16

Model
Limited - Series 90L

Width
78in

Carburetor
1 Stromberg AA2

Original Price
$2,342

Body style
Limousine 8-passenger

Weight
4599lbs

Horsepower
130hp @ 3400rpm

Production
720

Model year
1937

Exterior paint
Black

Transmission
3-speed manual

If there ever were hard times for General Motors of Canada Limited, the 1930s certainly stretched the company’s resources to the very limit. Production and sales were miserable for all of the GM brands throughout the Dirty Thirties. From a high water mark of 104,198 vehicles produced in 1928, the Oshawa, Ontario-based automaker hit rock bottom in 1932 when only 19,565 cars and trucks were shipped from the factory. Among that pittance were 2,026 McLaughlin-Buick passenger cars.

McLaughlin-Buick production inched upward in 1933 to 2,382 units and up again to 4,091 units in 1934. The increases were small but they did give hope that the worst of the Great Depression might be over.

A sleek new Art Deco design helped spur sales in 1936 as 4,722 McLaughlin-Buicks were rolled out the factory doors. Among that number was one built for His Majesty, King Edward VIII.

Despite being all new the previous year, the cars were revamped in a big way for the 1937 model year. The grille was split, allowing the Buick coat of arms to be mounted front and center on a slender river of chrome flanked with fine horizontal chrome ribs. New, more graceful, teardrop headlights were mounted on either side of the grille for a stately look. Wipers were no longer mounted from above the windshield, but from the cowl. The radio aerial disappeared, discretely embedded in the running board. Body height was lowered by 1.5 inches and a corresponding 2.5-inch drop in the floor meant the cavernous interior was maintained.

The public met the 1937 McLaughlin-Buicks in November of 1936. In a bid to impress potential buyers, sales personnel were trained to discuss the current crop of automobiles from the ground up. Starting with the famous sealed chassis, they moved on to point out the quieter valve-in-head straight-eight engine, the five-point soft rubber engine mountings, the center-point controlled steering, the tip-toe hydraulic brakes, knee action wheels, torque-tube drive and ride stabilizers located fore and aft. The car was mighty and magnificent.
Salesmen were instructed to draw attention to the all steel-welded-to-steel body construction that boasted the safety of a solid steel Turret Top on the Special models. “McLaughlin-Buick bodies have in 1937 the same master craftsmanship in their coachwork which they have had for years.”  

The McLaughlin-Buick was an upscale offering in the world of automobiles, carefully positioned between the mid-range, mid-priced Oldsmobile and just below the luxurious LaSalle by Cadillac. With inspired whispers of elegance, distinction and class, McLaughlin-Buick came in four distinct series for 1937: Special, Century, Roadmaster and the Limited.
The 122-inch wheelbased Special was the entry level car, ideal for the family ready to move into the pampered world of McLaughlin-Buick.
Century was bigger and better appointed than the Special. Its engine generated 130 horsepower and its displacement was 320 cubic inches. Four inches longer in the wheelbase than last year, Century now rode a 126-inch wheelbase and could be had as a five-passenger Coach or a five-passenger Sedan, both came with trunk. The four-passenger Convertible Coupe boasted a rumble seat.
Further up the scale was the impressive Roadmaster. This grand automobile stretched lazily over a 131-inch wheelbase and seated six in full comfort.

Gliding majestically on a 138-inch wheelbase, the Limited was the penultimate McLaughlin-Buick. Seating eight passengers, it was offered as a Sedan with trunk or as the Imperial Sedan with trunk. It loafed along the highways and byways of the Dominion with the same engine as Century and Roadmaster. These distinguished vehicles were rarely seen. Shunning Cadillac as ostentatious, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King made use of a McLaughlin-Buick as his official car.
Options were few and far between on a car as magnificent as a McLaughlin-Buick. They included white sidewall tires, an in-dash radio with a speaker. A heater - with or without the new windshield defroster - fog lights and the dual sidemount fenders were on the short list.

Production continued to improve as workers at General Motors built 6,880 McLaughlin-Buicks for the 1937 calendar year. The gains would not be continued in 1938 as the economy faltered and sales plunged.