1936 Pierce-Arrow Salon Coupe, Series 1602 🇺🇸

From bird-cages to bicycles to luxury cars, the George N. Pierce Company of Buffalo New York took one of the strangest paths to entry into the car business at the turn of the 20th century. With a focus on building the best luxury car possible, the Pierce-Arrow automobile quickly gained a reputation for being one of the finest offerings in the United States. When people spoke of the American luxury car market prior to World War I it was all about the three P’s - Packard, Peerless and Pierce-Arrow.

They were not just a car, but a symbol of wealth and status. In 1909, President Howard Taft requested two Pierce-Arrows to serve as official cars of the White House. Pierce-Arrows served as presidential vehicles from Taft to Roosevelt. Foreign royals, VIPs of all kinds and business tycoons, including John D. Rockefeller, the Shah of Persia, J. Edgar Hoover, Orville Wright and Babe Ruth drove Pierce-Arrows.

Reorganized as the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company in 1919, it continued to be a pioneer introducing power braking, the wide use of aluminum in bodies and engines and eventually the industry’s first hydraulic tappets. But, for all the cutting edge there was troubling conservativism in management. Pierce stubbornly kept steering wheels on the right side long after the rest of the industry changed. They also insisted on staying with six-cylinder engines well after the competition moved on to eight and twelves. When the original management team retired in the early 1920’s the bankers stepped in to run the company and they didn’t stray too far off the path.

By the mid-1920s the company was hurting. The competition had moved on with better designs, bigger engines and broader product lines. The days of the independent manufacturer producing a single type of car were coming to an end. Pierce negotiated a deal to merge with the Studebaker Corporation in 1928. This helped Pierce-Arrow to achieve their best year ever in 1929 but the success would be very short lived.

With fresh management and capital, Pierce invested in new designs and most importantly in eight and twelve cylinder engines. But, it would be too late in light of the onset of the Great Depression. Sales tanked and in 1933 the company produced just 2,152 cars, less than the 3,000 car break even they needed. That same year, Studebaker entered receivership and Pierce-Arrow was spun off to a group of bankers and investors.

Sales continued to sink until finally the remnants of the once great luxury car brand were auctioned off on Friday the 13th of May, 1938.