The 50, which included a "second-series" group announced in early '31, rode the 114-inch wheelbase applied to the 1930 Marquette, Buick's short-lived junior make 60, 80, and 90 spanned 118, 124, and 132 inches, respectively.
The lengthened model roster again included sedans, coupes, phaetons, convertibles, and roadsters, plus Series 90 seven-seat sedan and limousine. They included a 77-bhp 220.7 for the 50, now the least-costly Buick a 272.6 with 90 bhp for the 60, the new midranger and a 104-bhp 344.8-cid engine for new top-echelon Series 80 and 90. Despite the deepening Depression, Buick finished third in industry production for the model year, mainly because competitors fared far worse.įor 1931 came an expanded lineup powered by the first Buick eights, among the most-advanced engines of their day: smooth and reliable five-main-bearing units designed by division chief engineer F.A.
The 50 offered just four-door sedan and four-place sport coupe 40 and 60 listed a full range of models, some quite scarce (only 836 seven-seat Series 60 limousines, for instance). The 40 used a 257.5-cubic-incher with 81 horsepower, the 50 and 60 a 331.3-cid engine with 99 bhp. All carried "valve-in-head" sixes, the last six-cylinder engines at Buick until the 1960s. At least the 1930 line corrected the bulged "pregnant" beltline styling that had been decidedly unpopular in 1929.īuicks were conventional cars, arrayed in three series: the low-priced "40" on a 118-inch wheelbase, the midrange "50" on a 124-inch span, and the deluxe "60" on a 132-inch chassis. The decision to offer costlier eight-cylinder cars came before the Wall Street crash, so Buick's sales problems in the early '30s, stemmed mainly from bad timing. The Depression considerably reduced the size of this clientele - and Buick sales - but the division would bounce back strongly, reaching fourth in industry production for model-year 1938 (from a decade-low seventh in 1934-36).
By that point, Buick buyers were mostly upper middle-class professional types who'd moved up from a Chevrolet, Oakland, or Oldsmobile - hence the "doctor's car" sobriquet of the make's early years. Six-cylinder engines arrived in 1914, and were the only type Buick offered from 1925 to '30. Buick prospered, and in 1908 Durant formed General Motors with Buick as its foundation and chief source of revenue. In 1904, Buick moved from Detroit to Flint, Michigan, where it soon came under the control of William C. One engine feature, overhead valves, was a rarity then, but has been a hallmark of almost all Buicks since. His first car, appearing in 1903, was a simple little chain-drive runabout with flat-twin power. After making his mark with a process for annealing porcelain to steel for bathtubs, he turned to the profit opportunities of the horseless-carriage phenomenon. The 1931 Buick Phaeton boasted one of the most advanced engines of the time.ĭavid Dunbar Buick was a canny Scottish industrialist but an unlikely auto builder.