A Low Cost, Dependable Sedan

            There seems to be quite a long line of affordable small cars that have traveled the roadways over the years. Giving people an inexpensive vehicle in which to get around has generally proven desirable by both consumers and automakers.

            In the early days of automobiles cars tended to be big, bulky, somewhat expensive (Ford not withstanding) and dropped their drivers and passengers inside an open cockpit. And many of these first cars required the owner to be as much a mechanic as a driver.

            Enter the Essex.

            In the early 1900s, James L. Hudson, founder of Hudson’s Department Store in Detroit, wanted to get into the automobile business and so he created an upscale car maker that he humbly dubbed, the Hudson Motor Company. The company had a good deal of early success, in part due to its straight six engine, the Super Six, which was able to run smoothly at higher RPM and produce more power than comparable power plants because of the industry’s first balanced crankshaft.

            For 1918 the Hudson Motor Company had created a brand new car maker with the idea of expanding their reach. The Essex Motor Company was a totally different marque from the parent and even went so far as to lease its own assembly plant to make sure there was little connection between the two firms.

            While Essex originally manufactured a four door, open cabin, canvas topped touring car, by 1920 they had bucked the trends and developed a successful sedan that featured a totally enclosed coach. The car, at the time, cost just a little over $1,000 (probably a bit less than $20,000 in today’s dollars).

            Essex cars proved themselves to be quite efficient and durable as well. Sporting Hudson’s robust straight Super Six that had been designed to push larger, heavier cars, the Essex was one of the early endurance successes.

            In 1919 an Essex ran a 50 endurance test in Cincinnati where it averaged over 60 miles per hour in covering more than 3000 miles. Four years later Glen Schultz won the eighth Pikes Peak Climb in an Essex.

These feats and more, along with a growing reputation for durability steered buyers toward the Essex. The power of the Essex in the marketplace helped push combined Hudson/Essex sales from seventh among the country's automakers to third behind only Ford and Chevy.   

Sales stayed strong through the 1920s and it wasn’t until two years after the stock market crash that sales figures began to show a substantial slump. The people most affected by the Stock Market Crash were the ones who could no longer afford to buy cars such as the Essex. In 1932 Hudson tried a re-designed Essex called the Terraplane (which will be featured in the very next blog) but sales continued to slip. By 1933 Hudson made the decision to cease the Essex line and pull all of their cars under the parent company’s marque. The car that successfully changed the landscape of the industry by providing an affordable sedan to the masses, would exist only in history.