Those Were the Days

            Anyone who saw the old sit com All in the Family remembers the opening credits with Archie and Edith sitting at the piano singing about how they could use a man like Herbert Hoover again. They also remember the line, “Gee our old LaSalle ran great.”

            Those old LaSalles did run great. As something of a companion to the Cadillac under the General Motors badge from 1927 until 1940, the LaSalle was originally designed to fill in the lower end of the luxury market that had been abandoned by the soaring sticker prices of those Cadillacs.

            The coming of the LaSalle in 1927 marked the beginning of the career of the legendary Harley Earl. Prior to the LaSalle new styles were basically a result of engineering need and function. The LaSalle, with Earl’s influence, marked the beginning of modern American automotive design.

            Built by Cadillac to its exacting standards, the LaSalle soon found itself a very popular car. It did so well that Earl was promoted to oversee the design and styling of every GM car. Since the LaSalle used Cadillac’s V 8 engine it had plenty of power. Add to that the fact that it was lighter than its sister line giving it a more sports car feel and the car was fast. In 1927 a LaSalle was driven over 950 miles which achieving an average of 95 miles per hour, only about two miles per hour less than the winner at the Indy 500 that year.

            As the Great Depression came, the LaSalle began to have more in common with the Oldsmobile than with the Cadillac, slipping in between the price points of these two brands. So while it was at the lower end of the luxury range, it was fitting in a place where it should have helped keep that end of the GM line in profits. And it probably would if it hadn’t been for a little competition from Ford’s Lincoln-Zephyr and an independent luxury firm called Packard.

            Despite upgrades and more alignment with Cadillac, the LaSalle, while still doing well, was basically being swallowed by the competition, particularly the Packard. Despite being chosen twice to be the pace car at the Indy 500, in both 1934 and 1937, the LaSalle could not keep up with the rising popularity of the Packard. By the end of the decade the handwriting was on the wall and Cadillac decided to do away with its “companion” marque. After the 1940 models, the LaSalle ceased production. The car pictured in this blog is a 1940 model, looking much like a Cadillac of the time.

            There is left only one question to answer about the LaSalle. Since 1933 the LaSalle had been outselling its Cadillac counterparts. So why did GM make the decision to drop the LaSalle brand and not that of the Cadillac? Was it because Cadillac was the longer standing name that was considered more of a true luxury car? Most likely. The Packard One-Twenty had been going head to head with LaSalle (not Cadillac) and beating it soundly for several years.

            The powers to be at GM decided to hold onto the luxury marque of Cadillac and bury the high mid to low luxury LaSalle, leaving its quality and reliability as a mere memory. “Gee our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days.”