The Decision to Build Mass-Produced Vehicles

19.12.2010

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When the two headstrong founders of the company, William Durant and Louis Chevrolet, met to discuss the positioning of their Chevrolet car lines for 1914, an argument developed. During a vacation taken by Chevrolet, Durant had restructured the company to focus on more affordable cars, which would compete with those manufactured by Ford. Chevrolet considered this an insult, as he himself had always been interested in building “high-powered speed cars” and other exclusive models.

If declarations made decades after the argument by both Durant’s widow and one of Chevrolet’s sisters are to be believed, it was a laconic comment made by Durant that triggered the break-up of the partnership. Durant had suggested that Chevrolet, now an executive in the automotive industry, should change from smoking his cheap “blue collar” cigarettes to more exclusive cigars.

Catherine Durant later said that her husband did not so much dislike the brand of the cigarettes, but the way in which Chevrolet held them in the corner of his mouth. In any case, this suggestion must have hurt Louis Chevrolet so much that he countered; “I sold you my automobile, I sold you my name, but I shall not sell my personality to you.” He then packed up his cigarettes and left the company.    

The Chevrolet brand developed quickly along the lines established by Durant after Louis Chevrolet returned to his true passions, building and driving racecars. Durant’s fundamental decision to focus the company on marketing its brand as a synonym for good quality, yet affordable, automobiles continues to influence Chevrolet to this day.

Having moved to Indianapolis, Indiana to be near that city’s already famed speedway, Louis founded the Frontenac Motor Corporation in 1914. This resulted in the 1916 appearance of the Chevrolet brothers’ Frontenac racecar at the Indianapolis 500—with subsequent Frontenac racers winning the 1920 and 1921 500-mile events there. In 1926, Louis and his brother Arthur established a new company and began developing a light aircraft engine called the “Chevrolair 333.” The firm was soon liquidated, after a disagreement between the two brothers set them on separate paths.

By 1929, Louis had founded the Chevrolet Aircraft Company in Indianapolis, which had to close shortly thereafter as a result of the ensuing economic crisis. In 1933, Louis received a patent for his innovative aircraft engine design, but it was of necessity assigned to a financier of his defunct company—who would go on to produce the engine. In the mid-1930s, during the depths of the Great Depression, Louis worked for a period as a mechanic in a Chevrolet axle plant in Detroit. He was later employed as a representative for an industrial cutting oil company, until failing health pushed him into retirement in 1938.

Louis Joseph Chevrolet died in Detroit, on June 6, 1941, at the age of 62, three years after he had fallen seriously ill with a brain hemorrhage.