LaSalle (automobile)

The LaSalle had its beginnings when General Motors' CEO Alfred P. Sloan noticed that his carefully crafted market segmentation program was beginning to develop price gaps in which General Motors had no products to sell. In an era when automotive brands were somewhat restricted to building a specific car per model year, Sloan surmised that the best way to bridge the gaps was to develop "companion" marques that could be sold through the current sales network.

As originally developed by Sloan, General Motors' market-segmentation strategy placed each of the company's individual automobile marques into specific price ranges, called the General Motors Companion Make Program. The Chevrolet was designated as the entry-level product. Next, (in ascending order), came the Pontiac, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Viking, Marquette, Buick, LaSalle, and Cadillac. By the 1920s, certain General Motors products began to shift out of the plan as the products improved and engine advances were made.

Under the companion marque strategy, the gap between the Chevrolet and the Oakland would be filled by a new marque named Pontiac, a quality six-cylinder car designed to sell for the price of a four-cylinder. The wide gap between Oldsmobile and Buick would be filled by two companion marques: Oldsmobile was assigned the up-market V8 engine Viking and Buick was assigned the more compact six-cylinder Marquette. Cadillac, which had seen its base prices soar in the heady 1920s, was assigned the LaSalle as a companion marque to fill the gap that existed between it and Buick.[1]

1927 dealer showroom poster promoting the new LaSalle. GM used a European theme in its ads that year in an attempt to build the image that the LaSalle was a worldly vehicle, fashionable in all settings and places.

What emerged as the LaSalle in 1927 was introduced on the GM C platform with Cadillac. The 1927 LaSalle was designed by Harley Earl, who had a 30-year career at General Motors, eventually gaining control of all design and styling at General Motors.

Prior to the 1927 LaSalle, automobile design essentially followed a set pattern, with design changes driven principally by engineering needs. For example, the Ford Model T evolved only slightly over its production run; A 1927 Model T was almost identical to a 1910 Model T.

Earl, who had been hired by Cadillac's General Manager, Lawrence P. Fisher, conceived the LaSalle not as a junior Cadillac, but as something more agile and stylish. Influenced by the rakish Hispano-Suiza roadsters of the time, Earl's LaSalle emerged as a smaller, yet elegant, counterpoint to Cadillac's larger cars, unlike anything else built by an American automotive manufacturer.

1928 LaSalle Series 303 Phaeton

1930 LaSalle Series 340, photographed in Perth, Western Australia

Built by Cadillac to its high standards, the LaSalle soon emerged as a trend-setting automobile. Earl was then placed in charge of overseeing the design of all of General Motors' vehicles.

The LaSalle was offered in a full range of body styles, including Fisher and Fleetwood Metal Body-built custom designs. The open cars could also be ordered in tri-tone color combinations, at a time when dark colors like black and navy blue were still the most familiar colors produced by manufacturers. Earl's design even included a nod to the inspirational Hispano-Suiza, with the marque's circled trademark "LaS" cast into the horizontal tie bar between the front lights.ri

Wheelbases ranged between 128 in (3,251 mm) and 134 in (3,404 mm). The LaSalles of this era were equipped with Cadillac's "Ninety Degree V-8", making the car fast, while its smaller size made it sportier and more agile.

On June 20, 1927, a LaSalle driven by Willard Rader, along with Gus Bell, on the track at the Milford Proving Grounds, achieved 952 miles (1,532 km), averaging 95.2 mph (153.2 km/h), with only seven minutes given over to refueling and tire changes. In comparison, the average speed at that year's Indianapolis 500 was 97.5 mph (156.9 km/h). The test at Milford would have continued, but a problem in the oil system drew the test to an early close, approaching the 9:45 mark.

Later, the Great Depression, combined with LaSalle's stalling sales numbers, caused Cadillac to rethink its companion make. Both Buick and Oldsmobile had eliminated the Marquette and the Viking in 1930, their second model year. Cadillac also saw sales of its cars losing ground, as confirmed Cadillac buyers tried to trim pennies by buying the less expensive LaSalle. LaSalle sales also were falling, from a high of 22,691 models in 1929 to a low of 3,290 in 1932.

1934 LaSalle Series 50

LaSalle Roadster, 1936

1935 LaSalle advertisement, showing the distinctive Harley Earl body design

1937 LaSalle Series 50 coupe

1938 LaSalle Series 50

1937 LaSalle Series 50 2-door Touring Sedan

Beginning with the 1934 model year, a significant portion of the LaSalle was more closely related to the Oldsmobile L-Series than to senior Cadillacs. This was marked by a shift to the Oldsmobile- and Buick-based B platform. Again, Earl's work with the LaSalle resulted in a graceful vehicle, led by an elegant and thin radiator grille. Earl's other contribution was the modern, airplane-styled, semi-shielded portholes along the side of the hood. All bodies were now made by Fleetwood.[2]

This new LaSalle was now priced $1,000 below the least expensive Cadillac. Its mission was not to fill a price gap, but to keep the luxury-car division out of the red. But as the economy began to recover, the LaSalle did not, at least not commensurate with the economy. Sales were 7,195 in 1934, 8,651 in 1935 and 13,004 in 1936.[2]

Meanwhile, the Packard One-Twenty had been introduced in 1935 and was very successful. The LaSalle had additional competition from the Lincoln-Zephyr, introduced in 1936. For 1937, Cadillac made the LaSalle its own again, giving it the 322 cu in (5.3 L) monobloc V8 of the Series 60, new styling, a lower price range, and a heavy promotion emphasizing that the car was completely Cadillac-built. It was too late. Model year sales of 32,000 LaSalles was a great improvement, but it remained far behind the Packard.[2]

A 1934 LaSalle Model 350 was chosen as the Pace Car for the Indianapolis 500, and a 1937 LaSalle Series 50 convertible also served as an Indy 500 Pace Car.

1939 LaSalle Series 50 4-door convertible

1940 LaSalle Special Series 52 4-door sedan

In its final years, the LaSalle once again became more Cadillac-like in its appearance and details. The narrow radiator grille opening was retained and was flanked by additional side grille work. Headlights, which had moved down and been secured to the body between the grille and the fender, were again attached to the radiator shell. LaSalle also added a sunroof, marketed as the "Sunshine Turret Top". Sales climbed from 15,501 in 1938 to 23,028 in 1939.[2]

The final 1940 LaSalles were introduced in October 1939 with a full array of semi-custom body styles, as it had in its first year, including a convertible sedan. Earl oversaw this redesign. The LaSalle emerged with a smooth-flowing design, its thin radiator flanked by a series of thin chrome slots. In its final year, sales of the LaSalle reached the second-highest level ever at 24,133.[2] In addition to the Series 50, there was also the lower, wider Special Series 52 using General Motors' new "Torpedo"-style body.

By the time the decision was made to drop the LaSalle, at least three wood-and-metal mockups had been made for potential 1941 LaSalle models. One was based on the notchback GM C platform, which ended up being shared by the Cadillac Series 62, the Buick Roadmaster and Super, the Oldsmobile 90 and the Pontiac Custom Torpedo. A second was based on the fastback GM B platform, which was eventually shared by the Cadillac Series 61, the Buick Century and Special, the Oldsmobile 70 and the Pontiac Streamliner Torpedo. A third was a modified notchback design, derived from the fastback B-body, but described as "A-body-like," that was finally used by the Cadillac Series 63. Any or all of these could have ended up being part of the next LaSalle line. However, it is widely believed that of the three, the third design was most likely to have been a LaSalle, with that platform being assigned exclusively to LaSalle, and that the second design, whose platform was shared with the Series 61, was the next-most-likely. In 1941, sales of the Cadillac Series 61 and 63 were 29,258 and 5,030, respectively.[2][3]

LaSalle sales had consistently exceeded Cadillac's since 1933, but since its introduction in 1935 the medium priced Packard One-Twenty had consistently outsold the LaSalle by an average of 72 percent over the six-year period 1935-40 inclusively. It was decided to fold the LaSalle into the more prestigious Cadillac marque.[3] LaSalle did not have the time to develop a prestigious name before the onset of the Great Depression and did not have the opportunity afterward.[2]

In his 2013 article, "GM's Road Not Taken", Robert Cumberford reviewed the restoration of GM's 1955 Motorama La Salle II Roadster.[4] Cumberford likened the Roadster to a harbinger of GM's future. While the Roadster concept showcased important new technology, including an aluminum block, double overhead cam and fuel-injected V6, the technology went unrealized. GM instead emphasized styling over engineering advancement for the decades that followed and did not bring "an aluminum block, fuel-injected, overhead-cam V-6 into production until 2004".[5]

Cumberford described the Roadster as "a signpost to the many wrong turns that led to the bankruptcy of what was in 1955 the largest business entity in the entire world (GM)".[5]

1932 LaSalle Series 345-B 2-door convertible

There was nostalgia for the LaSalle name, and at various points in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, General Motors issued Motorama cars and proposed new consumer automobiles under the name. The year 1955 saw two Motorama concept cars, the LaSalle II four-door hardtop and the LaSalle II Roadster. Ordered to be destroyed, both the four-door hardtop and the roadster were shipped to the Warhoops Salvage Yard in Sterling Heights, Michigan; instead of being destroyed they were hidden in a corner of the facility.[4]

In 1990, collector Joe Bortz purchased and restored the Roadster, which was featured in a 2013 article in Automobile (magazine), for which the author, Robert Cumberford won the 2013 Best Article of the Year Award from the Motor Press Guild for his Automobile magazine article, "GM's Road Not Taken" about the La Salle II Roadster.[6]

The LaSalle name was raised again when Cadillac was developing a new small luxury sedan, but it was passed over in favor of Cadillac Seville. Early mockups of what was to become the 1963 Buick Riviera were badged "LaSalle II," as the Cadillac division was being considered for production of this successful personal luxury car.

In the 1970s television show All In The Family, Archie and Edith Bunker sing, "Gee, our old LaSalle ran great" in the program's opening theme song, "Those Were the Days." In Season One, episode 21 of The Streets of San Francisco, Lew Ayres mentions the hubcap he finds as being from a 1934 LaSalle.

This is the car that the character Marcus Brody drives when he visits Indiana Jones in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).[7]

7. Those Were The Days theme song of tv show All in The Family Lyrics include “gee our old LaSalle ran great.”

• Van Gelderen, Ron; Larson, Matt (May 23, 2000). La Salle: Cadillac's Companion Car (First ed.). Turner. ISBN 9781563115196.

• Official Cadillac America Forum

Wikimedia Commons has media related to LaSalle vehicles.

• Cadillac & LaSalle Club