Durant MotorsDurant Motors Inc. was established in 1921 by former General Motors CEO William Crapo Durant following his termination by the GM board of directors and the New York bankers that financed GM.-Corporate relationships:...
Company of New York, New York first used the
Frontenac marque in 1931 on vehicles built and sold in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The Canadian Durant firm was acquired by a group of Canadian investors and renamed Dominion Motors Limited. The firm continued building Durant and Frontenac cars. The first Frontenac, for 1931, was model 6-18, a 109" wheelbase car based on the Durant 619.
After Durant Motors went under in 1932, Dominion Motors switched to
De VauxThe De Vaux was an automobile produced by the De Vaux Motors Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan and Oakland, California . Heavily based on the 1930 Durant , the vehicle was produced for the 1931 model year only. Bodies for the cars were built by Hayes Body of Grand Rapids...
for a source of car designs.
Dominion Motors
Durant MotorsDurant Motors Inc. was established in 1921 by former General Motors CEO William Crapo Durant following his termination by the GM board of directors and the New York bankers that financed GM.-Corporate relationships:...
Company of New York, New York first used the
Frontenac marque in 1931 on vehicles built and sold in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The Canadian Durant firm was acquired by a group of Canadian investors and renamed Dominion Motors Limited. The firm continued building Durant and Frontenac cars. The first Frontenac, for 1931, was model 6-18, a 109" wheelbase car based on the Durant 619.
After Durant Motors went under in 1932, Dominion Motors switched to
De VauxThe De Vaux was an automobile produced by the De Vaux Motors Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan and Oakland, California . Heavily based on the 1930 Durant , the vehicle was produced for the 1931 model year only. Bodies for the cars were built by Hayes Body of Grand Rapids...
for a source of car designs. The 1932 Frontenac range consisted of two sixes, 6-70 (109" wheelbase), an update of the 1931 6-18, and the 6-85 (114" wheelbase) based on the De Vaux 6-80.
And just as Durant got into trouble, so did De Vaux. The firm was taken over by its major creditor,
Continental MotorsContinental Motors Company was an American engine and automobile manufacturer. The company produced engines for various independent manufacturers of automobiles, tractors, and stationary equipment from the 1900s through the 1960s. Continental Motors also produced Continental-branded automobiles in...
, in late 1932. Continental decided to continue car production under the Continental name and Dominion Motors decided to base their cars on Continental vehicles. Just as the 1933 Continental line consisted of three models, so did Frontenac.
The last Frontenac models were the C-400, a 101½" wheelbase four cylinder car based on the Continental Beacon and the C-600, based on the 107" wheelbase, six cylinder Continental Flyer. Frontenac imported the 114" wheelbase Continental Ace, putting a Frontenac nameplate on the grille and selling them as the Frontenac Ace.
Although Continental continued into 1934, Frontenac called it quits in 1933. Dominion Motors also built
ReoThe REO Motor Car Company was a Lansing, Michigan based company that produced automobiles and trucks from 1905 to 1975. At one point the company also manufactured buses on its truck platforms.REO was initiated by Ransom E. Olds during August 1904...
cars and trucks for the Canadian market. Reo continued to use the plant into the early 1950s and in 1950 and 1951 Kaiser used part of the plant to assemble Kaiser sedans for the Canadian market.
Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited
In 1960 Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited introduced the
Frontenac in order to give Mercury-
MeteorMeteor was a brand of automobiles offered by Ford in Canada from 1949 to 1976. The brand was retired for the 1962 and 1963 model years, when the name was used for the intermediate Mercury Meteor...
dealers a compact to sell. Produced for the 1960 model year only, the Frontenac was essentially a 1960 Ford Falcon with its own unique grille, tail lights and external trim including red maple leaf insignias. Despite strong sales (5% of Ford's total Canadian output), the Frontenac was discontinued and replaced by the
Mercury CometThe Mercury Comet is an automobile produced by the Mercury division of the Ford Motor Company between 1960 and 1977, with the exception of the 1970 model year...
for 1961.
The Frontenac is another example of U.S. automakers' attempts to market slight variations of U.S. models as unique Canadian makes. Like Ford's Monarch and Meteor, and GM's
AcadianAcadian was a make of automobile produced by General Motors of Canada from 1962 to 1971. The Acadian was introduced so that Canadian Pontiac-Buick dealers would have a compact model to sell, since the Pontiac Tempest was unavailable in Canada...
brands, the Frontenac was not part of the Ford or Meteor line. It was its own brand and was marketed as such.
Sources
Zavitz, Perry R.
Canadian Cars, 1946-1984, Bookman Publishing, Baltimore, Maryland, 1985, ISBN 0-934780-43-9
Canadian Automotive Information Handbook, Canadian Automotive Information Service, Oakville, Ontario : 1939 edition
External links