1937 Chevrolet

The sassy 1937 Chevrolet Cabriolet weighed in at 1265 kilos (2,790 pounds) and rode on a 2 844-millimetre (112-and-one-quarter-inch) chassis.

            

The Great Depression had taken a horrific toll on Canada for eight long years. Its effects had devastated the national economy and drove millions of Canadians to their knees. Just when the worst appeared to be over, farmers on the Prairies suffered through another crippling drought in 1937. Unable to find work of any kind, nearly a million workers were still on the dole. 

Ontario was plagued with labour strikes including workers at GM Canada in Oshawa, who walked off the job on April 8. Premier Hepburn threatened to bring in the Royal Canadian Army to quash the strikers' action.  The employees returned to work twenty days later when the company finally recognized the United Auto Workers’ right to bargain on the employees’ behalf. The dispute was settled but the stock market crashed again, bringing new misery. 

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Used cars went begging. Want ads in the Hamilton Spectator showed Coronation Motor Sales Limited had a 1932 Plymouth Sedan on the lot for $365 and made a point of including the fact that all its salesmen were courteous and Canadian. MacLaren Motor Sales, Limited—the Chev-Olds dealer--at 70 John Street North in Hamilton, offered a dark green 1934 Ford Special De Luxe coupe with radio and heater for only $175 and was prepared to finance the purchase. That radio was particularly practical since the CBC was gearing up to expand its broadcast from six to sixteen hours a day.

The Sport Coupe featured a rear quarter panel window for “unusually full vision” and “increased visibility and better appearance.”

Even a second-hand automobile was just a pipe dream for many in 1937. Thousands of folks would eke another year or two out of their old jalopies with what repairs they could afford. Merrick Tire, located at 123 King Street in Hamilton, guaranteed its reconditioned tires with prices starting as low as $1.50 each. Hamilton Welding, at 100 Mary Street, straightened axles, frames and wheels to stop road shimmy. Jack Piries at 19 Market Street relined brakes and rebuilt clutches at reasonable prices. A paint job from the Ottawa Paint Shop in Hamilton started at $12.

For the few who could afford a new 1937 automobile, the low-priced leaders--Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth--were going to get the lion’s share of the new car trade. All three dealer bodies had been hit hard by the economic downturn and all were keen to put new taillights out the door.

1932 Chevrolet Sport Roadster

Chevrolet had hit rock bottom in 1932 when only 10,832 cars were produced. Only in 1916—the first year for the marque to be built in Canada—was production lower.  Production inched upward painfully each subsequent year of the Depression. A total of 13,134  units was built in 1933 and 24,103 bowties rolled out of the Oshawa plant’s doors in 1934. The picture grew brighter in 1935 as 33,721 Standard Six and Master Six units were produced. In 1936, the numbers moved up ever so slightly to 38,473 units.

The 1937 Chevrolet two-door Master Coach weighed in at 1267 kilos (2,795 pounds).

            Chevrolet salesmen had a few rabbits to pull out of the proverbial hat for customers when they came to dealerships see the new 1937 models. They were, after all, the company’s 25^th anniversary offerings. Billed as “the Parade of Progress,” the latest bowties from Oshawa featured safety plate glass windows and all-steel bodies by Fisher. Advertising drew attention to the fact that bodies were had been made lower, longer and roomier. Each one was constructed with a new six-girder frame, “built like a bridge span.”  Chevs were dubbed as “all silent and all-steel.” The pleasant, Diamond Crown styling was the handy work of designer Jules Agramonte who had been the inspiration behind the beautiful 1934 LaSalle.

Engineers tweaked Chevrolet’s Stove Bolt Six engine. Made of lightweight cast iron with a domed head and slipper skirt, the electroplated overhead valve plant now generated a whopping 85 horsepower. Advertising made much of the car’s economy, bragging that many owners reported more than 9.4 litres per 100 kilometres (25 miles to the Imperial gallon).

No-Draft Ventilation was a feature unique to GM cars throughout the 1930s. The small windows were invaluable in keeping cabin air fresh.

All Chevs boasted the Fisher “draft-free ventilation system” which consisted of vent windows for and aft to “let air sweep freely through the car, or control a gentle circulation that exhausts stale air and tobacco smoke—and prevents windshield fogging.” Independent front suspension, treating passengers to “Knee-action gliding ride,” had been around on the higher priced Chevs since the 1934 model year. Advertising bragged that more than 2,000,000 users had proved it was the world’s safest, smoothest ride. This was the second year for hydraulic brakes to be fitted to all four wheels. 

While the Master DeLuxe got all the trimmings, lesser-priced Masters made do with older technology and fewer goodies. They carried the tried-and-true I-beam, straight axle setup instead of the fancy Knee-Action Ride. Not as well dressed, Masters wore less trim, got no rubber pads on the pedals, no ash tray and were blessed with only one taillight, one wiper and a single arm rest. Masters did without bumper guards and no “overheat” indicator on the instrument panel. The entry level, two-passenger Business Coupe listed for $745 at J. B. Ross Limited in Hamilton, Ontario. Of course, taxes, license and freight were all extra.

Seven different models were offered in all, ranging from the Business Coupe to Sedans, Coaches, Town Sedans, Sport Coupes, Sport Sedans and a very racy Cabriolet. Surprisingly, the ragtop was offered in the lower-priced Master series. While all Chevrolets in the US were offered only on the 2 844-millimetre (112 and-one-quarter-inch) wheelbase, at least one Canadian source indicates that the Master Deluxe series sold throughout the Dominion was built on a much longer 3225-millimetre (127-inch) chassis.  Perhaps a passionate reader can set the record straight.

At the end of the year, Chevrolet had racked up production of 44,203 units. Most of the cars were sold in Canada. Ford produced 73,716 passenger cars, though 40,043 were exported throughout the British Empire.

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Copyright James C. Mays 2003
 All rights reserved.

1932 Chevrolet

If 1931 had been grim for Canadians, hopes for a better 1932 were dashed immediately with the change of the calendar. Long lines of unemployed stood in soup lines in urban centres, farm families starved as drought ravished their lands, civil servants took pay cuts or even went unpaid altogether as 10.4 million Canadians struggled to make sense of a world gone awry.

Intense heat, drought, violent dust storms and plagues of grasshoppers wreaked havoc on the countryside. Farm after farm was abandoned, indeed entire towns emptied out as the situation grew steadily worse.

Factories closed as the call for locomotives, refrigerators, washing machines and hats dwindled to almost nothing. From Sydney to Victoria and thousands  of places between, businesses failed. Traditional pillars of the economy, like wheat and pulp and paper, collapsed. Men and women drifted from town to town looking for work. Often they did not find any. More than 25 percent of the workforce found itself applying for relief (welfare).

Hardest hit was the automobile industry. From a healthy figure of 203,307 passenger cars built in 1929, production dropped to 121,337 units built in 1930 and that was nearly halved again in 1931 as workers turned out only 65,072 units. The industry would suffer another blow in 1932 as production slid to a dismal 50,694 units. 

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Ironically, American companies opened subsidiaries in Canada in 1932. Graham, Hupmobile, Hudson and Pierce-Arrow all christened assembly plants in or around Windsor, Ontario to avoid the  40 percent duty on automobiles imported from the United States.

General Motors of Canada closed its passenger car factory in Windsor, Ontario in 1932. There was no need for the extra capacity. Automobiles could easily be supplied to the nation from its plants in Oshawa and Regina. GM Canada’s production had been strong at 104,198 units in 1929—more than half the industry's domestic total—but the following year it plummeted to 55,379 units. In 1931 the company’s total production of cars and truck skidded to 32,719 units and it would drop again to 19,565 units built in 1932.

Against this dark economic backdrop, some of the most striking automobiles in history were built. The 1932 Chevrolet lineup was breathtakingly beautiful—all glitz and glamour. A full baker’s dozen—one more than our American cousins got--all in the Confederation series, was offered to the public. The press noted that this year's crop of Chev's all bore more than a passing resemblance to its ritzy cousins in the Cadillac line.

This year the Chevrolet’s 60-horsepower mill was emphasized heavily in advertising in a bid to compete more favourably with Ford’s new V-8 engine.  The 20 percent increase in power from the bowtie camp wasn’t enough to steal Ford’s thunder—The blue oval’s flathead cranked out an extra five horsepower.

Advertising boasted Chevrolet’s 21 “Points of Superiority for 1932.” These included a smooth, six-cylinder, 60-horsepower engine; 65 to 70 miles per hour of acceleration; silent Synchro-Mesh gear shifting (new this year); powerful, long-wearing brakes on each wheel; an easily adjusted driver’s seat; a non-glare windshield and a variety of beautiful Duco colours but to name a few of the virtues touted.

The marketing department in Oshawa decided to tie Chevrolet's image to fine art and at the same time appeal to the heartstrings of patriotism. A series of full-page, full-colour ads linking Chev to famous Canadian paintings appeared in magazines, including Maclean’s and Chatelaine.

Billed as the “Queen of Values in Old Quebec,” ad copy read, “In Canada the name Chevrolet Six has always meant, in both French and English the smart type of economical transportation. At the recent Montreal Motor Show, Quebec’s elite—must cultured of moderns—paid liberal compliment to the genuine character and beauty of this fine car and to the certain air of quality which sets it head and shoulders above others in its price class. The highways and charming byroads of Old Quebec offers ample evidence of the new Chevrolet’s great popularity.” Shown side by side with the stylish automobile was the painting Horse Racing in Winter, a scene from a small town in Quebec along the St. Lawrence River, rendered by internationally renowned artist Clarence Gagnon.

"Pioneering Mountain Trails" and “Admired at Smart Resorts,” Chevrolet was noted as being a regular part of life in Alberta. “Along the foothill trails of Canada’s Rockies, where gasoline pumps are few and far between, you notice many Chevrolet Six. Around the lodge at Jasper, too, you’ll find that Chevrolets are very much in evidence. For Chevrolet has definitely proved that Canada’s most economical car is also strikingly smart, quality built and thoroughly modern automobile.” The car with Body by Fisher and the Free Wheeling was paired with Mount Robson from Lake Berg, a stunning landscape by Lawren Harris of the Group of Seven.

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“Proved on the testing ground of a nation’s roads and byways” was another in the  advertising campaign. “A hundred thousand owners of low-priced cars throughout Canada were invited recently to tell what they through was Chevrolet’s most important story. Like a recurrent theme through thousands of entries received was this conviction—Chevrolet leadership is based on the goodwill of the men and women who have tested the Chevrolet Six in millions of miles of driving.” A truly bucolic landscape was featured with the car, one entitled, An Ontario Side Road, painted by Fred H. Brigden.

Each advertisement boldly announced that the Chevrolet Six was produced in Canada. A young man by the name of Foster Hewett began to broadcast a programme called Hockey Night in Canada—sponsored by General Motors of Canada, Limited. At the time, no one knew that the sportcast would become the most popular  programme in history or that Foster Hewett would be the voice of NHL for nearly fifty years.

Despite all the hype Oshawa could muster, Chevrolet passenger car production slipped from 17,867 units in 1931 to an absolutely abysmal 10,832 units built in 1932. Fortunately, the corner had turned and production would increase in 1933.

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Copyright James C. Mays 2004 All rights reserved.