1932 Frontenac rumble seat coupe owned by George Gow of Brampton, Ont.

Third of three parts

After five years of growth, Billy Durant’s new automotive empire began to show signs of stress in 1927.
Sales that year fell from a high of 172,000 units in 1923 for all Durant lines – Star, Durant, Locomobile, etc. – to just 80,843.
“The lustre of Billy’s name was fading,” wrote authors Glenn Baechler and Hugh Durnford in their landmark 1973 book, Cars of Canada. “While his cars were good ones, they had nothing to commend them in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Production stopped entirely for an extended period in 1927, and the all-new 1928 lineup gave only a brief boost in sales.”
However, that boost allowed Durant to sell 115,243 units in 1928 – good enough to regain the company’s hold on 10th place among U.S. manufacturers.
And then came 1929, the stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression that would claim so many carmakers as victims before it was over.
To compete in these tougher economic times, Billy Durant decided that what was needed was a completely redesigned lineup for 1930. Unfortunately, Durant’s U.S. operations had no money so Billy turned to his Canadian subsidiary for salvation. Established in 1921, Durant Motors of Canada had prospered under the leadership of president Roy Kerby from Petrolia, Ont.
The Leaside, Ont. factory not only built a full line of Durant products for sale in Canada, but had a lucrative export business selling Rugby cars and trucks to Britain and the rest of the Commonwealth. Profits in 1927 had topped $500,000 and sales were so brisk that office space was utilized to increase production capacity, resulting in the construction of a new administrative building.
To finance his 1930 redesign, Billy Durant borrowed $1.25 million from York Acceptance Corp. of Toronto, a firm set up in 1927 to finance cars purchased from the Leaside plant. According to Cars of Canada, “As collateral, Durant had to put up its controlling interest in Durant Motors of Canada, which by this time had had accumulated a surplus of $1,155,423. When the U.S. firm defaulted on the loan, control passed into Canadian hands.”
On March 14, 1931 a new company, called Dominion Motors Ltd., with Kerby as president, took over. It immediately began work on a new car based on the short wheelbase Durant 619, which never had been built in Leaside, and was powered by a big 6-cylinder engine. With its sloping windshield and V-shaped radiator the distinctive new Frontenac was priced from $898.
Leaside also continued to build Durants – which were very popular in Ontario – until the U.S. company succumbed to economic forces in 1931. Dominion Motors then turned to another U.S. firm, DeVaux, and used its model 6-85 as the basis for the new 1932 Frontenac, which was available in coupe, roadster, sedan and convertible coupe form.
When DeVaux failed in 1932 it was taken over by Continental engines of Muskegon, Mich., a company with which Leaside had enjoyed a long relationship. But even the redesigned 1933 models, and prices that had fallen to just $595 for the Standard Roadster, couldn’t keep the wolf from the door.
With losses mounting, Leaside’s assembly lines were shut down near the end of 1933. Most assets of Dominion Motors were sold in September, 1934 but in a real gesture of goodwill, a separate company continued to sell parts to Durant and Frontenac owners across Canada for many years to come.

Write to Glen at glenwoodcock@canoemail.com