- Frontenac (automobile)
Two separate automobile manufacturers have produced cars under the Frontenac name brand.
Dominion Motors
Durant Motors Company ofNew York, New York first used the Frontenac marque in 1931 on vehicles built and sold inCanada . 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 Vaux 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 Motors , 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 Reo 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-Meteor dealers a compact to sell. Produced for the1960 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 theMercury Comet for1961 .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 Acadian brands, the Frontenac was not part of the Ford or Mercury line. It was its own brand and was marketed as such.
ources
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
* [http://www.ford.ca/english/LearnAbout/Heritage/PrewarFords/Frontenac/ Frontenac - Ford Motor Company of Canada]
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