1927 Oakland
edited by David Barth, 10 January 2009.
Courtesy The Forney Museum of Transportation at 4303 Brighton Blvd., Denver,
Colorado.
Photos were taken in February 2009.
The Oakland was a brand of automobile manufactured between 1907 to 1909 by the Oakland Motor Car Company of Pontiac,
Michigan and between 1909 and 1931 by the Oakland Motors Division of General Motors Corporation. Oakland's principal
founder was Edward P. Murphy, who sold half the company to GM in January 1909. When Murphy died in the summer of 1909,
GM acquired the remaining rights to Oakland.
As originally conceived and introduced, the first Oakland used a vertical two-cylinder engine that rotated
counterclockwise. This design by Alanson Brush (inventor of the Brush Runabout) lasted one year and was replaced
by a more standard 4-cylinder engine and sales increased to approximately 5,000 automobiles per year.
Within General Motors, Oakland was slotted above price leader Chevrolet and below the more premium Oldsmobile and
Buick brand cars. In 1916, the company introduced a V8 engine, and Oakland initially flourished. By early 1920,
however, production and quality control problems began to plague the division.
In 1921, under new General Manager Fred Hannum, a consistent production schedule was underway and the quality of the
cars improved. One marketing tactic was the employment of a quick-drying bright blue automotive lacquer by Duco (a
DuPont brand product), leading to the slogan "True Blue Oakland".
General Motors pioneered the idea that consumers would aspire to buy up an automotive product ladder if a company met
certain price points. As General Motors entered the 1920s, the product ladder started with the price-leading Chevrolet
marque, and then progressed upward in price, power and appointments to Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick, and ultimately to the
luxury Cadillac marque.
However by the mid 1920s, a sizable price gap had existed between Chevrolet and Oakland, while the difference between an
Oldsmobile and a Buick was even wider. There was also a product gap between Buick and Cadillac. To solve this, General
Motors authorized the introduction of four companion marques priced and designed to fill the gaps. Cadillac introduced
the LaSalle to fill the gap between Cadillac and Buick. Buick introduced the Marquette to handle the upper end of the
gap between Buick and Oldsmobile. Oldsmobile introduced the Viking, which took care of the lower end of the same gap.
This is often referred to as General Motors Companion Make Program.
1926 General Motors Companion Make Program:
- Cadillac
- (Cadillac) LaSalle Viking (discontinued by 1940)
- Buick
- (Buick) Marquette Viking (discontinued by 1940)
- (Oldsmobile) Viking (discontinued by 1940)
- Oldsmobile
- Oakland (discontinued in 1931)
- (Oakland) Pontiac
- Chevrolet
Oakland's part in this plan was the 1926 Pontiac, a shorter wheelbase "light six" priced to sell at a 4 cylinder car's
price point, but still above Chevrolet. Pontiac was the first of the companion marques introduced, and in its first year
outsold the larger, heavier Oakland. By 1929, GM sold 163,000+ more Pontiacs than Oaklands. The discontinuation of
Oakland was announced in 1931 and the Pontiac would be the only one of General Motors' companion makes to survive
beyond 1940, or to survive its "parent" make.
