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The Locomobile was a Yankee car, born and bred. It was manufactured during its lifetime of nearly 30 years in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Befitting its Yankee heritage, it was one of the finest and most carefully built cars ever manufactured in the United States. It was also one of the most luxurious and most prestigious -- and the most expensive.
Everything about the Locomobile bespoke elegance. Its massive body gleamed with innumerable layers of paint, each hand-rubbed to a gleaming finish. Its sheer size -- 4,800 pounds of heat-tested steel in a two-seat, 18-foot roadster -- conveyed a look and feeling of luxury. Even the 1970's vintage four-door Lincoln Continental weighed only 4,051 pounds. The owner of a 1918 touring car, when asked if she did not fear that her car might be irreparably damaged in a collision on the highway, said loftily, "Oh, it's the other car you should be concerned about, not the Locomobile."
The roomy interior was designed so that passengers--whether in a two-seat roadster or a seven-passenger limousine--could ride in splendid comfort. In closed cars, the deep cushions were stuffed with horsehair, and the upholstery was selected and harmonized by New York's fashionable designer, Elsie DeWolfe. The limousine had cut-glass side lamps, a Tiffany shade covering the dome light, and silk roller shades at the windows. The trim was sterling silver. If one wished to speak to the driver there was an electric telephone, and, for milady's convenience, there was a concealed toilet case with a mirror.
The Yankee car was born with an auspicious head start. The Locomobile Company's first cars were steam carriages, modeled after the highly successful Stanley Steamers, developed by the Stanley brothers in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Successful though they were, however, they had problems, especially for touring. The water tanks had to be refilled every 15 to 20 miles. Boilers frequently burned out, and there was always the danger of an explosion. Locomobile officials decided to explore the gasoline engine, and in January 1902 they turned to a young inventive genius, Andrew Lawrence Riker, who proceeded to design and build Locomobile's first gasoline car.
Designing motor vehicles was nothing new to Riker who, at the age of 14, constructed his first electric motor vehicle in the basement of his family's home in New York City. The Riker Electric Vehicle Company, which he founded in 1889, became one of the country's largest manufacturers of electric cars and trucks.
In the summer of 1902, under Riker's direction, Locomobile began building two- and four-cylinder cars. These were "among the earliest touring cars in the country." according to the editor of The Bulb Horn, a publication of the Veteran Motor Car Club of America.
The cars quickly became known for their power, speed, and reliability. The company's claim that the Locomobile was "the best built car in America" was no idle boast. Its engine base and gear case were of manganese bronze. Its chassis was of heat-treated steel. Every motor was tested before it was placed in the chassis and a record was made of the horsepower test. Every chassis was road-tested several hundred miles. Production was limited to "Four Cars a Day," the company's motto.
All of this was not without its price. The Locomobile -- as the company openly boasted -- was the country's most expensive car. In 1922 the cheapest models were listed at $7,600 and a six-passenger sedan was priced at $11,300. Cadillac's most expensive car was $4,600.
Locomobile owners included many of the nation's political, business, and social leaders, General Pershing selected the Locomobile as his official World War I car and it was the personal car of President Harding. In an ingenious promotion tactic, the company published The Blue Book of Locomobile Owners, which was in effect an abbreviated version of Who's Who or the Social Register.
True to Yankee tradition, the Bridgeport car was made to last. General Pershing's custom-built Sportif, which he chose at the end of the war as his personal car, remained in his possession for 20 years. The car was still going strong in 1953 when Stanford Block, an antique car buff who had acquire the Pershing car, drove it to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he attended the premiere of Oklahoma and won a prize for the oldest car to have driven the longest distance to the opening.
Locomobiles's classic design changed little from year to year. Let other manufactures dance to the whims of a fickle public who must have the newest fads each year. Not that the company spurned change when research showed a way of improving performance or comfort: Locomobile was the first major car to have the two spare tires on the back rather than on the side, thus improving the balance of the car. In 1913 it was one of the first to adopt the electric motor starter and the first to introduce the push-the-button-to-start feature and electric lighting. But the basic design of the car, its octagonal headlights, its front axle with the dip in the center, and its radiator, which had no identifying symbols (after all, didn't everybody recognize a Loco?), never changed.
However, time proved the Locomobile out of step with the marketplace. In its methods of production and marketing it was the antithesis of what made automobile manufacturing one of America's biggest industries. In 1922, while the Locomobile was still proudly adhering to its motto, "Never More than Four Cars a Day," Ford mass-produced on million Model T's. In that year, to, Ford lowered its prices to the lowest in the company's history. Its roadster, the cheapest car, was $269; its sedan, $595. The car had ceased to be the rich man's plaything and the number of people who could afford the luxury of the Locomobile was dwindling.
Hard hit by post-war depression of 1921, the Locomobile Company of America went into receivership and was taken over by Hare's Motors of New York City. The following year is was acquired by William C. Durant, who introduced some middle-priced models while continuing to produce Locomobile's big luxury cars. But it was too late, and early in 1930, following the crash of 1929, the company closed its doors.
And so the elegant Yankee car took its place in the country's museums along with the Pierce-Arrow, the Peerless, the Packard, and the many other big cars that are now part of automobile history.
A few Locomobiles are still owned by individuals. Illustrator Peter Helck, known particularly for his paintings of car races, owns "Old 16", whose victory in 1908 is one of the artist's most famous works. The Riker family has a 1917 two-seat Gunboat Roadster, which Andrew Lawrence Riker, Jr., son the engineer who designed the first gasoline Locomobile and "Old 16," bought in 1966. Of the roadster's many awards, perhaps the most fitting was at a Newport, Rhode Island, Motor Festival where the car was named the "Most Representative of the Newport Era". In what other era would you have the luxury, as Mrs. Riker points out, of 18 feet of car for two people?
This article originally published in April, 1982.