1904 Auburn Model A

After producing carriages for several years, Auburn began producing motor cars in 1903. Charles Eckhart founded Eckhart Carriage Company in 1874 in Auburn, Indiana, after working for the wagon-building Studebaker brothers of South Bend, Indiana. After he retired in 1893, the business was left to his sons Frank and Morris. After experimentation, the brothers entered the automobile business in earnest, acquiring two other local automakers and moving into a larger plant in 1909.

The earliest examples were built around 1900 and came equipped with a single-cylinder engine, tiller steering, and solid-tired wheels. These early vehicle experiments were priced at approximately $800. After the 1903 Chicago Automobile Show, the brothers decided to focus their complete attention on automobile production. The cars that followed now rode on pneumatic tires and could be purchased with a tonneau. The single-cylinder power was soon joined by a two-cylinder opposed, water-cooled engine with a 142.6 cubic-inch displacement and produced ten horsepower. The 83-inch angle-steel-framed wheelbase tourer had seating for two or four passengers, used a two-speed planetary transmission, and had a factory base price of approximately $1,000.

Approximately fifty examples of the Model A was produced in 1904, mostly in the Mid-Western states.

The Auburn Company was modestly successful during the 1900s and 1910s until materials shortages during World War I forced the plant to close. The Eckhart brothers sold the company in 1919 to a group of Chicago-based investors headed by Ralph Austin Bard. Although the new owners revived the company, it was not profitable. In 1924, Errett Lobban Cord was hired to stimulate sales. Cord secured what was essentially a leveraged buyout of Auburn, which the Chicago group accepted. The buyout was completed before the close of 1925.

Attractive styling, advanced engineering, and eye-catching paint schemes helped revitalize sales, but only briefly, as the 1930s brought the Depression-era market. Slow sales and Cord's stock manipulations eventually led to his loss of control of the automobile holding company (including Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg). Production of Auburn automobiles ceased in 1937.

by Dan Vaughan

Tourer

This vehicle is a 1904 Auburn Model A Rear Entrance Tonneau. It is the oldest Auburn known to exist. Its design is typical of many pre-1905 era cars.

Auburn debuted at the Chicago Auto Show of 1903 and was slowly gaining a reputation as a builder of quality cars in limited numbers. By 1904, the company produced approximately fifty vehicles and was only sold in a few Midwestern states.

This vehicle is powered by a two-cylinder opposed, water-cooled engine (There are features of both the Model A Auburn and of the Model B Auburn). It displaces 142.6 cubic inches and produces ten horsepower which is sent to the rear wheels via a chain. The wheelbase measures 83 inches, and it sold for $1,250 when new.

The Auburn Automobile Company of Auburn, Indiana, was founded in 1903 by Frank and Morris Eckhart, sons of a successful carriage maker. The automobiles produced by the young brothers soon gained a loyal following and by 1909, they were able to build a foundry and machine works to facilitate the manufacturing of their Auburn cars. Production would continue until 1937.

During the early 1900s, the company offered modest automobiles powered by flat-mounted single-cylinder engines capable of producing ten horsepower. There was a two-speed planetary transmission which helped deliver the power to the rear wheels. The car sat on half-elliptic springs and a steel frame. The total weight of the vehicles was about 1500 pounds. In 1904 a touring model was added, and by 1905, the cars were offered with two-cylinder engines.

by Dan Vaughan