1937 LaSalle Coupe

Pictured here at the 1999 Eagles Car Show in Rainier, Oregon, is a 1937 LaSalle Coupe, representing the peak year for a short-lived General Motors marque. The story of LaSalle is an interesting one. It begins in the mid-1920s, when General Motors consisted of five automobile brands: Chevrolet, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac. There were significant gaps between the price ranges of the five brands. In an attempt to fill these price gaps, General Motors created four "companion" makes, each built by an existing brand division. Pontiac was created by Oakland in 1926 to fill the gap between it and Chevrolet. The large gap between Oldsmobile and Buick was filled in 1929 by Oldsmobile's Viking and Buick's Marquette. LaSalle was introduced by Cadillac in 1927 to fill the gap between it and Buick. The companion make program didn't go quite as General Motors expected, though. Marquette and Viking promptly failed in 1930 and 1931 respectively, while Pontiac was so successful that its parent Oakland was discontinued in 1931, leaving LaSalle as the only companion make standing alongside its parent brand. LaSalle's cars were stylish and powerful, but were smaller than Cadillac's and had lower price tags. LaSalle sales helped support Cadillac through the Great Depression, and in 1934 LaSalle cut costs by using shorter wheelbases and engines from Oldsmobile instead of Cadillac, but LaSalle soon faced competition from other smaller luxury cars like the Packard One-Twenty and the Lincoln-Zephyr. In 1937, LaSalle returned to its Cadillac roots, with longer wheelbases and Cadillac's 322-cubic-inch monobloc V8 engine, and sales spiked to a peak of 32,000, more than double the previous year's figure, but that was a good as it would ever get for LaSalle. The success of the junior Packard One-Twenty and Lincoln-Zephyr showed that there was no reason not to have a junior Cadillac as well. Cadillac introduced its own entry-level model, the Series 60, in 1936, and LaSalle was quickly squeezed out of the entry-level luxury market it created by its own parent brand. LaSalle was discontinued in 1940, but not before some designs were developed for potential 1941 LaSalle models. One of these proposals was adapted for Cadillac to become the 1941 Cadillac Series 63.

1939 LaSalle Model 5019 4-Door Sedan

This 1939 LaSalle is from the marque's next-to-last year. LaSalle was a "junior Cadillac" that originated in 1927 as part of the General Motors Companion Make Program. In the 1920s, a large price gap existed between each of the General Motors brands. To close those gaps, GM has each of the the four upper brands, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac, start a "companion make." Oakland had Pontiac to fill the gap between it and Chevrolet, Oldsmobile started Viking and Buick started Marquette to handle the large gap between them, and Cadillac created LaSalle to fill the gap between it and Buick, making the new GM structure Chevrolet - Pontiac - Oakland - Oldsmobile - Viking - Marquette - Buick - LaSalle - Cadillac. Marquette lasted only for one year: 1930, while Viking lasted only from 1929 to 1931. Pontiac became so popular it quickly began far outselling its parent Oakland, and Oakland ended production in 1931. That left LaSalle.

LaSalles were stylish and featured Cadillac engines and workmanship at a lower price, and the make did quite well in its early years, carrying Cadillac through the Great Depression and outselling Cadillac 11 to 9 in 1929. In 1937, LaSalle production set a record, but a new recession in 1938 caused sales to fall dramatically. For 1939, LaSalle received new bodies, but it didn't do a lot of good. More expensive top-of-the-line Buicks and cheaper entry-level Cadillacs had also narrowed the gap that LaSalle was intended to fill, making it redundant. LaSalle would receive a minor facelift in 1940 before being dropped completely so Cadillac could focus on luxury cars.