Today, we asked another salesman about
his "dream car". It only took him about 30 seconds and he
asked "One I just want to have, or a daily driver?" We told
him anything he wants. He landed on the 1939 or 1940 LaSalle
Convertible.
While the LaSalle was made by Cadillac,
it never actually had the Cadillac name. This allowed it to be priced
lower than its counterparts who did have the brand name. A major
reason it was released was to fill a "price gap" in General
Motors's lines. It was designed by Harley Earl and this vehicle had a
big effect on his life; he later became the overseer of all General
Motor designs. The car was named after the French explorer,
Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.
First released in 1927, it was
considered agile and stylish. Sales did not do so well, especially in
the early years. Some of this had to do with the Great Depression but
even when the economy began to pick up, the LaSalle did not. However,
the similar Packard One Twenty introduced in 1935 did not suffer in
the slightest. Packard sold 72% more than the LaSalle over 6 years.
One suspicion for this huge gap in
sales is that the LaSalle did not carry the Cadillac name! It was
only $1,000 cheaper than the lower priced Cadillac in 1934, but sales
continued to be lackluster. The idea is that maybe the LaSalle would
have sold better if it was sold under the Cadillac brand as well.
This was attempted in 1937. It was
advertised as completely Cadillac built and the price was lower. It
did help sales quite a lot! But not enough. It seemed to late.
Cadillac has prestige and it was too late with the ongoing depression
to advertise the prestige of the LaSalle.
Even though sales were not as good as
they wanted, between 1933 and 1940 sales did continue to rise. In
1939, 23,028 sold and in 1940, 24,133. In 1939, the LaSalle also
became more "Cadillac" in design.
We managed to find a few for sale on
the internet. The first one seemed to have some restoration parts but
was a beautiful car for $74,900. There was also a 1940 50 series
Convertible sedan on Ebay for $57,500 with only 21,127 miles. It has
the V-8 with a 3 Speed column shift. Only 125 of these were made.
It's a beautiful car and at first, we
weren't entirely sure why this one was his choice but then he
explained. He had owned one when he was younger. He sold it in the
70s for $10,000 cash. However, he found it again in the 80s when it
sold at auction for $280,000. Like Miss Daisy said, "I should
have kept my LaSalle."
Sources: Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaSalle_%28automobile%29 ; Ebay,
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cadillac-Other-Convertible-1940-lasalle-series-50-sedan-convertible-original-cadillac-excellent-/321242888223?forcerrptr=true&hash=item4acb91781f&item=321242888223&pt=US_Cars_Trucks
; Hemmings, http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/carsforsale/lasalle ;
Driving Miss Daisy movie
