Dort Motor Car Company

The Dort Motor Car Company of Flint, Michigan, built automobiles from 1915–1924. Dort used Lycoming-built engines to power their vehicles.

1922 Dort sedan in the Gilmore Car Museum
1918 Dort sedan and sedanet
Share of the Dort Motor Car Company, issued 25. April 1922

Dort Motor Car Company grew from Durant-Dort Carriage Company founded in 1886 by William C. Durant and J. Dallas Dort. They remained business partners until about 1915. Durant-Dort Carriage Company was dissolved in 1924. It may have continued to own the buildings plant and machinery used by Dort Motor Car.

Dort and the remaining stockholders took over the carriage business. They incorporated Dort Motor Car Company and began to use some of the same plant to manufacture Dort cars[1] buying in engines from Lycoming. Carriage production ended in 1917.

Dort shipped 9,000 cars in its first year.[2]

By 1917, Dort was offering four models: a closed sedan at $1,065, a convertible sedan at $815, a five-place open tourer at $695, and a Fleur-de-Lys roadster at $695.[3] By contrast, Ford Model Ts were selling for $440 in 1915.[4]

By 1920 Dort was the country's 13th largest automobile producer.[5] The company built a large factory on the east end of Flint right at the time of the recession that followed WWI. The company started bleeding cash and attempted to seek capital (which was unavailable) or a merger partner (none were interested). Staff was cut and expenses were cut back. After several of the company executives left in 1923, the only choice left to Dort was to liquidate.[5] The new factory building was sold to AC Spark Plug to manufacture carburetor air filters and fuel pumps.[6][7]

J Dallas Dort died the following year.[8]

  • Water Street offices and showroom in 1977 before restoration
  • The Water Street factory inherited from Durant-Dort
  • 1918 Dort demonstrates its durability
  • 1922 Dort Model 19-T at the Sloan Museum

Notes
  1. Automobile News. Chicago Livestock World, 23 March 1916
  2. Wood, Edwin Orin (1916), History of Genesee County, Michigan: Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume 1, Federal Publishers, p. 778, retrieved April 7, 2013
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 1, 2012. Retrieved 2012-09-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  4. G.N. Georgano 1985
  5. Schafer, Robert G. (1986). J. Dallas Dort: Citizen Compleat. Flint, Michigan: University of Michigan-Flint Archives. p. 33.
  6. Alan Naldrett, Lost Car Companies of Detroit, History Press, Charleston S C, 2016
  7. "20 Feb 1925, Page 29 - Lansing State Journal at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Lansing State Journal. 20 February 1925.
  8. Alan Naldrett, Lost Car Companies of Detroit, History Press, Charleston S C, 2016

Sources
  • G.N. Georgano, G. N. (1985). "Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930". London, UK: Grange-Universal. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Naldrett, Alan (2016). Lost Car Companies of Detroit. Charleston, SC: History Press.
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See also
  • Gray-Dort Motors Ltd.
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