1931 Hupmobile Sedan

1931 Hupmobile Sedan, click picture to enlarge.



Hupmobiles were built from 1909 through 1940 at the Hupp Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan. The company's philosophy was to build a tough and dependable car and sell it at a working man's price range. This philosophy paid off well and production and sales soared to over 50,000 cars by 1929. The Great Depression that hit in 1929 slowed sales down. A workers strike in 1937 also hurt sales and few cars were produced between 1937 and 1940.Production of the Hupmobile cars ceased in July of 1940 due to financial difficulties and the pressures of the impending war years of 1941 to 1945.The 1931 Hupmobile came in a variety of body styles including the Model S 4-door sedan shown here. The model S sedan was priced at $995 in 1931.

An interesting personal story about the Hupmobile occurred in Atlant, Georgia in the early 1960's time frame. My wife and I were living on Matthews Avenue, just off of Dekalb Avenue, and I was going to a nearby convenience store. At the intersection of Mathews and Dekalb Avenues an older lady was sitting in a 1917 Hupmobile that was broke down. I stopped to see if I could help her and she thanked me and said no, that her mechanic was on the way and should be there soon. Now I gathered from her conversation that she was the only owner of that car and that her mechanic was the only person to ever work on it. Now when you consider that this was a 1917 car and the year then as in the early 1960's that car had only been driven by one lady and worked on by one man for over forty years. Astounding and amazing!!! Another odd thing that I noticed about that car was that it was chain driven like a bicycle. It did not have a regular transmission, drive shaft and rear end gearbox like most other cars have. My, my, these times, they are a changing.

If you have some information or comments on these old cars send them to me by using the comment button on the bottom of each post. Tell everyone about this old car blog.