Brand: Maxwell

Maxwell Motor Company

Maxwell was an American automobile manufacturer which ran from about 1904 to 1925. The present-day successor to the Maxwell company was Chrysler (currently, "Stellantis North America"), which acquired the company in 1925.

Maxwell-Briscoe Company

Maxwell automobile production began under the "Maxwell-Briscoe Company" of North Tarrytown, New York. The company was named after founder Jonathan Dixon Maxwell, who earlier had worked for Oldsmobile, and his business partner, Benjamin Briscoe, an automobile industry pioneer and part owner of the Briscoe Brothers Metalworks. Briscoe was president of Maxwell-Briscoe at its height.

In 1907, following a fire that destroyed the North Tarrytown, NY, factory, Maxwell-Briscoe opened a mammoth automobile factory at 1817 I Ave, New Castle, Indiana.[5] The newspapers reported that the factory "will operate as a whole, like an integral machine, the raw material going in at one end of the plant and the finished cars out the other end." This factory continued as a Chrysler plant following its takeover of Maxwell until its demolition in 2004.

For a time, Maxwell was considered one of the three top automobile firms in America, along with General Motors and Ford. Maxwell was the only profitable company of the combine named United States Motor Company, which was formed in 1910. Due to a conflict between two of its backers, the United States Motor Company collapsed in 1913 after the failure of its last supporting car manufacturer, the Brush Motor Company. Maxwell was the only survivor.

Maxwell Motor Company, Inc.

In 1913, the Maxwell assets were overseen by Walter Flanders, who reorganized the company as the "Maxwell Motor Company, Inc." The company moved to Highland Park, Michigan. Some of the Maxwells were also manufactured at two plants in Dayton, Ohio. By 1914, Maxwell had sold 60,000 cars.

The company responded to the increasing number of low-priced cars—including the $600 Ford Model N, the high-volume Oldsmobile Runabout at $650, the $485 Brush Runabout, the Black at $375, the $500 Western Gale Model A, and the bargain-basement Success an amazingly low $250 —by introducing the Model 25, their cheapest four yet. At $695, this five-seat touring car had high-tension magneto ignition, electric horn and (optional) electric starter and headlights, and an innovative shock absorber to protect the radiator.