1928 Durant M2 Coupe
Texas Transportation Museum
11731 Wetmore Road, San Antonio TX 78247
(210) 490-3554
(See bottom of page for a link to T.T.M.'s home page)
Click on images to enlarge
The museum's 1928 M2 Durant M2 Coupe, serial number E - 3344, is just one of the 43,951 Durants
sold in 1928. The museum is as yet unaware of its history before it was donated to us by a
resident of Fredericksburg, Texas. The car is in drivable condition but is not used much. Two
seater vehicles do not make for very good parade vehicles! It was the favorite car of the donor,
who also gave us a 1929 REO Flying Cloud coupe with rumble seat and a 1923 Ford Model T truck,
complete with factory original starter motor and three speed transmission.
1928 was an interesting year for the Durant Motor car company. It abandoned its original Star
line with a more modern M2 line, which included a coupe, a convertible, a four door sedan and even
a delivery van. The main difference between the M2 and its predecessor, introduced in 1921 when the
company was founded, was a lower roof line and wider doors. The M2 itself was soon replaced in the same
year by a yet more modern car.
The Durant Motor Company was formed by William Crapo Durant, better known as Billy. Having
started out in the horse carriage trade, he had been responsible for the creation of General
Motors in 1908. Durant pulled together Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Buick, plus around
30 other companies. One of these was called Oakland but later renamed Pontiac. Durant
lost control of GM the first time, in 1910. He immediately formed the Chevrolet line, named
after a then well known Swiss American racing driver. Chevrolet used a brilliant strategy
which allowed it to eat heavily into Ford's sale of the Model T. With these profits, Durant regained
control of GM in 1915, and added Chevy to the mix. Perhaps too willing to take risks, Durant lost
control of GM again in 1920.
He immediately found new investors and created the Durant Motor Company and, using the same business model, a series of
different lines to span the automotive price spectrum. As well as Durant, there was the Star,
the Eagle, the Flint, the Princeton , the Rugby and the Locomobile. Times had changed and the
company was unable to really compete with the huge conglomerates of Ford and GM plus the many
other manufacturers like the Chrysler Corporation, which itself had a number of name plates, REO,
Studebaker, Packard, Willys-Overland, Hudson and Nash. Durant stepped down from the new company
in 1929 and it folded completely in 1933. GM bought its main plant in Flint, Michigan, and the
location became the site for its main Fisher body operations.
More work needs to be done to find out if Durant had any dealers in San Antonio, which was still
clinging to its status as largest city in Texas at the time. In the mean time here are some images
of a very posh Durant dealership provided by Rick Botti of the Durant Motors Automobile Club.
For links to this, and other Durant related sites, see below.
To visit the Durant Motors Automobile Club web site, click •D.M.A.C.•
To visit the Durant Cars web site, click •Durant Cars•
To go to the home page of the Texas Transportation Museum web site, click •T.T.M.•
For the automobile collection page on the Texas Transportation Museum web site, click •T.T.M. Cars•
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