Cadillac ’s romantic companion make stemmed from the desire of fabled General Motors president Alfred P. Sloan to offer a motorcar for every pocket book , the basic school of thought that made GM the behemoth it is today . In the mid-’20s , Sloan notice a price disruption between Buick and Cadillac , and assigned the latter to occupy it with a 2d model seam .
The sectionalization choose the name LaSalle , honoring another French explorer like Cadillac , and introduced its junior serial publication in 1927 on a wheelbase shorter than that of its senior cars . It was all part of the capital catamenia of expansion that brought forth a host of such cars to satisfy a marketplace that front like it would grow forever .
A big attracter of that first LaSalle was refined body aim by Harley Earl , a gifted unseasoned West Coast designer erect in the " pram trade , " whom Sloan hired specifically to shape the Modern logical argument . LaSalle amply carry out GM ’s hopes , and set up Earl on an noted 30 - year career as the companionship ’s dean of excogitation . In its first year , LaSalle accounted for 25 percent of Cadillac sales . By 1929 , it was outsell its self-aggrandising sister .
In the Depression - racked ' 30s , LaSalle provided the gross revenue volume that helped Cadillac survive . Though the division ’s total yearly production seldom exceeded Packard ’s , LaSalle ’s plowshare was often hearty and sometimes decisive . In rock candy - bottom 1933 , for exercise , Cadillac ’s model - year yield slid to 6700 units , but LaSalle account for fully half of it . In 1937 , when Cadillac build 46,000 car , 32,000 were LaSalles . Even so , LaSalle gross revenue never really slaked GM managers , who wanted much more .
The 1930 LaSalles , destine Series 340 , survey ecumenical industry thought process of the times in being farseeing , heavier , and more expensive than the 1929 offerings . Wheelbase was now 134 in as all role model were put on the " prospicient " physique , and the original 125 - inch " received " political program was drop down .
As before , the mainstay sellers carried bodies from the Fisher Brothers concern acquired by GM some years in the beginning . These comprised two coupe , two four - doorway sedan , a transformable coupe , and a twosome of seven - passenger sedans in the $ 2500-$3000 reach . Up in the $ 2400-$4000 area were six semicustom styles by Fleetwood , another respected GM - acquired coachbuilder : a runabout , two phaetons , a seven - seat touring , and two five - passenger sedan . By comparison , 1930 Cadillac cost startle at $ 3295 and went to more than $ 10,800 .
Not astonishingly for a Cadillac ware , LaSalle bowed with a V-8 , a 303 - three-dimensional - column inch building block making secretive to 80 horsepower . This was bore out for 1928 to 328 Criminal Investigation Command and 86 bhp . To match the increased sizing and system of weights of the 1930 model , the V-8 was expatiate once more , this prison term to 340 Criminal Investigation Command , good for 90 bhp .
LaSalle styling in 1930 still owed much to Earl ’s original 1927 conception : scurvy silhouette , long and sweeping " clamshell " fenders , a marvelous and round - shouldered radiator prompt by that of the fabled Hispano - Suiza , and two - timber paint , then a novelty . The most obvious alteration for 1930 was a taller radiator that enhance an already impressive styling package . The populace continued to buy , and LaSalle immortalize model - year production of some 15,000 . Though that was about 75 pct of Cadillac ’s bulk , it was nonetheless sizeable in the consequence of the Wall Street crash .
For more on defunct American cars, see:
LaSalle Cars of the 1930s
The fast - compound Great Depression forced Cadillac to assume costcutting meter for 1931 - 33 . As a result , the 1931 Series 345A gained the elderly line ’s 95 - bhp 353 - Criminal Investigation Command V-8 , while that year ’s Cadillac Eights were put on the LaSalle form . Power amend to 115 for 1932 - 33 . role model choice remained broadly the same for ' 31 , then reduced for the 345B- and C - series of 1932 - 33 , when seven - passenger sedans were upgraded to a 136 - in chassis and standard models were demoted to a 130 - column inch platform .
LaSalle prices were also reduced in 1931 - 33 – down to $ 2200-$2800 . Though that was about $ 500 below Cadillac Eights , the latter plain looked like good buys , for they match LaSalle in sales and actually beat the junior contrast in ' 31 . Rene-Robert Cavelier volume was well down anyway , degenerate from 10,000 to just under 3400 for ' 32 ; the 1933 sum was scarce better .
Seeking to turn matter around , Cadillac issued an all - Modern 1934 Series 350 with a spirit single to LaSalle . Prices were again slashed , this clock time to $ 1000 under the fourth-year Eights . Models were also thresh , leaving just a coupe , four - door sedan , nightspot sedan , and convertible coupe . All rode a trig 119 - in wheelbase shared with Oldsmobile , as were basic bodyshells . Still cutting costs , Cadillac exchange LaSalle ’s V-8 with a 240.3 - Criminal Investigation Command Olds L - head straight eight , albeit with Cadillac - supplied Al Walter Piston and other changes . Still , horsepower withered to 95 . But " Knee - Action " independent front suspension was a new talking point , and a first at GM ( shared with Olds ) . Stylewise , the transitional 1933 smell gave way to full streamlining , play up by a rounded grille and curious port on the hood sides .
This design / price recipe persisted for two more year , but it did n’t ferment well enough and sales persist well below those of rival junior editions . Still , LaSalle improved from just under 7200 for 1934 to over 8600 for the eight - manakin 1935 range , then to 13,000 for 1936 , when offering were again cut to four . Prices for ' 36 were the lowest ever : $ 1175 for the two - passenger coupe , $ 1255 for the convertible coupe . Interim change include a 105 - bhp 248 option for ' 35 that was made standard for ' 36 , plus the phasing - in of " trunkback " sedan to replace outmoded trunkless style . All LaSalles were designated Series 50 from 1935 to ' 39 .
Cadillac adjudicate a new formula for 1937 , cook LaSalles much like its 1936 Series 60 – predictable perhaps , give the gamey success of that low - price senior line . Power come from the same unexampled 125 - bhp 322 " monobloc " V-8 , and deftly revised styling on a alone 124 - inch wheelbase made LaSalles arguably more attractive than that year ’s Caddys . vendee responded , and LaSalle sales reached a record 32,000 for the model year . Few major change go on for 1938 , but a four - room access saloon with a sliding - steel " Sunshine Turret Roof " joined the subsist two - and four - door sedan , convertible saloon , and rumble - behind coupe and convertible . deplorably , a unforesightful but sharp-worded receding shrank sale by half , to the chagrin of GM accountants . LaSalle was flounder , yet its cars were still bargain at 1938 prices ranging from $ 1300 to $ 1900 .
But Cadillac was determined , so LaSalle was all reworked for 1939 . The V-8 was untouched , but a new midrange GM B - body brought a wise new shape with greater glass area and no run add-in ( except on convertible , where they were optional ) . Wheelbase , which was shared with elderly Oldsmobiles , was snip to 120 inches ( as for ' 36 ) . Despite all this , production was dissatisfactory once more : only about 21,000 for the modeling year .
LaSalle Cars of the 1940s
The 1940 model year brought modified styling that marked a gamy point in time in LaSalle ’s 14 - yr chronicle , plus the make ’s first two - series lineup in a tenner . The design drawing card was the lucullan novel Series 52 extra bearing Harley Earl ’s latest " torpedo " looking at . While Cadillacs retained bullet - pod headlamps on the hood side , the 52 ’s new sealed beam ( share with other 1940 Detroiters ) moved down into the fenders . soundbox lines were gently rounded and clear , interiors were more spacious on a three - in longsighted wheelbase , and windows became even larger .
The trademark LaSalle radiator grille arguably reached its pinnacle : still slim than Cadillac ’s but artfully shaped . Like the ' 39s , the 1940 models wear perpendicular brightwork in the " catwalk " areas between grille and headlamp ( another Earl idea ) , but the catwalks were now wider and to the full integrate with the buffer .
Along with the 1940 Series 50 , the new 52 Special offered a coupe and four - door sedan chair , now with full intact trunks . The 50s , which included a two - room access sedan , retained the canonical ' 39 appearing . Though box-shaped next to the raw Specials , they were still attractive , with the longer wheelbase and smoother front . The season ’s most - elegant LaSalles were emphatically the particular transmutable coupe and saloon that get in midyear . Minor changes added five H.P. to the 322 fifty - top dog V-8 , lifting output signal to 130 .
But by now , LaSalle had been crowded out of its once - sole Mary Leontyne Price recess . honest , its 1940 spread was pretty tolerant , incline from the $ 1240 Series 50 coupe to the $ 1895 Special exchangeable saloon . But a genuine Series 62 Cadillac could be had for as little as $ 1685 that yr ; Buicks listed at $ 895-$2199 . And although LaSalle accounted for almost two - third of Cadillac ’s full 1940 volume – 24,130 out of some 37,000 – it ranked only slightly ahead of Lincoln and remained far behind Packard . It now seemed more lucid to extend a lower - priced Cadillac rather than a junior line with less prestigiousness . The division did exactly that for 1941 , replacing LaSalle with the new entry - level Cadillac , Series 61 .
The decisiveness to omit LaSalle ultimately proved correct . Spanning a $ 1350-$1535 range , the Series 61 sell 29,250 copies its first class , then was bit by bit outpaced by the dear 62s . But the 61 remained in premium - Leontyne Price territory to keep a cheapening of Cadillac ’s icon . Postwar successfulness rendered it unnecessary after 1951 . By that point , Cadillac had become America ’s luxuriousness sale leader by far .
Before the decision to omit LaSalle , GM Styling had groom a prototype 1941 design . A hero sandwich - flair fastback four - door sedan chair , it was a pretty railway car with the traditional slim grille and " catwalk " buffer trim , plus lean horizontal parking light , spinner hubcaps , and a revival of the early LaSalle radiator badge – an " la " monogram in a circle .
Memories of LaSalle ’s preeminence , refinement , and division continued to exert considerable magic within GM Design long after World War II , and the name bulge out up in connection with several undertaking that led some to believe a revival was at hand . The first of these were the " LaSalle II " hardtop sedan and two - ass roadster created for the 1955 Motorama . Though strictly for show , they wore grilles compose of vertical slats resonant of the 1940 catwalk , plus traditional LaSalle heraldry . The name surfaced again for what became the 1963 Buick Riviera , and only at the last instant was LaSalle rejected for Seville as the moniker for Cadillac ’s new thick sedan chair of mid-1975 .
Will LaSalle ever be reborn ? Probably not , but it ’s a nice thought .
