THE CHANDLER MOTOR CAR COMPANY// A Brief History! The Chandler Motor Car Company was incorporated in January 1913, with Frederick C Chandler as President. The factory to be in Cleveland, Ohio. Frederick Chandler was a former designer for the Lozier Motor Company a top end luxury automobile manufacturer. ( Lozier succumbed to bankruptcy in February 1914 folding in 1918. ) Chandler concentrated on producing good quality motor cars within the price range to suit middle class Americans. Of all the initial employees (many ex Lozier), all but two had ties to the bicycle industry and all had laboured several years in the automobile trade. • 1913; Factory construction started in April. Car number 1 a Model 14 straight six was used for months as the factory runabout picking up parts for the purchasing department. Driven between Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania averaging 150 to 200 miles per day it soon had recorded 20,000 miles. By July 30th the factory had opened, and the Model 14 was selling for $1,785 fully equipped. In 1913 - 550 cars were produced and sold with orders for more piling up. • 1914-1916; Production focused on Touring Cars however there were three more body styles, Roadster, Four Passenger Coupe, and Limousine. Standard colours were a Blue Body with Black Wheels, Hood and Fenders. The 1915 Roadster broke the tradition with and Ivory / Cream version. At a stockholders meeting in February 1914 it was announced the company had a backlog of orders amounting to $2,500,000 ensuring that the factory would run at capacity until June 30th. In the 1914 Swedish Reliability Test a Chandler July 2021
travelled over 800 miles of storm wrecked roads that were deemed impassable. It was the only American made automobile to finish with out a breakdown. By May Chandler were shipping 60 cars per day and company shares were selling at $350.00 each. Chandler now being a $10 million company. • 1917-1918; War Years: Still producing five Models ranging from $1,395 to $2,695. Distributer orders for $30 million were signed, exclusive of foreign sales. In early 1918 Chandler contracted to the US Army to produce 10-ton Military Crawler Tractors, a $10 million contract. Tractors were built under the Holt patents who via the Best Tractor Company went onto to become the Caterpillar brand we know today. • 1919-1922; In February 1919 the Cleveland Automobile Company was formed to produce smaller and cheaper cars, this was headed by Chandler officials. They later fully merged to become Chandler-Cleveland Motors with Cleveland as a nameplate being dropped in the summer of 1926. Chandler continued with six body styles in 1920 increasing to seven styles with the two-seater roadster in 1921. In 1922 more colours were introduced, along with the Royal Dispatch model. Prices were reduced by up to $300 over the range. As the post war recession was a thing of the past Chandler decided to exhibit at the London Motor Car Show. • 1923-24; The year started with a lavish three day convention for distributors and dealers from across the nation, one special train alone bringing 70 representatives from Philadelphia.
