LaSalle was an American brand of luxury automobiles manufactured and marketed, as a separate brand, by General Motors' Cadillac division from 1927 through 1940. Alfred P. Sloan, GM's Chairman of the Board, developed the concept for four new GM marquesLaSalle, Marquette, Viking and Pontiacpaired with already established brands to fill price gaps he perceived in the General Motors product portfolio. Sloan created LaSalle as a companion marque for Cadillac. LaSalle automobiles were manufactured by Cadillac, but were priced lower than Cadillac-branded automobiles, were shorter, and were marketed as the second-most prestigious marque in the General Motors portfolio. LaSalles were titled as LaSalles, and not as Cadillacs. Like Cadillacnamed after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillacthe LaSalle brand name was based on that of another French explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.

Design strategy

thumb|left|Early LaSalle at the [[Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen. The marque's circled trademark "LaS" is cast into the horizontal tie bar between the front lights.]]

What emerged as the LaSalle in 1927 was introduced on the GM C platform with the Cadillac V8. The 1927 LaSalle was designed by Harley Earl, who had a 30-year career at General Motors, eventually gaining control of all design and styling at General Motors.

Prior to the 1927 LaSalle, automobile design essentially followed a set pattern, with design changes driven principally by engineering needs. For example, the Ford Model T evolved only slightly over its production run; A 1927 Model T was almost identical to a 1910 Model T, while GM made yearly appearance and model name changes across all brands starting in 1908.

Earl, who had been hired by Cadillac's General Manager, Lawrence P. Fisher, conceived the LaSalle not as a junior Cadillac, but as something more agile and stylish. Influenced by the rakish Hispano-Suiza roadsters of the time, Earl's LaSalle emerged as a shorter, yet elegant, counterpoint to Cadillac's larger cars, unlike anything else built by an American automotive manufacturer. continued for 1928, and as LaSalle sales began to progress, engineering advancements, appearance changes and optional equipment choices continued. Shock absorbers were now sourced from Lovejoy hydraulic units and the clutch was now upgraded to twin discs. The list of available coachwork choices from Fisher expanded to eleven selections on the 125" wheelbase and six choices on the 134", while Fleetwood now provided two choices on the 125" and only one choice on the 134", that being the Transformable Town Cabriolet at US$4,900 ($ in dollars ). 1933 was the first year all GM vehicles were installed with optional vent windows which were initially called “No Draft Individually Controlled Ventilation” later renamed "Ventiplanes" which the patent application was filed on Nov. 28, 1932. It was assigned to the Ternstedt Manufacturing Company, a GM subsidiary that manufactured components for Fisher Body and they were introduced on the Series 50 in 1934.

In retrospect, LaSalle sales initially had exceeded Cadillac's since 1933, but since its introduction in 1935, the medium priced Packard One-Twenty had consistently outsold the LaSalle by an average of 72 percent over the six-year period 1935–1940 inclusively. It was decided to fold the LaSalle into the more prestigious Cadillac marque. Cumberford likened the Roadster to a harbinger of GM's future. While the Roadster concept showcased important new technology, including an aluminum block, double overhead cam and fuel-injected V6, the technology went unrealized. GM instead emphasized styling over engineering advancement for the decades that followed and did not bring "an aluminum block, fuel-injected, overhead-cam V-6 into production until 2004".

There was nostalgia for the LaSalle name, and at various points in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, General Motors issued Motorama cars and proposed new consumer automobiles under the name. The year 1955 saw two Motorama concept cars, the LaSalle II four-door hardtop and the LaSalle II Roadster. Ordered to be destroyed, both the four-door hardtop and the roadster were shipped to the Warhoops Salvage Yard in Sterling Heights, Michigan; instead of being destroyed they were hidden in a corner of the facility.

The LaSalle name was raised again when Cadillac was developing a new small luxury sedan, but it was passed over in favor of Cadillac Seville. Early mockups of what was to become the 1963 Buick Riviera were badged "LaSalle II," as the Cadillac division was being considered for production of this successful personal luxury car.

LaSalle in media

Eddie Murphy’s character bails out of a 1939 coupe during a car chase in the movie Harlem Nights.

In the 1967 film The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, gangster Mike Heitler (played by Leo Gordon) buys a used LaSalle for $750 (equivalent to about $12,000 in 2021), to be disguised as a Chicago police car for use in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

In the 1970s television show All in the Family, Archie and Edith Bunker sing, "Gee, our old LaSalle ran great" in the program's opening theme song, "Those Were the Days." Many could not understand the now-obscure reference, and the opening was re-recorded in future seasons with the word ‘LaSalle’ enunciated a little more clearly.

In Season One, episode 21 of The Streets of San Francisco, Lew Ayres mentions the hubcap he finds as being from a 1934 LaSalle.

This is the car that the character Marcus Brody drives when he visits Indiana Jones in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

W. E. B. Griffin’s WW2 novel Semper Fi includes a detailed subplot about a young marine’s cunning scheme to purchase a nearly-new LeSalle from an unscrupulous car dealer.

See also

  • De Soto, a similarly-sourced (named for another early Colonial-era explorer) automotive marque of the Chrysler Corporation (1928-1961)

Notes and references

7. Those Were The Days theme song of tv show All in The Family Lyrics include “gee our old LaSalle ran great.”

  • Official Cadillac America Forum
  • Cadillac & LaSalle Club