Durant A-22 History

When William C. Durant — twice founder and CEO of General Motors — launched Durant Motors on January 12, 1921, the A-22 was his opening gambit: a four-cylinder, approximately 35-horsepower assembled car priced to compete directly with Chevrolet. A prototype was shown in New York on August 4, 1921, and within days pre-orders exceeded 30,000 units, generating some $31 million in deposits — extraordinary proof of Durant's personal reach among the dealer network he had cultivated across two decades.

The A-22 was an 'assembled automobile' in the industry parlance of the day, meaning Durant sourced major components — bodies from the Budd Company, engines from Continental Motors, and other parts from specialist suppliers — rather than manufacturing them in-house. The approach kept capital requirements low while allowing Durant to scale quickly: by summer 1923, Durant Motors employed 50,000 workers across ten factories with 4,000 dealers nationwide.

The four-cylinder ran with only minor year-to-year changes through 1926. When the company briefly shuttered production in 1927, the A-22 line ended; the four-cylinder name and character returned for 1928 as part of an entirely new numbered series.