Essex Six History

For 1924 Essex replaced its four-cylinder car with a new six-cylinder engine, and the six-cylinder Essex became the brand's volume product for the rest of the decade. Affordable, closed-bodied, and increasingly well equipped, it rode the demand for cheap enclosed cars that Essex itself had helped create.

From 1927 Essex adopted the 'Super Six' label for its cars and aligned their styling more closely with the larger Hudsons; the Super Six name was used off and on through 1932. The strategy worked: in 1929 the Essex ranked third in US automobile sales, behind only Ford and Chevrolet, and the combined Hudson-Essex operation was among the strongest in the industry.

The Great Depression hit Essex hard. Sales fell sharply after 1929, and the brand was reworked and renamed late in its life — the Challenger and Pacemaker series of 1930–1932 — before the Essex name was retired. In total more than 1.13 million Essex cars were built across the marque's run.