Moon Ruxton History

The Ruxton was a front-wheel-drive luxury car conceived by William Muller and promoted by New Era Motors of New York. In November 1929 Moon agreed to build it, and the car reached regular production in June 1930. Because eliminating the rear driveshaft let the body sit far lower than rivals — around 53 inches tall, against a typical car height of roughly six feet — the Ruxton looked dramatically modern; some examples wore Joseph Urban color schemes of bold horizontal bands chosen to make the low car look even longer.

Power came from a Continental straight-eight driving the front wheels, with a body designed by Joseph Ledwinka. As a piece of engineering and styling the Ruxton was genuinely advanced — a direct rival in spirit to the front-drive Cord L-29 of the same moment.

It was also a financial catastrophe. A takeover battle for control of Moon, lawsuits and counter-suits, and the deepening Depression overwhelmed the venture: Ruxton production halted in November 1930, barely four months after it began, not because of the car but because both Moon and the Kissel works that helped build it had gone under. Total Ruxton output is variously estimated in the low hundreds, and fewer than a dozen survive — making the Moon-built Ruxton one of the rarest and most prized American classics.