Saxon Duplex History

The Saxon Duplex arrived for 1920 as the company's modernized successor to the original runabout line — a larger car on a new platform (internally Model 125D/G) powered by an overhead-valve four-cylinder engine and offered with both a touring car and a closed sedan body. The sedan option reflected the industry-wide shift toward enclosed coachwork that was sweeping the American market in the early 1920s. In the years following its introduction the cars were marketed as 'Saxon-Duplex.'

The Duplex was Saxon's last-ditch effort to survive the postwar recession, which had collapsed the low-priced market just as the company's cash position became critical. In 1921 Saxon sold off its parts business to settle debts and relocated from Detroit to Ypsilanti, Michigan, assembling cars in the former Ace automobile plant. The move could not save the firm: total large four-cylinder production reached only approximately 1,000 units across 1920–1922.

Saxon filed for bankruptcy in 1922 and the final cars — badged Saxon-Duplex — were sold off in 1923, ending a roughly ten-year run that had at its peak produced over 28,000 cars in a single year and placed the company among America's largest automakers. Today fewer than 150 examples of any Saxon survive.