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To sell his first batch of Auburns. Salesman Cord simply "dressed them up." That was one thing he thought his public want-ed—snappy looks. Into the first model whose production he supervised he put another ingredient—speed to match the looks. Also, for he is as smart a mechanic as a salesman, he added engineering improvements: the first convertible body was on an Auburn (1928): the first cheap straight-eight was an Auburn (1929. $1,095).
If the old Auburn management cut costs to the bone in 1924, Cord sucked the marrow out of the bone. He has kept it out so strictly that his financial reputation now matches the rest of his legend. Because Auburn's common stock is one of the highest-priced and most sensitive on the New York Exchange, moving up or down anywhere from two to 15 points in a session, Errett Cord's name is as well known on Wall Street as in the Midwest. The stock's astonishing gyrations have given rise to many tales of pools and corners, most of them untrue. Mr. Cord declares he often goes three days without even looking at the market. At the peak of the bull market he was elected a director of an investment trust. At his first (and last) meeting the directors were discussing what to do with their stocks. Errett Cord was silent until someone asked him what he thought. He answered: "I think the stuff you own is lousy and a hunch of hooey. Throw it all out." Shocked, the directors ignored his advice, to their everlasting regret. He resigned soon afterward.
After Errett Cord got it started, Auburn's production of cars was:
1927—14,517
1928—12,899
1929—22,135
1930—13,692
1931—33,379 (approximate)
By 1926 Auburn was ready to expand. Mr. Cord, looking for more speed, had had his eye on Frederick Samuel Duesenburg, who was then building mostly racing cars at his Indianapolis plant. Speed king and a fine designer, Duesenburg was no businessman; his company was nearly bankrupt. Cord got control of it by an exchange of Auburn stock. Another thing he wanted was Lycoming Manufacturing Co. which supplied power plants to Auburn. Long builders of automotive, marine, industrial engines, Lycoming was being marked for its new airplane engine. Cord got Lycoming in 1927 the same way he got Duesenburg. For two years Auburn quietly consolidated its position.
Errett Cord's personal experience in aviation (he had a pilot's license) convinced him that here was a new factor for speed not to be ignored. He became convinced that one day cabin and transport planes would be as indispensable to the average man as automobiles. He set out to be a Mercury to the middle classes, to provide motion above the ground as well as on it for lower prices. In 1929 he acquired Stinson Aircraft Corp., again by an exchange of stock. This time, though, it was not Auburn stock he offered but the common of Cord Corp.. a holding company he had formed earlier in the year to centralize his growing activities. Under Cord the Stinson company has done well. Last year it sold more trimotored transport planes than all other manufacturers.