1923 Piedmont 4-30 Touring Car -- Virginia Museum of Transportation

The Piedmont was a

vintage In winemaking, vintage is the process of picking grapes to create wine. A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine ...

automobile made by the Piedmont Motor Car Company of

Lynchburg, Virginia Lynchburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner and Abolitionism, abolitionist John Lynch (1740–1820), J ...

from 1917 to 1922.

History

The Piedmont was produced in a variety of

closed Closed may refer to: Mathematics * Closure (mathematics), a set, along with operations, for which applying those operations on members always results in a member of the set * Closed set, a set which contains all its limit points * Closed interval, ...

and

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Go ...

body styles and was powered by

4-cylinder The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized. Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engine, Wankel engines are o ...

Lycoming and 6-cylinder

Continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' (album), an album by Saint Etienne * Continen ...

engines. The company also made cars for other companies, such as the

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

, Bush, Norwalk and

Lone Star Lone Star, Lone Starr, Lone Stars or Lonestar may refer to: Communities in the United States * Lone Star, Arizona, a populated place * Lone Star, Fresno County, California, an unincorporated community * Lone Star, Humboldt County, California ...

. These were Piedmonts, but fitted with badges, hubcaps and other identification of the company who ordered the cars. This

badge engineering In the automotive industry, rebadging (also known as badge engineering, an intentionally ironic misnomer in that little or no actual engineering takes place) is a form of market segmentation used by automobile manufacturers around the world. T ...

for other companies had a direct impact on the cars actually marketed and sold under the Piedmont name. With the outside orders taking priority, Piedmont dealers in Virginia were sometimes unable to provide a car for customers who placed an order, which gave the make a poor reputation, thus hindering further sales. In December 1920 the company attempted to increase publicity and sales by advertising in the ''Lynchburg News'' ten Model 4-30 and ten Model 6-40 cars for sale to residents of Lynchburg, Campbell, Bedford, Amherst and Appomattox only, with prices reduced by $500 for each car. Sales manager George Hay also persuaded the Lynchburg Police Department to use Piedmont cars, as it would "look better for the company" if they did so.

Closure

In anticipation of an ever-increasing flood of orders from outside producers, Piedmont had overstocked its inventory, which with the Depression of 1920-1921 led to the company going into receivership in October 1922. There was over $225,000 worth of parts in stock.

Surviving cars

In June 2010 the

Virginia Museum of Transportation The Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT) is a museum in Downtown Roanoke, Virginia, that is devoted to the topic of transportation. History The Virginia Museum of Transportation began in 1963 as the Roanoke Transportation Museum in Wasena ...

received a donation of a 1923 Bush touring car, which was built by Piedmont.

References

External links

Piedmont Motor Co - a heritage siteLynchburg Museum - Story of the Piedmont
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Lynchburg, Virginia Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1922 American companies disestablished in 1922 1922 disestablishments in Virginia Defunct manufacturing companies based in Virginia {{Commons category, Piedmont (automobile) Vintage vehicles 1910s cars 1920s cars Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Virginia Cars introduced in 1917 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1916 Cars discontinued in 1922