Cleveland (1919)

Cleveland (1919) identifies the Cleveland automobile marque built by the Cleveland Automobile Company subsidiary of Chandler Motor Car Company, while preventing collision with at least six unrelated earlier Cleveland-branded vehicle ventures. Frederick C. Chandler and associates organized the subsidiary in February 1919 to enter a lower price class beneath Chandler. John V. Whitbeck became president, with Frederick Chandler and Samuel Regar on the board. Production began in July at a new 17-acre plant on Euclid Avenue near London Road in Cleveland, Ohio. Although the cars shared engineering concepts and much character with Chandler, they used shorter chassis and carried their own peanut-shaped Cleveland radiator emblem; the Smithsonian preserves an emblem from this 1919–26 manufacturer. The launch Model 40 Six was a comparatively light car with 112-inch wheelbase, a 190.8 cu in inline-six reported at 45 bhp and six body styles. A five-passenger touring car initially cost about $1,385. Technical sources conflict over whether the engine was side-valve/L-head or valve-in-head, so the catalog discloses the conflict rather than presenting false certainty. Production reached about 16,000 Cleveland cars in 1920. The Model 41 continued on the same wheelbase for 1921–22, with Touring, Roadster, Sedan and Coupe documented in a surviving 1922 brochure; company output was about 9,500 in 1922. Model 42 covered 1923–25 with wheelbases reported from 112.5 to 115 inches and the same nominal 45 bhp class. Racer Ralph Mulford used standard Cleveland cars for widely advertised endurance records: Mount Wilson in December 1924 and 1,000 miles in fourteen hours at Culver City during 1925 without engine repair. The final 1926 range split into short-wheelbase 45 bhp Model 31 and long-wheelbase 60 bhp Model 43. Institutional history reports Chandler output of 12,600 in 1926, 6,500 fewer than Cleveland, implying approximately 19,100 Clevelands that year; this remains an indirect total rather than a model split. Sales, production and profits had fallen sharply after 1920 despite later recovery. In March 1926 the parent and subsidiary consolidated as Chandler-Cleveland Motors Corporation. Cleveland-badged production ended after the model year, and a lower-priced Chandler Standard Six replaced its market role in 1927. Hupp Motor Car Corporation acquired Chandler-Cleveland in December 1928. This company has no connection to the Cleveland Automobile Company active in the same city during 1902–04, Cleveland Motor Car Company of New York, Cleveland Electric, Cleveland Cyclecar or Cleveland Three-Wheeler. Five rows—Models 40, 41, 42, 31 and 43—account for its complete documented chassis-series range; body configurations remain consolidated where the factory treated them as coachwork on one series.

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