The Duesenberg Model J is a luxury car manufactured by Duesenberg. In order to compete with the most luxurious and powerful cars in the world, it was launched in 1928, a year before the collapse of the stock market that led to the Great Depression. The Model J, available with a supercharger after 1932, was sold until 1937.

As was common practice among luxury car brands, only the chassis and engine were displayed, the body and interior of the car were made by a body builder according to the owner's specifications. The chassis of most J models was the same, as were the styling elements such as fenders, headlights, radiator, hood and instrument panel.

About half of the Js models built by Duesenberg had bodies created by the company's body director, Gordon Buehrig, [13] and executed under the name La Grande by the company's branches in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Florida and Denver, as well as smaller retailers. The rest were designed and manufactured by independent US bus manufacturers, such as Derham, Holbrook, Judkins, Le Baron, Murphy, Rollston (later renamed Rollson), Walker, Weymann and Willoughby, Fernandez and Darrin, Franay, Gurney Nutting, Saoutchik and others in Europe.

The chassis cost $ 8,500 ($ 9,500 after 1932). By the time the average American doctor was making less than $ 3,000 a year, most of the complete vehicles fell between $ 13,000 and $ 19,000, with two American Js reaching $ 25,000.

There are no figures available for prices charged by luxury coaches in Europe, but it is possible that they were even higher than the most expensive American models.

The J was generally available with a 142.5 in. Short wheelbase chassis. (3.62 m) or long length of 153.5 in. (3.90 m)).

Special orders included two SSJs shortened to 125 inches (3.18 m) and some extended to 160 inches (4.06 m) or more.

The dash included lights with a mechanical stopwatch that reminded the driver when changing the oil and inspecting the battery.

Most engines and chassis were manufactured in 1929 and 1930, but due to the Depression, the high price, etc., they ended up being sold and manufactured in the following years. Thus, the year for a given J model generally refers to the latter.

A number of minor modifications were made during the life of the model. The first major change was to replace the four-speed gearbox, which proved unable to handle the engine's power, with an unsynchronized three-speed gearbox, subsequently mounted on all Duesenbergs. Unlike almost all American manufacturers, Duesenberg did not switch to a fully synchronized gearbox in the mid-1930s, which made it difficult to drive and outdate the Model J in the final years of its execution. The factory was closed in 1937.

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