Pullman Motor Car
The revised car was thought to be good enough for production and Brunnell and Samuel E. Baily established the York Motor Car Company in 1905. Also in 1905, master mechanic James A. Kline joined to design an improved car. Originally planned to be called the York, the name Pullman was settled on before the new car went into production. Thirteen York pilot cars were built in 1905, a figure that increased to 273 in 1906, the first full year of production.[2][1]
Pullman automobiles were sold as premium vehicles, using advertising slogans such as "Not Only The Best at the Price, But the Best at Any Price." The first Pullmans were large Touring and Runabout cars with twenty-hp or forty-hp engines priced from $2,000 to $2,500,.
By 1909, annual production exceeded one thousand cars and was then increased in 1910 to more than two thousand.[1]
Due to the Panic of 1907, financial assistance was needed and Thomas O'Connor and Oscar Stephenson of New York City became investors. In 1908, James Kline and Samuel Baily departed the company and would go back into automobile production with the Kline Kar in 1910.
In 1908, one vehicle was driven from the York factory to San Francisco and back over a period of about a month to prove its reliability.[4] The Lincoln Highway which ran through York had not been fully organized or completed and this was a challenging journey.[5]
In 1909, the company was reorganized as the Pullman Motor Car Company.[1]
A Pullman won the famed Fairmount Park Road Race in Philadelphia in 1910, and in 1911 was awarded three gold medals at the Russian Exposition in Rostov on Don, considered an unprecedented "victory" for an American automobile manufacturer.[1]
In 1912, Pullman introduced a sixty-hp six-cylinder car on a 138-inch wheelbase that was priced at $2,750, .[2]
Annual production by 1915 was more than four thousand cars. The Cutler-Hammer electric gear change was also offered; however, quality issues resulted from the high production and sales severely declined. In late 1915, E. T. Birdsall was brought in from White Motor Company to design a lower priced car to be called the Pullman Junior, but it was too late to save the company. The Pullman Junior, with a twenty-two-hp Golden Belknap & Schwartz engine that was priced at $740, was introduced for 1916 and was the only car produced in 1917 while the company was under receivership.[2][1]
