Private company

Marr

Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Marr Auto-Car was an automobile built in Elgin, Illinois by the Marr Auto-Car Company from 1902 to 1904.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

The Marr Auto-Car
Photo: Unkwown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

The Marr Auto-Car was an automobile built in Elgin, Illinois by the Marr Auto-Car Company from 1902 to 1904.2

The story

The car was designed by early automobile pioneer Walter L. Marr who had worked as an engine designer for Buick in 1901 and went on to be Chief Engineer there from 1904 to 1918.

The Marr was a two-seat runabout with a single-cylinder 1.7L engine that was mounted under the seat. The engine is one of the first known to have featured an overhead camshaft (OHC). The vehicle had the first tilt steering wheel, changeable speed gears on a planetary transmission and a revolutionary new carburetor. Factory price was $600, (equivalent to $21,500 in 2025).

The plant burned to the ground in August 1904 with 14 cars inside. Only one Marr Auto-Car is extant.

From Wikipedia’s article on Marr (automobile), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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