Private company

Maxwell Motor Company

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons³

Former American car manufacturer (1904 - 1925)

Maxwell was an American automobile manufacturer which ran from 1904 to 1925. The present-day successor to the Maxwell company was Chrysler, now Stellantis North America, which acquired the company in 1925.² Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1904Founded¹

Industryautomotive industry¹
HeadquartersTarrytown¹
Founded inTarrytown¹

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Maxwell Mascotte Touring 1911 — Photo: Lars-Göran Lindgren Sweden, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons⁵

The story

Maxwell-Briscoe Company

Maxwell automobile production began under the "Maxwell-Briscoe Company" of North Tarrytown, New York. The company was named after founder Jonathan Dixon Maxwell, who earlier had worked for Oldsmobile, and his business partner, Benjamin Briscoe, an automobile industry pioneer and part owner of the Briscoe Brothers Metalworks. Briscoe was president of Maxwell-Briscoe at its height.

In 1907, following a fire that destroyed the North Tarrytown, NY, factory, Maxwell-Briscoe opened a mammoth automobile factory at 1817 I Ave, New Castle, Indiana. The newspapers reported that the factory "will operate as a whole, like an integral machine, the raw material going in at one end of the plant and the finished cars out the other end." This factory continued as a Chrysler plant following its takeover of Maxwell until its demolition in 2004.

For a time, Maxwell was considered one of the three top automobile firms in America, along with General Motors and Ford. (though the phrase "the Big Three" was not used at the time). Maxwell was the only profitable company of the combine named United States Motor Company, which was formed in 1910. Due to a conflict between two of its backers, the United States Motor Company collapsed in 1913 after the failure of its last supporting car manufacturer, the Brush Motor Company. Maxwell was the only survivor.

Maxwell Motor Company, Inc.

The company responded to the increasing number of low-priced cars—including the $600 Ford Model N, the high-volume Oldsmobile Runabout at $650, the $485 Brush Runabout, the Black at $375, the $500 Western Gale Model A, and the Success which was priced at a low $250—by introducing the Model 25, their cheapest four yet. At $695, this five-seat touring car had high-tension magneto ignition, electric horn and (optional) electric starter and headlights, and a shock absorber to protect the radiator.

By 1913, the Maxwell assets were overseen by Walter Flanders, who reorganized the company as the "Maxwell Motor Company, Inc." The company moved to Highland Park, Michigan. Some of the Maxwells were also manufactured at three plants in Dayton, Ohio. By 1914, Maxwell had sold 60,000 cars.

From Wikipedia’s article on Maxwell Motor Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.⁴

Products and brands

Production models

Maxwell Model D

Maxwell Model E

Maxwell Model G

Maxwell Model H

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Maxwell Model L

Maxwell Model M

Maxwell Model Q3

Maxwell Model Q2

Maxwell Model Q1

Maxwell Model Q Standard

Maxwell Model Q 4

Maxwell Model AA

Maxwell Model G A

Maxwell Model E A

Maxwell Model I

Maxwell Model A B

Takeover by Walter Chrysler

Maxwell eventually over-extended and wound up deeply in debt, with over half of its production unsold in the post-World War I recession in 1920. The following year, Walter P. Chrysler arranged to take a controlling interest in Maxwell Motors, subsequently re-incorporating it in West Virginia with himself as the chairman. One of his first tasks was to correct the faults in the Maxwell, whose quality had faltered. This improved version of the car was marketed as the "good Maxwell".

Around the time of Chrysler's takeover, Maxwell was also in the process of merging, awkwardly at best, with the ailing Chalmers Automobile Company. Chalmers ceased production in late 1923.

Phase out

In 1925, Chrysler formed his own company, the Chrysler Corporation. That same year, the Maxwell line was phased out and the Maxwell company assets were absorbed by Chrysler. The Maxwell automobile would continue to live on in another form, because the new 4-cylinder Chrysler model that was introduced for the 1926 model year was created largely from the design of the previous year's Maxwell. This former Maxwell would undergo another transformation in 1928, when a second reworking and renaming would bring about the creation of the first Plymouth.

Marketing to women

Maxwell was one of the first car companies to market specifically to women. In 1909, it generated a great deal of publicity when it sponsored Alice Huyler Ramsey, an early advocate of women drivers, as the first woman to drive coast-to-coast across the United States. By 1914, the company had strongly aligned itself with the women's rights movement. That year, it announced its plan to hire as many male sales personnel as female. At that time, it offered a promotional reception at its Manhattan dealership which featured several prominent suffragettes such as Crystal Eastman, while in a showroom window a woman assembled and disassembled a Maxwell engine in front of onlookers.