In 1922, the Maxwell Motor Company began an advertising campaign touting “The Good Maxwell.” Does that mean that prior Maxwells were bad? Unfortunately, some of them were.
It had not always been so. Jonathan Maxwell was a pal of Benjamin Briscoe, and Briscoe convinced J.P. Morgan to invest in their new car company. The jaunty little two-cylinder Maxwell runabout developed a fond following, and by 1909 the make achieved third place in sales. Comedian Jack Benny had one, which maintained a constant virtual presence on his radio show.
The Maxwell dealer in these parts was Palmer’s Garage in New London, Connecticut. Owner Roy Palmer made a trip to Detroit for a dealer driveaway of the 1916 models, which included this special speedster runabout. Palmer had a fondness for the old two-cylinder runabouts, too, and kept one at the back of his shop.
In a spirited bit of advertising that same year, Maxwell made a family-oriented pitch, explaining how a woman could make use of a Maxwell in her role as mother and homemaker. Why, she could even put up the top by herself. That this was a ruse became evident on the next page where we see mother and child in the back seat, with father patriachally at the wheel.
All auto manufacturers were struggling in the aftermath of World War I, but Maxwell more than most. In addition to poor market conditions, Maxwell’s quality had suffered, and sales dropped precipitously in 1920 from seventh place to eleventh. Walter P. Chrysler arrived that August, from Buick, and set about rescuing both quality and sales. A series of engineering improvements was followed by the “Good Maxwell” campaign, pointing sales upward again, although a merger with moribund Chalmers in 1922 didn’t help. Still, gains were made, as Maxwell sold a new line of open and closed cars, even a spiffy Sport Touring model. But Walter Chrysler had his eye on a car that would bear his name. Maxwell was dropped after 1925, but a version lived on through 1928 as the four-cylinder 50-series Chrysler, a facelifted and slightly re-engineered Maxwell.
