Economic conditions being what they were in the 1930s, Cadillac provided their dealers with a more affordable alternative to help attract buyers, the LaSalle. But the car was by no means a budget offering. It was named after French explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. The 1937 model year would be the high-water mark for sales before they were discontinued after 1940. This convertible has dual side-mounted spare tires and a rumble seat in the back, popular in those days. This car appears to be a survivor at just 40,000 miles and can be found in Quincy, Illinois. It’s available exclusively here on Barn Finds Classifieds for $75,000.
The LaSalle was one of four brands (including the Marquette, Viking, and Pontiac) that GM added to its product lines to fill gaps they perceived existed in their lineup. As is common across car divisions today, a shift was made to share flatforms with other GM makes about midway through the life cycle of the LaSalle. So earlier models were more unique than later ones. After the 1940s, the LaSalle name was slowly forgotten although one of my first recollections of it was in the opening to the 1970s TV show, All In The Family. The song, “Those Were The Days,” crooned by Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton, had the lyric “gee, our old LaSalle ran great.”
More than 32,000 LaSalle’s were cranked out in 1937, including this convertible which was model 37-5067 on the GM ledger sheets. The seller estimates that fewer than 1,000 of these droptops left the assembly line, equipped with a 322 cubic inch V8 that produced a whopping 125 hp (a big deal in those days). We’re told the mileage is only 40,000, which means this car has had some downtime. The automobile is said to run and drive well, suggesting it needs little to no mechanical attention for when you want to show it off.
The body looks straight, and the paint is fine, although we don’t know if it’s original or an older respray. The interior is the one the LaSalle was built with and appears to be in good condition. It wears not one but two side-mounted spare tire housings because rubber doughnuts in those days weren’t known for longevity. And another one is inside the trunk. There’s the rumble seat out back, sometimes referred to as a “mother-in-law” seat, so only some of your passengers stayed dry during a ride in the rain.
I hate to say it, but this car is worth about 20% of the ask and that’s being generous. I do like it though and if it landed in my lap I’d drive it without changing much.
I hate to say it but this car’s worth about 20% of the ask. If it landed in my lap I’d drive it without changing much.
What a great clean sheet starting point. The transmission was always the first thing gone when they got scrapped, as the drag racers of the 1950’s loved them. I never did find out why, but an in depth conversation with the racers of the day wasn’t going to be more than a grunt with an eight year old. You never see these even when they were relatively common, either restored or hot-rodded or customized. I wonder why? We see the V12’s and of course the very rare V16’s and many Packards of the era, but few LaSalle. There was a wrecking yard in Spokane, Washington, named the Two Swedes that had a row of Cadillacs and LaSalle behind their “secret stash” building. My Dad made a point of taking me to see the V16 as even he – who worked in GM engineering with Pete Estes in the mid 1930’s – had only seen a few. This will need a deep pocket visionary. Good luck.
The LaSalle transmission had a really long 1st gear as I recall. When you put it with a torquey V 8 it won races.
Rare and beautiful car. How can you not love that green interior? Not so sure about the price but finding another one in this condition might be more expensive. Drive as is and enjoy! Hope it finds a deserving home and proper caregiver.
An extremely rare car with an increasingly diminishing fan base .
Hello late 60’s early 70’s Chargers and Challengers (and similar) – this will be your future too (stone age suspensions, bare bones basic interiors, fussy carburetors). They look great though – to our eyes (and this is a great deal of their current appeal), but not to our kids. Just the way it is I guess.
Sadly, my only connection with these fantastic cars, is that song. I remember, the original version, you couldn’t understand what they said, with several possible explanations, and later was slowed down. While a “cheaper” Caddy, it’s not like the paperboy could own one, they were still for the hoi-paloi, and Archies was surely a post-war beater,,but still ran great.
I always heard, “Gee weren’t all the children great.”
I wonder how many rumble-seat occupants got launched in a front-end accident? Ouch. Love the car. I’ve been driving a ’37 Packard Flatback 4dr. for over 50 years. Ya can’t beat the styling of the mid ’30’s.
I wonder how you can possibly document 40,000 miles after 80 or so years. I would expect to see an unbroken chain of old license plates, registration and service documents that might confirm this.
Two sidemounts and a spare in the trunk should alleviate any tire worries.
Relative to inflation, this will probably drop in value, since those of us who know about them are headed for the nursing home or the cemetary, or both. If I had it, I would drive it a lot while I am able, with “bias tire appearing” radials, but only 4, not 7, front disc brakes, a dual master cylinder, an alternator, seatbelts, a roll bar for the rumble seat, modern headlights, taillights, and turn signals installed behind the old lenses, and keep the old parts for who ever this goes to next. Having ridden in rumble seats in the late ’40’s (a neighbor’s Model A or B), to use today’s language, after the novelty wore off, in about 15 minutes, it sucked.
Alas.. we forget the largest growing segment of the “car hobby”.. the “Low riders”.. they covet 37/ 38 Chevrolet Coupes and Convertibles with rumble seats.. this has all the right stuff for the low rider crowd.. “Dual side mounts”..”Rag top”.. lay her down to the floor and she will be ready to roll. Not sure how many Low riders read barn find but I am sure a few..
One lovely vehicle. Wish I could have one.
3 spare tires?
OK Cad-LaS experts, I’m fairly up on the competition [Packard] but not so much with this LaSalle. In the pre-WW2 era, if you ordered a Packard with twin sidemount tires, you ended up with a bigger trunk area, not a 3rd spare tire. That said, I’m sure if when ordering your Packard, you specified you wanted that 3rd spare, you got it.
But would GM have put that 3rd spare tire in the lower trunk area if the car had sidemount tires from the factory? I can’t imagine the bean counters over at GM allowing 3 spares, for them, a tire and wheel were expensive! Is it possible this car came new with a single spare, and down thru the decades a prior owner added the sidemount fenders & tires?
Bill M, it’s more likely that the car came from the factory with the side mounts, and the spare was added to the trunk, because undoing a side mount, just to get a spare, is a royal pain.